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Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 2nd 06, 11:33 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia

I have created a trip report for a five week bicycle tour I recently
took from the Hungary/Ukraine border to the Volga River:

http://www.bikerussia.com/2006/

Bicycle touring gave a good feel for smaller towns and countryside in
Ukraine and southern Russia. Last year Ukraine dropped visa
requirements for US, Canadian and EU citizens, so will be easier to
visit for cycling touring.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

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  #2  
Old July 3rd 06, 03:20 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia


We took a trip to Karelia, in NW Russia, in 1997 which was also called
"BIKERussia" and we plan to go back next summer to finish our part in
the work we started in '97, in "BIKERussia II"

See "http://trailpatrol.blogspot.com/" and click on the links on the
right side.

Ride safe,
Hans

  #3  
Old July 4th 06, 02:27 AM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia

wrote:
I have created a trip report for a five week bicycle tour I recently
took from the Hungary/Ukraine border to the Volga River:

http://www.bikerussia.com/2006/

Bicycle touring gave a good feel for smaller towns and countryside in
Ukraine and southern Russia. Last year Ukraine dropped visa
requirements for US, Canadian and EU citizens, so will be easier to
visit for cycling touring.


You rode in Samara? YIKES!!!! I couldn't get out soon enough. Some
guys at our hotel got beat up on the tram just for being westerners
sending them to the hospital. For the 5 days I was there it rained
non-stop and the roads would make the grandest of dual suspension
mountain bikes cry. Every car was covered in at least an inch of mud.
No joke. The whole time I couldn't believe Ekimov came from that
country. amazing.
  #4  
Old July 5th 06, 06:20 AM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia


wrote in message
ups.com...
I have created a trip report for a five week bicycle tour I recently
took from the Hungary/Ukraine border to the Volga River:

http://www.bikerussia.com/2006/

Bicycle touring gave a good feel for smaller towns and countryside in
Ukraine and southern Russia. Last year Ukraine dropped visa
requirements for US, Canadian and EU citizens, so will be easier to
visit for cycling touring.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen


A most interesting account. Thanks for sharing it. However, it didn't
modify this wimp's general intention to do long rides only in the "first
world".

Your name looks Dutch, but I assume your citizenship is US. Correct me if
I'm wrong. Did you decide it would be better not to be seen as from the US?


  #5  
Old July 5th 06, 01:24 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia

A most interesting account. Thanks for sharing it. However, it didn't
modify this wimp's general intention to do long rides only in the "first
world".


You've ridden quite a bit in the first world. At some point you will
run out of new places to ride :-).

Your name looks Dutch, but I assume your citizenship is US.


Correct.

Did you decide it would be better not to be seen as from the US?


It didn't seem to make a huge difference. Some of the places we were
riding through did not have many tourists. Hence, some were curious
and asked the same types of standard questions touring cyclists get
elsewhere (1) where are you from? (2) where are you going?... If we
were asked the first question on the street we would answer in Russian,
"Netherlands". We would get some reaction, and sometimes a comment
about the World Cup [both Netherlands and Ukraine were playing in the
tournament and it was a big event].

If we were asked further, we would explain that well we're Dutch but we
live in the USA. When checking into a hotel, we would also avoid that
confusion from the start since they had our passports.

On occasions when we said USA from start, it wasn't a big difference
than saying we were from the Netherlands. What did seem to make some
difference was an ability to at least speak enough Russian to have a
basic conversation. My brother's Russian is fair, mine is more basic.
On some occasions where I was by myself, folks would get a little
frustrated as we tried to communicate beyond the basics.

On the whole, I found the Ukrainians and Russians to be quite friendly
and helpful for touring cyclists. Once or twice, this was unwanted
attention from someone who had too much to drink, but most cases it was
very helpful.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

  #6  
Old July 6th 06, 04:34 AM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia


wrote in message
ups.com...
A most interesting account. Thanks for sharing it. However, it didn't
modify this wimp's general intention to do long rides only in the "first
world".


You've ridden quite a bit in the first world. At some point you will
run out of new places to ride :-).

Two things we have in common are using a TREK 520 and having trouble with
its front assembly. I overtightened it when starting my 2004 trip, and had
to stop and get it repaired my third morning out in Brattleboro VT. I
found it interesting that you also had trouble getting that adjustment
rightly arranged and/or rightly tightened.

I still have an abundance of long first world rides still in mind: another
west coast to Milwaukee trip to pick up WY and SD; something involving
Alaska, but probably not involving Prudhoe Bay like you did (unless some of
that federal pork barrel spending paves the entire route); across western
Canada, through maritime Canada; down the US west coast; the top to the
bottom of western Europe; the great shrines of western Europe, are all
potential trips that come immediately to mind. Maybe by the time all that
is done, places like Ukraine and Russia will have more motels and other
facilities than they do now. Your account did not go out of its way to rap
road quality, but a TREK 520 wouldn't have that much trouble on the kinds of
roads I know and love.


  #7  
Old July 6th 06, 02:10 PM posted to rec.bicycles.rides
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Default Ride Report: Ukraine and Russia

Ron Wallenfang wrote:
Your name looks Dutch, but I assume your citizenship is US. Correct me if
I'm wrong. Did you decide it would be better not to be seen as from the US?


I realize it was a decade ago, but we found in Russia that most people
in both the rural areas of Karelia and in Petrozavodsk and Kontapulga
were very curious about Americans, having only heard what the state
told them for 70 years. They always invited us into their homes, shared
meals with us, insisted we stay for "tea", and were very open and very
friendly. This attitude towards Americans still is very prevalent in
Karelia. We have been sending missionary teams there now for 11 years,
and each year they are accepted heartily, treated royaly and seen off
at the train station by throngs of new friends.

I think that one incident defines our whole experience with the Russian
people better than any other:

We came to the tiny village of Yashezyero, in southern Karelia. When
we entered the clearing where the village had been, we found one old
log house standing among the ruins of a half-dozen others, smoke lazily
rising from it's chimney. The only other thing the team saw was an old
army tank, sitting amidst the ruins. We approached the occupied house,
and an elderly man came out, and started talking with Allek and Steve.
(Steve and and his son Caleb spoke very good Russian.) As they shared
who we were, and why we were there, he started to open up. He was a
wounded combat veteran of the Great Patriotic War (World War II) and
had fought the Germans at Leningrad. (St. Petersburg). His name was
Anatoly, and he told us "I know that you really believe (in God)
because you came here from America." Then, when he found out that he,
his wife and our team member Dorothy were all the same age, (73) he
went and got his wife, excited that this "Babushka" (Grandmother) from
the US would ride a bicycle to come visit them! The wife asked the team
to pray for them, for the village, which we did. We talked with them
well into the night, at a time of year when the sun never sets.

My sister used to work in the US Trade Office in Moscow, and is married
to a Russian native. She says that outside of the major cities, where
everyone is regarded with at least some suspicion, people have been
very accepting of her and their son as Americans. (Of course they both
speak fluent Russian.) My Russian is minimal, but I speak a bit of
German and a lot of Spanish (was engaged to a Colombian at one time.)
Last I looked, I only had one head and my skin wasn't green. I am proud
to be born and raised an American and I am not going to deny my country
or citizenship any more than I would deny my faith. Russians, more than
anyone else, understand this. They are as fiercely loyal to "Mother
Russia" as I am to "Uncle Sam." I don't expect Russians (or Germans, or
Mexicans or Dutch, or even Canadians) to act like Americans, and I try
to fit as best I can into the culuture of wherever I am. Why should I
deny one of the two things that makes me who I am?

Ride safe,
Hans

 




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