Ukraine - the New Cold War
Dates Traveled: December 2009 / January 2010
Odessa – December, 2009
We actually found ourselves in the Ukraine on a couple of occasions over two months – and two years. Our first foray into Odessa was in December, and was the culmination of an 18-hour bus ride from Varna, Bulgaria. It was another inauspicious, and unwelcoming, entry into a country. Granted, after a bus ride of that duration we probably weren’t in the best of moods, and cold, gray weather didn’t help, but people didn’t seem overly friendly, the money exchange wasn’t open, the ATM didn’t work, and the taxi drivers wanted astronomical prices. We simply shouldered our packs and started walking – hoping we’d be able to find our hostel.
After a short nap and a shower we were feeling human, and sociable, again, and so set out to explore. We wandered streets, admired some of the ornate architecture, and popped into a few churches. A highlight that first day was something known as the Passazh (Passage) – an internal walkway, lined with shops, connecting two perpendicular streets. Every inch of the 3 or 4 stories was adorned with decorative flourishes, faces, entire bodies, and other odds-and-ends molded in plaster. We took a lot of photos. Continue reading…
We caught the bus from Chisinau, Moldova, to Brazov, Romania, arriving after dark and without any local currency. I’m too accustomed to traveling in countries where you can do a black-market money exchange with dodgy dudes at borders, haggling for a better exchange rate. I keep forgetting that doesn’t happen at European borders. In fact, we had stopped at a bus station along the route and both Rhona and I needed to use the toilet, but there were no ATM’s in site, and exchange offices were closed for the night. We ended up bumming some money off the bus driver. Once we arrived in Brazov we figured we’d simply hit an ATM at the bus station and then take a taxi into town. Except that there wasn’t an ATM at the bus station. Doh! We set out walking in what we hoped was the direction of town, and after a few starts-and-stops for directions, arrived at our hostel about an hour later. A lengthy orientation hike of Brazov - with all of our luggage.
The Voegele’s originally came from a small town in southern Germany called Nebringen (today Gaufelden). However, Russia had opened up some territories for outside settlement, and my great-great-great-grandfather Michael was one of the many who opted to try their luck elsewhere, leaving Germany in 1811. The German’s established a settlement called Gluckstal, which was home to my ancestors until my great-grandfather sailed with his family, including my grandfather, into New York in 1905. The town of Gluckstal is today known as Glinnoye, and lies on the eastern side of the Nistru (Dniestr) River. That region is sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine, and is known as Transdniestr, or Transnistria, to those who call it home – and to the people of two other breakaway republics. Everyone else calls it Moldova.