We just returned from forty-five days in Ukraine. I'm going to break the report up by city for the cities we visited, and will include some general details here. Almost all our travel was by bus, the mashrutkas, or bumpy-busses as we called them. Travel on public transportation is inexpensive. We did not have any insurance although most of what we read said it was a mandatory purchase upon entering the country. There were no counters at the airport selling health insurance. Getting in and out of the country is easier than in the U.S. We used ATMs, and that's what they are called, to get local currency, the hryvnias. The exchange rate is roughly 8uah to a $1. There was nver a problem. The people were extremely helpful and glad to seem someone who was interested in their country. The main purpose of the visit was to search out two ancestral villages for my wife, and one for me. We were mostly successful. As tourism is growing, mostly from other European countries, more tourist information points are available. If you are planning on going to Ukraine I would suggest a few things. Learn the alphabet. Get a good phrase book and learn how to use it. Take a Ukraine - English pocket dictionary. Get some practice with using the language before you go, if you can. These things are imperative as there aren't many English, or any other foreign language speakers in Ukraine. Most hotels have someone who speaks English, but not always. I'll post the first city in a day or so.
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10598 posts
I can't wait to read your report. Please post under this same thread. It makes trip reports much easier to follow. When people have multiple posts for the same place it gets confusing. At that point I just quit reading.
Posted by
OP
Genesee, ID
1840 posts
That's not going to work. I just did an expurgated version of my Lviv notes and used up the character limit. I'll start each one with Ukraine.
Posted by
Sacramento, California U.S.A.
10598 posts
You couldn't break it up to shorten each one to fit? Other people have done this,
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
Monte, just respond to your own post to continue the narrative. That way, it stays together in one piece and doesn't get broken up across the forum everytime someone responds. For example, look below at John from Blue Bell's report from Amsterdam and Germany. It's all in one piece, it flows logically and everyone's responses and questions can be answered in one place. Now compare that to Linda's Rome-Sorrento-Paris report. Very difficult to follow, and probably very difficult for the writer to know which thread to reference if someone asks her a specific question. This will be an interesting report, I'm sure. It's good to read about some less-visited locations, instead of the 25th trip report about Paris or Cinque Terre.