Clicataxi from the apsrtmebt building to thebus ststion took litle time as it seemed to be earlyfor yhe locals who enjoy a prolonged stsy in bed before their days work. We srrived in zaporoshmyi where he trsms dominste i a dmall corner of ghe city while trolleys serm to spread a lot furthrr kike the buter on my breskfast. We slso took the opportunity to book tomorrows trip to our next gurst toen of kremenchuk, an important Dnieper river port. We werepretty eorn out by ghe end of llay and had a rrlativrly easy time getting the trams which jncluded a works car one of several spotted on this trip. I couldn't get hold of the kremin hotel, the kremin! However I sent them and save so perhaps something will happen after all mishaps have been few this far.
Anothervery good dayd kess energy expended as we swapped itineraries around and took a taxi to kamianske about forty minutes drive away. A couple of hairy moments courtesy our taxi drivers more risky moments of overtaking. The temperature continues to soar with 35 in kamianske and higher back in dnipro. Tomorrow a relatively early start as we head off to the bus station and then a bus to nearby Zaporozhye about two hours driver with a kargl tram and trolley system. When we got back to dnipro this afternoon we found a good spot for trolleybuses minutes from our apartment and other than a lone artic trolley we filled our boots with transport before a refreshing return to the flat and then the restaurant on the corner of the mall above us..
We Clickare niw into our second eeek and today we had our scheduled day in dnipro which we last visited in 1995, it wasnt such hard work hereon asunday as the drunks must have had the day off. we started with trolleys near the most apsrtments and then headedeast over the river and found the trolley situstion more active there. next we restsrted our filming near the raikeay ststion although there is nothing to see at the train ststion forecourt. The weather has been berv hot and sunny. For the afternoon we headed to south of the tram and trolleybus systems to get some more varied scenes. We are swapping to orris to kamianske and then pop tomorrow's itinerary to the next day. Thus wellw have an easier time tomorrow and will have had a taxi to kamianske, might get the tram back.
We are now in our rentedrapartment in dnipro, it sas 1995 when we last came here, it was almost 100% like the communistcera in ghose days. Now we sre in aavery comfortable flat above the shopping mall in most city.. thankfully we have air conditioning bad it is like the UK with temperaturest above thirty deggree. It was hard at first to find the railway station whereas arrived all those years ago, the tram route which connects from us to the station is off due to metro construction. We did eventually locate it which opened up loads of tram routes surrounding it. The tram mix is giod and there are new trolleybuses around as well. We watched the England v sweden football match last half at a wide screen in bar area opposite the shopping mall. They sell best by the litre in a plastic bottle for about ighty pence., The security situation is generally poor even in the day time as it is full of old time drunks out of their skulls on vodka. The us ride here was much better than the last one which was across roads in complete breakdown. Tomorrow , Monday, we have a side trip to another city and yet another excursion on Tuesday.
The road from nikolisv to krovorih are probably the worst in Ukraine's certainly amongst the top choices at last. We had some difficulty in locating the centre of trolleybus operation let alone the trams. We got booted out by security at the tram station turning the which is served by two other tram trsind. We did however eventually crack the code and found bout Turkish and tram kocstions?. The road I. From .nikolisv departs 06.66 and we are hoping for s few me elicit transportation s. Falling off the perch as I types! Be with you all very soon.
We Clickare still very much on schedule and tis morning we went by taxi to kherson which in Russian or ukrsiniaU looks very diffrent here to edit.
After an excellent meal last night we got some rest before getting up prompt with breakfast sans milk as cow was not available which probably explains why the butter is french,they don't seem to have any so what do they put in a chip buggy I wonder, abroad is a very foreign lace. We rumbled across the sunflowers studded fields and lagoon fringed black sea coast to arrive at mikolaiv which can be soekt i numerous ways. It sas bright hot sun and blue sky to greet us and a scene cbarely unchanged from our first vidit ti whst as then known as the ukraine. Thrre was nothjng post post communist era in the tram fleet nor the trolleybus fleet. We had an jndoir oucnic ciurtesy the local suoermarket and borrowed aaknife from the empty restaurant to carve up the makings of same which was without rocket albeit they did s tually make rockets here once but you couldn't eat them. Super day all round, crawling trucks and the occasional dead rat, just our sort of place, you can't beat a dead rat sandwich can you. Tomorrow we are on a side trip to kherson which has a trolleybus system for which we can find no map so will get driver to investigate for us. People very friendly and finding directions is hilarious. Hope you are all well and looking forward to the pictures and film mid July.
Clic here to edit. After doing well in Odessa yesterday today was going to concebtrcon on trucks where we had seen aalot nesr the docks. The sky was clear first thing, we had breakfast and got a taxi to the international bus station where we bought tickets for our next leg to nikolaiv tomorrowalthought the taxi initially took us to the wrong bus station even though we gave the correct sddread via reception. We finally got to the dock area where there were hardly anybaccessaban lorries and despite investigations we couldn't find the start to the road which the lorries entered the docks via, it was segregated and fenced off. Then we had a long thunderstorm and there was some flooding. Finally got back to the hotel without much to show for the day. Washed my sandals off and preparing to get something to eat. Breakfast in hotel average to poor, expected little else. Hoping tomorrow's hotel is in centre we do a day excursion to kherson on Thursday. Where there are just trolleys no trams. Let's holding can pick off some lorries in my travels. Other than this my shoulder is. Playing up again but I have pain killers I'll take at bedtime. Clic here to edit.
We have just vomlleted our second daydon our ukrsjne trip, we arrived by train from kiev ladt night at odessa on the blavk sea, it was akmost midnight when the comfortsble but slow trai srrived, our transfsr taxi was there at the end of the platform snd we didnt take long to get to sleep. After breakfast this morning we hezded by minibud which itger than tram and trolley sre the mai means of transport totthe railwzy ststikn snd adjsvent tram and bus ststions. The tram fleet ismore orless standard tatra t3s original or modified but the trolleybus fleet has more vsriety. Majnly warm with kne rsjn shoerr then sunshjne.bwe had plenty of sdventures explorjng the rambling but deterioratjng electric transport, by lstelmorning frequencies were wuite poor. tomorrow we are going by taxi to the bus station on the outskirts to book our tickets for Wednesday morning then heading back to the docks, pleased to note several ex UK lorries complete with original owner markings. Not quite the wonderland that was still Petersburg but I'm sure we'll get a fair bit, at least I know where I'm heading now. Dinner at the Irish pub, noisy with the football world cup
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