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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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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 |
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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? |
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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 |
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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. |
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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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