Sighisoara

I arrived in the afternoon, I supposed to leave in the morning, but I had to wait 4 hours at the train station. The waiting part is a pattern in Europe. Especially if you don't have a smart phone. Sighisoara is a small town with an elevated old town. I was the only guest in the Burg Hostel and enjoyed the privacy. To walk around the old part you need about 3 hours. The church and the cemetery at top offer the best views. The narrow streets of the old town have some nice angles and are overgrown by bushes. Many American tourists were there during my stay. I also had a lengthy chat with a Romanian Film Artist who is making a video for tourism about Sighisoara. He comes here at least every second day to take some new shots. Apparently he wishes to go to Hungary where salaries are slightly higher. Sadly for him the EU has not yet granted Schengen status to Romania. People often speak German and the town is very relaxed. The food is very good.

Brasov

To be found in the south of the Carpathian mountains. Hilly, green landscape gives you the feeling of being on the countryside. It is in the Transylvania region. The duke Dracula used to live in castle near by. It is just rubble nowadays. But a different castle is now promoted as the original residence of Dracula. The cute little Bran castle gives the impression of being in a fairy tail.

Even though it is just a small village they have a 3D cinema that plays the same Dracula movie 24/7. Later on I visited with a Japanese cannabis farmer the Rasnov fortress. As a structure not impressive, but the location on top of a steep hill makes it special.

Brasov itself has no castle, but a nice old town with various defences and gates. Bears come down from the hills every evening to feast from the garbage residents leave in their containers outside their homes.

Bucharest

Another very soviet style city. Here they built the second biggest house in the world. Only second to - surprisingly non soviet - the Pentagon. It is used as the Parliament and Chaucescus home. He ruled here after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The road in front of the Parliament is exactly one meter longer than the Champs de Ellises - not a coincidence. 

Bucharest is not really popular throughout Romania. The revolution that brought down the dictator, didn't start here, but further west. Huge buildings dominate and a make up the impression tourists take with them. I went out with a Bulgarian couple - the guy turned out to be a Racist who sympathies with Adolf Hitler. I couldn't help him because he would not even listen to his embarrassed girlfriend. So I helped myself by ordering more liquids. 

Beautiful monasteries and golden roofed churches are to be found behind the main avenues.

I didn't enjoy my stay here too much and left after 2 days with the train to Brasov.

Chisinau

Moldova is not famous, nore is Chisinau. This is for a good reason. Moldavians are not allowed to travel to the Schengen countries. The only places in the neighbourhood where it is easy to get in is Turkey, Ukraine and Belarus. Not the usual tourist destinations. Moldova is isolated and offers little job opportunities. I got the impression that there is a common feeling of depression - of have given up. There are two big obstacles for them to enter the EU: They have a reputation of illegal activities such as human trafficking, drug smuggling, money laundering and a generally corrupt society.

Second: The breakaway region of Transnistria is effectively a separate country within the borders of Moldova. Transnistria is strongly pro Russian. They have suspended all trains with exception of a daily train to Moscow. With a dispute like that looming they wont get any approval by the EU. 

I established that they are not proud people, with one exception. The Soviets have build vast tunnels, which would function as a bunker for the elite during war. High ceiling salon await the visitor. The entrance door is camouflaged and looks like Batman's Cave. Nowadays it is a vast wine cellar. I tried a wine supposedly from 1987. It was very sweet and not so good. I stayed at a hostel near the MALLdova. The staff spoke good English and all spend some time in the US because they have won a National English contest. But now that they are back they shouldnt be around tourists telling stories of  other countries all time. Its not healthy.

I met the funniest Japanese person till date and had a lot of fun drinking wine with ang getting on the Buchaerst bus together.

The city consist of two main roads - make that one - that is lined with a few too big buildings and exchange booths. No hustle, no bustle.

Odessa

The market is a busy sprawl with a slightly concerning odor. Some sort of Feta cheese seems to be their main product. Odessa seems to be a place where life quality is still high. Even though prices have apparently sharply risen in recent years.

The background of the James Bond movie "From Russia with love" always sounded appealing to me. I arrived after a smooth night train from Kiev. 

I checked into "Babushka Grand Hostel" which turned out be very wise. The manager is from California and is on the run from the US Government. He used to supply famous people in California with electronic equipment - for example Clint Eastwood. He got caught leaving the US with 800000 USD in a suitcase. His assets (several million) in a Swiss bank got frozen recently after a successful request by the US Government. He now has less money than backpackers, but is quite happy with his situation in the Ukraine. Is girlfriend is 25. He is now suing the US Government because they are withholding his money.

The night life in Odessa is extraordinary and most people at the hostel were cool. In one club we got in trouble with the Russian Mafia. A Scottish friend decided to go on stage after he took off his clothes. We got shown to the door.

Occasionally cruise ships stop in the still busy Black Sea port and the tourist descend into the city. The city itself is ok - the parks are run down. But it has a lot of charm. At the seaside Ukrainians go sunbathing and occasionally into the still rather cold water.

Kiev

The capitol of the Ukraine is very much Russian. A statue called by expats the "iron tits" is a huge structure dominating the skyline. It is the main feature of whole park dedicated to mother Russia. Propaganda music is played over loudspeakers. Soviet weaponry is permanently displayed - everything from MIGS, tanks, helicopters and so on. Dotted all over the place are monuments that commemorate the Workers Partys struggle.
The main square in the heart of the city is were the non successful orange revolution took place. People are sunbathing happily after the rather harsh winters that besiege Kiev annually. Women show up in the shortest skirts possible and let there tits hang out. Almost no fat women are visible. The constant beauty is a bid intimidating and eventually annoying. President Janukovic once famously invited investors attending the WEF in Davos that they should come to Kiev during summer and fall in love with the women and country.

I walked to much, because I underestimated the size of the city. There countless places worth visiting. Mostly because of the size. But there are also monasteries with sarcophagus, countless gold roofed churches, Ladas passing by and good vistas over the surrounding area since Kiev is slightly elevated.
I also visited the Tschernobyl museum. I rather small shrine to commemorate the poor guys who had to clean the mess. The aftermath is still swallowing 5% of there annual GDP. I wanted to visit Tschernobyl, but the prices are over a hundred dollars.
Kiev is good fun - it is different: its a small time warp.

Lviv

After a horrible night bus from Krakow with 4 hours of waiting at the boarder. I arrived at a place that was far from being a city. First I got barked at by a vicious looking street dog. Then I found out that nobody speaks English. Everything is written in Cyrillic, so I also couldn't read anything. Eventually I found a bus that supposed to go the center. After walking from the center to the real center I found an ATM and a hostel. Then I slept a few hours and took a look at the city. Even though the western part of the Ukraine is very much in favour of Western European culture, the city looks Russian. There are some tourists, but they are on the sidelines. No EU money has not flown in yet and this is visible. The city it self is far from being a bijou with a few exceptions.
The part I liked the most was the cemetery. Overgrown by the forest lie countless gravestones from the past centuries. Some gravestones are very elaborate while others are wooden. Ukrainian nationalists got furious, when the government decided to start repairing works on the cemetery, because many supposedly Soviet heros are buried here.

Also just a few days before I arrived, the pro Russian government celebrated Victory Day. A holiday in honor of the Nazi defeat at the hand of the Soviets. But Ukrainian Nationalists complain that at that point in history the misery didn't stop. There were clashes and the Russian consul was not able to reach the monument. It was in the international newspapers.
I met very cool people in the hostel and went out every night. A delicious pizza costs 1.5 USD and a beer 0,5 USD. The national dish is Borscht. The main ingredient is beetroot and a oily bouillon. Some varieties are very good.
The clubs are cool a mostly full. We had a lot of fun and ordered vodka by the bottle.
I also visited my first opera in my life - Verdi. It was all subtitled in Ukrainian, so I couldn't follow, but it was still a cool experience.
After several really happy days I took the night bus to Kiev.

Zakopane

2 hours south of Krakow lies the skiing area of Poland. Apparently it would be very cheap to spend a winter holiday there. I arrived in mid summer. Hiking was the objective. There are very green, hilly fields and dense forests. Bears still roam the area. The Carpathian mountains are part of the Alps and reach all the way to Romania.

There were a respectable amount of tourists, but mostly of the older breed. I met up with the owner (Slavek) of the hostel (Ars hostel) in Krakow and some guests I met the previous night. We took a bus close to the Slovak boarder and hiked up along a river to see some lakes at the top. Snowy mountains made me feel nostalgic about the Swiss mountains. We got drunk at the top and hiked back down. In the evening I was very exhausted.

But the next day I did a hike by myself. I took a cable car to a ridge, where many schoolchildren were enjoying some sort of entertainment park. After I got out of the mess and found a beautiful landscape with views of the valley and the mountains. The houses are usually new and kept in the traditional chalet style of the alps. In the evening I went back to Krakow to catch my night bus to the Ukraine.