Moldova to Ukraine..

Day 11 – 332 kms (3751 total)

After leaving the Hotel in Husi in the morning, we reached the Moldavian border in no time. The border crossing was fairly painless. Leaving Romania was very easy. Entering Moldova cost us ten Euros and a lot of chatting, but we were finally out of Europe. Moldova is very much farming land, but when off the busy main roads, is very pretty and grows some of the best wines in Europe but the roads deteriorated even further. We followed the road to Chisinau, (the Capital), and found the centre with no problem. A very cool looking dude on a KTM 950 pulled up beside us and asked if we were OK and needed help. Unfortunately, we said no, we were fine following the signs to Odessa. After he roared off, the signs to Odessa also disappeared.
So we drove round aimlessly for an hour or so before finally finding our way to the airport and on the road south-east towards the Ukraine.

Shortly before Tighina, we were stopped at an apparent police check and after being told we had no green card, were allowed through at a price of 20 Euro’s. My limited Russian was totally inadequate. Then we arrived at another border, which transpired to be the independent state of Transdnistria.
We were told we had been let out of Moldova without an official stamp but for 20 Euro’s would be allowed to carry on with a “transit paper” to Odessa.

We set off and after a relatively short time reached the end of Moldova and repeated the “no Moldavian exit stamp “ story, but this time at a cost of 100euro, or turn round for a 700km detour – as well as further unknown bribes to get back through Transdnistria.

So, we hit Ukraine, where the border guards were extremely helpful in getting us a green card (insurance) for $40 each and money exchange. He escorted us to the village on the Ukraine side of the border to make these 2 transactions. He also recommended that we go to the Black Sea beaches as the women have nice tits.
Two hours later we had a coffee and headed for Odessa.

Odessa is an enormous city and has lots of signposts to get to it, but then there are none once you arrive.
We met some Italian bikers who told us of their hotel, the Hotel Viktoria, which we finally found and cost 280 (Ukrainian wotsits) but had to pay cash. Odd that a large hotel like that had no credit card facility or foreign exchange. So Mick dashed off to find an ATM so we could stay.
The standard of the room was very “Soviet” but at least it was a room.

The next installment is here

Posted on 1. June 2007 by micki

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