Ukraine
"So where did you go for your vacation?"
"I went to Ukraine..."
"Ukraine!? You know there´s a war right?"
"Yeah..."
If you're logical then you will never experience anything out of the ordinary so I said goodbye to all logic and went to Ukraine during the war with Russia for the Crimea peninsula. It was a part of my birthday celebration and I went there with my friend Erik the day after my birthday, to make sure that I would survive until I had gotten my gifts.
We went to the capital called Kiev which is 11 hours by car away from the warzone, and we thought that would be safe enough. And since people were sunbathing on the city beach by the Dnieper River it didn't seem like the Ukrainians seemed that worried that there was a war going on in the south.
As a statement against the Russian invasion in the country I wore my peace sign T-shirt when we landed on the airport. I had heard that the taxi drivers would try to rip you off and they sure did, so we took the local bus instead. It was a small van more than a bus and it felt like we were in a hippie van from the 70s. I knew it would cost almost nothing to take it, but the driver literally didn't want our money. Erik tried to give him the money but the driver just waved his hands as if he didn't want it. We didn't want to get busted for not having a valid ticket so Erik tried again but the driver waved him off again. Then we saw a woman get on the bus, and she paid by putting the money beside the driver and then he happily changed the money and gave her a ticket. So this time Erik put the money beside the driver instead of giving it to him directly and finally we got our tickets. I really didn't understand why this was so important, but I loved it, it was so stupid. Maybe the driver thought we tried to bribe him first or something, I don't know.
We arrived at our luxury hotel in our big suite on the upper floor and to make sure it would look expensive, most of it was made out of fake gold. Since we didn't have the time to go to the radioactive city of Chernobyl we went to the museum instead. It was pretty lame and Erik had to pay entrance both for himself and his camera, which was kind of funny. I hope the camera enjoyed it more than I did, but it's an interesting topic though.
It was a scary yet wonderful experience to walk on the bridge and when I saw a gigantic hole close to Erik's feet instead of a church in the river, we returned back to where we had started. The hole was big enough to swallow him whole and it would lead to a certain death. On our way back we noticed that we had missed a lot of the holes just by pure luck, we had been busy looking elsewhere than down.
We had become thirsty from the bridge experience so we went to buy some soda. We tried to open the refrigerators in the streets by the kiosks but it was impossible. We tried and tried but we couldn't get it open. It turned out Ukraine was the first country I've ever been to where they lock their refrigerators, to avoid theft. You had to tell the woman in the kiosk that you wanted to buy soda and then you had some seconds to get it open, and if you changed your mind well then you had to ask for her to open it again. It's a pretty obvious sign of poverty together with all the wild dogs roaming around the streets. So it's a big contrast to all the gold-plated churches like the one I finally found in the river later on. Even if I have a hard time believing it's anything else but fake gold.
We thought we had seen it all when we discovered a funicular which took us to a new area of the huge city where there were more gold churches.
Suddenly a bear turned up out of nowhere!
The bear tried to hug Erik who fought it off. It was a man in a bear suit trying to get money from tourists by taking pictures with them, but since we had been warned about pickpocketing Erik didn't want him close to him and I could see why. It was a funny sight though!
Erik talked a bit with the so called bear while I kept my distance and suddenly his friend appeared and told Erik that he could get to pet his pigeon, for free! The pigeon looked old and worn-out and it looked like it had a disease. This had just turned weirder and we left as soon as we could.
I understood that Kiev was a big city, of nothing that is. It wasn't horrible or anything, it was just quite boring. It was alright and nothing more than that, and you want your vacation to be more than alright. So thankfully the food was amazing at least. I was surprised that we even found some vegetarian food, let alone with fantastic flavours. Maybe the radiation from Chernobyl is good for growing vegetables!
After a couple of days in Kiev we asked the receptionist at our hotel to make a taxi reservation for us to go back to the airport since we didn't want to get ripped off. When we arrived at the airport Erik paid the driver double his fee as a generous tip, the driver couldn't almost believe it and he got so happy. This should be a lesson for all the drivers who tries to rip tourists off, be nice instead and you will get something nice in return.
* Best things about Ukraine – I don't know if it's the radiation but all the women looks like supermodels and the food tastes amazing, I also loved the feeling of being in a zombie apocalypse on the disused bridge, a great location for the next Resident Evil movie
* Most mediocre thing about Ukraine – The Chernobyl Museum was pretty lame, but at the same time Ukraine wouldn't be the same without the disaster, so it's an interesting topic that they didn't make use of and it just made me wish we had more time so we could go to Chernobyl for real instead
* Worst things about Ukraine – the city is huge and still it has nothing much to offer
Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. Croatia
2. Montenegro
3. Andorra
4. Cyprus
5. Turkey
6. Greece
7. Italy
8. Spain
9. Monaco
10. Malta
11. Netherlands
12. Iceland
13. Denmark
14. Sweden
15. Lithuania
16. Macedonia
17. Portugal
18. Slovakia
19. Slovenia
20. New Zealand
21. Ireland
22. Germany
23. United Kingdom
24. Belgium
25. Poland
26. Estonia
27. Czech Republic
28. Switzerland
29. San Marino
30. Kosovo
31. Romania
32. Finland
33. Latvia
34. Moldova
35. Norway
36. Ukraine
37. France
38. Bulgaria
39. Luxembourg
40. Liechtenstein
41. China
42. Serbia
43. Bosnia And Herzegovina
44. Albania
"I went to Ukraine..."
"Ukraine!? You know there´s a war right?"
"Yeah..."
If you're logical then you will never experience anything out of the ordinary so I said goodbye to all logic and went to Ukraine during the war with Russia for the Crimea peninsula. It was a part of my birthday celebration and I went there with my friend Erik the day after my birthday, to make sure that I would survive until I had gotten my gifts.
We went to the capital called Kiev which is 11 hours by car away from the warzone, and we thought that would be safe enough. And since people were sunbathing on the city beach by the Dnieper River it didn't seem like the Ukrainians seemed that worried that there was a war going on in the south.
As a statement against the Russian invasion in the country I wore my peace sign T-shirt when we landed on the airport. I had heard that the taxi drivers would try to rip you off and they sure did, so we took the local bus instead. It was a small van more than a bus and it felt like we were in a hippie van from the 70s. I knew it would cost almost nothing to take it, but the driver literally didn't want our money. Erik tried to give him the money but the driver just waved his hands as if he didn't want it. We didn't want to get busted for not having a valid ticket so Erik tried again but the driver waved him off again. Then we saw a woman get on the bus, and she paid by putting the money beside the driver and then he happily changed the money and gave her a ticket. So this time Erik put the money beside the driver instead of giving it to him directly and finally we got our tickets. I really didn't understand why this was so important, but I loved it, it was so stupid. Maybe the driver thought we tried to bribe him first or something, I don't know.
We arrived at our luxury hotel in our big suite on the upper floor and to make sure it would look expensive, most of it was made out of fake gold. Since we didn't have the time to go to the radioactive city of Chernobyl we went to the museum instead. It was pretty lame and Erik had to pay entrance both for himself and his camera, which was kind of funny. I hope the camera enjoyed it more than I did, but it's an interesting topic though.
I tried to find a church on the water but Kiev is a huge city and we got lost, instead we found a disused bridge. In Sweden where safety comes first it would be impossible to get on a disused bridge but in Ukraine the effort for safety wasn't the same. It was more like "please don't step over this half meter barrier". I saw a man coming from the bridge so I thought it would be a good idea to go on to the bridge to find the church since the bridge was going over the Dnieper River where the church would be situated in. Erik who is more law-abiding than me hesitated a lot and I could understand why, because it looked like a bridge from a zombie apocalypse movie. There was shattered glass everywhere but nothing could stop me from seeing the church on the water.
We had become thirsty from the bridge experience so we went to buy some soda. We tried to open the refrigerators in the streets by the kiosks but it was impossible. We tried and tried but we couldn't get it open. It turned out Ukraine was the first country I've ever been to where they lock their refrigerators, to avoid theft. You had to tell the woman in the kiosk that you wanted to buy soda and then you had some seconds to get it open, and if you changed your mind well then you had to ask for her to open it again. It's a pretty obvious sign of poverty together with all the wild dogs roaming around the streets. So it's a big contrast to all the gold-plated churches like the one I finally found in the river later on. Even if I have a hard time believing it's anything else but fake gold.
We thought we had seen it all when we discovered a funicular which took us to a new area of the huge city where there were more gold churches.
Suddenly a bear turned up out of nowhere!
No, not this one!
The bear tried to hug Erik who fought it off. It was a man in a bear suit trying to get money from tourists by taking pictures with them, but since we had been warned about pickpocketing Erik didn't want him close to him and I could see why. It was a funny sight though!
Erik talked a bit with the so called bear while I kept my distance and suddenly his friend appeared and told Erik that he could get to pet his pigeon, for free! The pigeon looked old and worn-out and it looked like it had a disease. This had just turned weirder and we left as soon as we could.
I understood that Kiev was a big city, of nothing that is. It wasn't horrible or anything, it was just quite boring. It was alright and nothing more than that, and you want your vacation to be more than alright. So thankfully the food was amazing at least. I was surprised that we even found some vegetarian food, let alone with fantastic flavours. Maybe the radiation from Chernobyl is good for growing vegetables!
After a couple of days in Kiev we asked the receptionist at our hotel to make a taxi reservation for us to go back to the airport since we didn't want to get ripped off. When we arrived at the airport Erik paid the driver double his fee as a generous tip, the driver couldn't almost believe it and he got so happy. This should be a lesson for all the drivers who tries to rip tourists off, be nice instead and you will get something nice in return.
* Best things about Ukraine – I don't know if it's the radiation but all the women looks like supermodels and the food tastes amazing, I also loved the feeling of being in a zombie apocalypse on the disused bridge, a great location for the next Resident Evil movie
* Most mediocre thing about Ukraine – The Chernobyl Museum was pretty lame, but at the same time Ukraine wouldn't be the same without the disaster, so it's an interesting topic that they didn't make use of and it just made me wish we had more time so we could go to Chernobyl for real instead
* Worst things about Ukraine – the city is huge and still it has nothing much to offer
Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. Croatia
2. Montenegro
3. Andorra
4. Cyprus
5. Turkey
6. Greece
7. Italy
8. Spain
9. Monaco
10. Malta
11. Netherlands
12. Iceland
13. Denmark
14. Sweden
15. Lithuania
16. Macedonia
17. Portugal
18. Slovakia
19. Slovenia
20. New Zealand
21. Ireland
22. Germany
23. United Kingdom
24. Belgium
25. Poland
26. Estonia
27. Czech Republic
28. Switzerland
29. San Marino
30. Kosovo
31. Romania
32. Finland
33. Latvia
34. Moldova
35. Norway
36. Ukraine
37. France
38. Bulgaria
39. Luxembourg
40. Liechtenstein
41. China
42. Serbia
43. Bosnia And Herzegovina
44. Albania
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