Hotel Ungvarskiy

ATM locator

by catnl

Uzhgorod, Uzhhorod, city on the river Uzh, West-Ukraine,
Borderplace near to Slovakia (Kosice) and Hungary (Chop).

With a population of just under 126,000, it is the country’s smallest regional center.
This city has over 70 nationalities, it is also one of Ukraine’s most cosmopolitan cities: Hungarians, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Russians, Germans, Poles, Jews, Armenians and Roma UKREXIMBANK
19, Petefi Pl.
MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus

Pravex Bank branch
B Khmelnitskogo 2
MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus

Aval Bank
Kirila I Mephodiya Sq. 1
MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus

JS Kredit Bank (Ukraina)
Str. Duhnovicha,2
MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus

JS Kredit Bank (Ukraina)
Str. L'Va Tolstogo, 40
MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus

more info about taking money in Ukraine:
http://www.mastercard.com/index.html

Appartments from locals

by catnl

Sometimes i stay with my family or with friends. On the picture the appartment "Kwartiera" of my friend Andriy, i lived here the last time dec. 2007 for 1 week.
Some of the houses are in a terrible state.
Sometimes there's no elctricty or water!
For us who are used to luxury its quite an experience to have to wait for water!

typical ukrainian apples

by catnl

Ukrainian domestic apples taken from a datcha.
Most people who are living in appartments do have Datcha's, a garden with fruit and vegetables mostly on the outskirts of the city the're living.
Without any chemicals used! wow fantastic good taste!
I have seen several now, its relaxing to go with friends or family and have a BBQ and some drinks ofcourse:-)

Uzhgorod castle 2004

by catnl

This fortress is re-established many times. The castle as it stands today has a 16th century facade. In the 11-13th centuries Uzhhorod was under Hungarian rule.
In 1648 a thousand-man detachment of Kozaks arrived, escorting the emissary of Khmelnytsky to the Transylvanian King Rakoci.
At the end of 17th.century Uzhgorod had around ten streets and was on the right bank of Uzh River.
1919 Uzhgorod became the center of Transcarpathian Russ, under the rule of Czechoslovakia. In the fall of 1938, the capital of Carpathian Ukraine, and in 1949, the center of the Transcarpathian region of the Ukrainian SSR. Nowadays Uzhgorod has about 120.000 inhabitants

Cycling through the Trans-Karpaty

by tijs

"Arrival at the border"

After cycling for about two weeks through Tsjechia, Hungary and Slovakia, I arrived with my friend Jeroen at the border of the Ukraine. We left early in the morning, but the sun already started to burn. We had already crossed borders for sixtimes and we bought a visa at home in The Hague. So we thought we could simply show our passport and go on. I was glas that we were not by car, because there was a long line of cars waiting to sross the border as well. So we cycled along the cars to the desk and everything was ok. They checked the passport and let us go on. We thought: only 10 minutes and we will be in Uzhhorod, but we came at onother desk and they asked us to get off the bike and wait. We waited and waited in the heat. We needed to fill in all kinds of forms, about what kind of weapons and drugs we had taken, how much money we had in what currency, if we had any electronic gedgets, photo cameras, etc. We had to wait and wait for another hour. Then they said ok, and we cycled ... to another desk. There they decided to check our luggage. All packs needed to be taken off the bike. We had to empty all the bags, including the tent. They wanted to check every detail. I got afraid that they would take my Palm-computer, because on the other desk I forgot to mention this gadget on the form. But they did not worry about this thing. They were mostly curious of our toilet bags. They smelled our soap, shampoo, felt the condoms ... until they found a little bottle of massage oil! They smelled again and asked what it is. I explained but they did not believe. So we had to wait again until they made some phonecalls. Finally, after another hour, we could step on our bikes and enter Uzhhorod.

"River Uz"

After scrolling through the cousy streets of the town, changing money, and searching for a map of the region, we eat lunch on a terrace in the shadow near the river Uz. I was a good place to relax: you could see people crossing the bridge or walk along the water. We decided to follow the river to get out of the town. Where were no large roads but only small paths, with a lot of holes in the road. It was not easy to cycle, but after some time we came on the main road again. This was a real hell: the cars and little trucks did not care about bikes, like in the other countries that we had passed, but they drove with enormous speed and almost pushed our bikes off the road. The heat of the sun and the dust of the road made it a hard trip. We stopped to look at the map and saw a lot of people swimming in the river. A woman was selling parts of melone, so we bought a part and wend swimming. There was a dam in the river and young guys were jumping from a very old bridge. That was a solution: on the other side of the bridge was a smaller road. So we took our bikes and wanted to cross the river over the bridge. The bridge bent and shaked, most of the wooden floor of the bridge was gone, It was quite scary to cross the bridge. But on the other side there was a beautiful sandy path along the river and the landscape became more and more green, with wonderful forests.

"Drinking not only springwater"

Later, we took the sideroad to Svaliava, a good road through forests with little meadows and villages. There was a little picnick-place next to the road with springwater, so we stopped to fill our bottles with the water. A little car with a man and a woman stepped out and walked to the picknick-place. They invited us to come and sit there as well so we drinked springwater. But the man wanted all of us not to drink springwater, but beer. It looked like he did not trust us because we drinked water. He took some bottles of beer from his car and we dinked beer with him. We tried to talk with him with our Russian and Ukrainian phrasebook, and with a book with little pictures in it. When the bottles were empty, we thanked him and wanted to step on our bikes, but he insisted us to stay and drink another bottle. In his car he found that the bottles were finished, so we said we have to go, to find a sleeping place before dark. But he insisted us to stay and he drove away in his car with hagh speed, while the woman kept us talking. She told that there are no camping sites so it will not be easy to find a sleeping place. We better joined them to their house in Uzhhorod. But we said that we came from that direction and wanted to go on to Svaliava. In five minutes the man came back with another 10 bottles of beer and we could not say no. Soon we became more and more open, the more beer he drunk, making jokes about his wife etc. She did not care and laughed about it as well. When the sun left behind the hills, we said we really needed to go and we almost got into a fight because the man insisted us to stay and drink with him. But he had already drunk too much and almost fell in the little river. So we said goodbye and cycled to find a place to put our tent.