After waiting through a long line to cross the Ukrainian border, we immediately found rough roads.
It was late so we stopped at the first place we thought to a “hotel.” With us not speaking Russian and the clerk not speaking English, we somehow managed to negotiate a fair rate and decided to spend the night and brave the roads the next morning. Except for a few cock roaches, It appeared that we were the only guests.
The potholes on roads to Odessa proved not to be our only challenge as we often had to wait for farm animals to cross the road.
As we passed through villages, it was like going back in time seeing some of the older people dressed in their traditional attire.
We think our teammate Sherry Ott might have just gotten engaged by accepting a ride and a tomato from this villager.
I couldn’t help but decorate his cart with a Midlife Road Trip bumper sticker
As the roads improved towards the Black Sea, the scenery also improved as we saw field after field of sunflowers. My world class photographer
teammates Sherry Ott and Dave Bouskill couldn’t resist taking a few pictures
We stopped in a beach front town on the edge of the Black Sea to pick up a few supplies for our journey. See if you can guess which car is ours:)
We crossed the Black Sea, noting that it would be a fun place to spend a little more time if we didn’t have to press on.
We stopped at a roadside cafe and ordered some borstcht. We couldn’t read a thing off the menu so we just pointed to what someone else had already been served.
We finally gave up on finding a place in town and decided to press on camp beside the road. Fortunately just outside of town we found a Hotel/Casino/Bowling alley that was able to accommodate us for the night.
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Great article! Couple of years ago we went to St. Petersburg trough Travel all Russia and outside the city the view is pretty much the same as you saw in Ukraine, but I love that post Soviet spirit around these countries! I strongly recommend taking guides wherever you go, because the infrastructure isn’t established as we’re used to, sometimes you could pass amazing places without even knowing.
Thanks Suzan, that’s great advice. I feel like I probably did miss a lot by not having a guide, but being on a road rally, we really didn’t have a lot of time to stop and take it all in – but I guess that’s all part of the adventure. Safe Travels!
It’s a plsaruee to find someone who can identify the issues so clearly
wie irgendwo schonmal erwähnt wenn ichauch mal lust auf burgerking hab geh ich u burgerking und wenn ich lust auf ein eis habe esse ich auch ein eis und wenn ich lust hab eine tafel schokolade zu essen esse ich ne afel schokolade, dafür am nächsten tag nur 2 malzeiten mittags nen salat und abends nen salat,.. ich nehm das buch nur als richtlinie
Bless you sweetie- I’m sorry you had such a hard time last year. I am sure I’ll be okay- it may well be the best thing in the long run. Just feels crap to be disgarded so horribly by email! Still, that’s business men for you- I think I’ll stick with you wonderful writer types!!