{"id":12674,"date":"2013-07-13T17:36:49","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T16:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=12674"},"modified":"2019-04-02T11:18:13","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T10:18:13","slug":"bad-roads-to-an-a-class-reception-kolomyya-ukraine-%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%bc%d0%b8%d1%8f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/bad-roads-to-an-a-class-reception-kolomyya-ukraine-%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bb%d0%be%d0%bc%d0%b8%d1%8f\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Roads to An A Class Reception, Kolomyya, Ukraine (\u041a\u043e\u043b\u043e\u043c\u0438\u044f)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave the motorhome is reversed onto the grassy drive of what must be one of the best guest houses in Ukraine (N48.52285 E25.02979). We’re just a short walk from the centre of Kolomyya and not far from the Carpathian Mountains, in Western Ukraine. We’re at the On the Corner Guesthouse<\/strong>, and the owner Vitaliy is well up on what we motorhome folks off in the wilds of Ukraine need, having pointed out the water hose and where we can empty our loo! We came here after we read the glowing reviews on Trip Advisor<\/strong><\/a>, and after Vitaliy responded to a late email last night to say we were more than welcome to park up here. The cost to park on his driveway: zilch. We’ll make sure we pay our way, partly in payment for his Mum Ira’s home-cooked grub we plan to tuck into later on.<\/p>\n

\"Dave<\/a>

Dave On the Corner!<\/p><\/div>\n

Ukraine’s been a bucket-of-ice-water-in-the-face shock to us. We quickly recognised the stomach-sick feeling of culture shock as we hit the town of Chernivtisi yesterday, the feeling which gnaws at you, whispering ‘turn around, head back to comfort’. It wasn’t helped by an unbelievable sight as we left the last town in Romania. A woman sat begging in a busy street, much like that of our home town in the UK, with her trousers and underwear pulled down to reveal scarred flesh all over her thighs and groin. She sat there in this semi-naked state, as people walked past un-phased. What kind of society can just leave this poor woman sat there? Finding the restaurant which let us stay put us at ease, and once the massive birthday party cooled off about 11:30, we slept wrapped in silence.<\/p>\n

Looking backwards, Ukraine’s been sliced and diced over the past 500 years, the Moldovans, Austro-Hungarians, Polish, Nazis and finally the Russians all using and (often) abusing the place. The history books give some impression: 80 years ago Stalin decided to ‘collectivise’ the farms here, as part of the conversion to communism. Basically this meant if you owned a farm in 1932, you no longer owned a farm in 1933. Some folks weren’t too happy about this, objected, and production fell as they were duly ‘persuaded’ by the state to comply. At the same time Stalin decided to increase the amount of each crop the locals had to produce for the government, before they themselves could eat. The result: no-one knows for certain, maybe 3 million people starved to death while around them barns were stacked with food, probably a Stalinist method of population control, but historians argue over it all. Fast forward ten years and a further 1.4 million Ukrainians are killed fighting in the Red Army. Yup – over 10% of the entire population gone. Ukraine’s been abused all right.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A lass on the road here.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our research last night turned up a few facts:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The consensus is the roads in Ukraine are bad, don’t bring a motorhome here.<\/li>\n
  • There are maybe ten campsites in the whole of Ukraine, none of them on our route.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • We found this place, and a reference to a secure parking area on the outskirts of Lviv, but no others.<\/li>\n
  • Wherever we looked, people were recalling stories of the traffic police asking for constant baksheesh, bribes to let you go after you’ve committed no offence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    No police pulled us today, and navigation wasn’t difficult as we just had to stay on the H10, a ‘National Road’. Our only problem was the roads, and staying out of the way of trucks, buses and ubiquitous tank-like Ladas which dart about, perfectly suited to the on-road off-road conditions here. We both started to get a good idea how to spot the holes from a distance. One was clearly marked by a comet-trail of oil where someone’s sump must have been smashed and trailing vehicles had driven through the spilled life-blood of their engine. In other cases you could see the tracks of cars and trucks as they dodged from either side of the road.<\/p>\n