Berlin to Odessa day 14: Kolomyia (коломия)
Yesterday was a fairly uneventful riding day. 130km from Cherche to Kolomyia.
We stopped along to way in Ivano Frankvitsk'a to visit the center of town. It seemed like a very bustling city but everyone was simply meandering around on a Monday afternoon.
We passed an enormous coal power plant belching out gray smoke from 3 stacks in front of a mountain of coal.
As we passed under the power lines I felt a tingling under my skin. I thought I was imagining it until Graham noticed his arm hair standing on end. His compass was also spinning out of control and could not find north. I suggested we leave before we contract brain cancer.
A note about Google maps in the Ukraine: not reliable. First, I cannot find any addresses, in either Cyrillic or Latin characters it routes me to random places or just simply does not find it.
Yesterday it showed us a shortcut to skip a large portion of a highway. This was welcome to get away from all of the fumes and large trucks (although to be fair they are quite considerate- I think they are used to slow traffic on the shoulder because of all the horse carts we've seen).
Even by following the google maps route we got lost at least 3 times due to the roads either not existing, or the fact that there were houses where the roads should have been.
In one area I was even attacked by a pack of dogs. There were probably signs in Ukrainian to warn me of this but it didn't occur to me since the dogs waited until there were about 6 or 7 before swarming me. I biked away but they were biting my back panniers and I dragged them along until they let go.
Me 1 - Dogs 0.
In Kolomyia we ate an excellent barbecue prepare by our host and downed far too many shots of his father's home made Samohon (самогон). A side note: do not have a drinking competition with a Ukrainian.
In the morning Vasil, our host, showed us around the city. We saw the Easter egg museum which showcases an old Ukrainian tradition of meticulous hand painted eggs. The museum is even in the shape of an egg.
The Easter egg museum is shaped like a painted egg.
We stopped along to way in Ivano Frankvitsk'a to visit the center of town. It seemed like a very bustling city but everyone was simply meandering around on a Monday afternoon.
We passed an enormous coal power plant belching out gray smoke from 3 stacks in front of a mountain of coal.
As we passed under the power lines I felt a tingling under my skin. I thought I was imagining it until Graham noticed his arm hair standing on end. His compass was also spinning out of control and could not find north. I suggested we leave before we contract brain cancer.
A note about Google maps in the Ukraine: not reliable. First, I cannot find any addresses, in either Cyrillic or Latin characters it routes me to random places or just simply does not find it.
Yesterday it showed us a shortcut to skip a large portion of a highway. This was welcome to get away from all of the fumes and large trucks (although to be fair they are quite considerate- I think they are used to slow traffic on the shoulder because of all the horse carts we've seen).
Even by following the google maps route we got lost at least 3 times due to the roads either not existing, or the fact that there were houses where the roads should have been.
In one area I was even attacked by a pack of dogs. There were probably signs in Ukrainian to warn me of this but it didn't occur to me since the dogs waited until there were about 6 or 7 before swarming me. I biked away but they were biting my back panniers and I dragged them along until they let go.
Me 1 - Dogs 0.
In Kolomyia we ate an excellent barbecue prepare by our host and downed far too many shots of his father's home made Samohon (самогон). A side note: do not have a drinking competition with a Ukrainian.
In the morning Vasil, our host, showed us around the city. We saw the Easter egg museum which showcases an old Ukrainian tradition of meticulous hand painted eggs. The museum is even in the shape of an egg.
The Easter egg museum is shaped like a painted egg.
Position:Стометрівка, Сотня,Коломия,
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