Day 37 – Another Lovely Day in Ukraine: Ivano-Frankivsk to Horodenka

Tuesday February 10, 2015, 73 km (45 miles) – Total so far: 2,899 km (1,801 miles)

Day 37: Ivano-Frankivsk to Horodenka – 73.1km

Yet more snow had fallen last night so when I stepped outside the door of the hostel in the morning I was stepping out into yet another white landscape. I was hoping the further south I went that the snow would start becoming less of an issue but it was still going strong here.
I had only made it 5 steps outside the door of the hostel when an old woman on the footpath stopped me and started chatting to me. I was able to respond in Russian so we had a very quick and basic chat about my trip. She ended up blessing me before saying goodbye. From all the concern I was getting it seemed the Ukrainians knew well how dangerous it was to be cycling on their roads!

***Venturing out of the warmth of the hostel***

I made my way out of Ivano-Frankivsk on busy roads which stayed busy for the next 20+ kilometres. The oncoming overtakes and repeated bails into the snow were in full swing as usual so I was glad to reach the turn off for Horodenka after this long stretch. From here on the road immediately quietened. The next big town I was aiming for in two days was Chernivtsi. The main road there through Kolomyya looked like it would be quite busy so the slightly more roundabout route through Horodenka looked like it would be a far better alternative. As with most Ukrainian back roads the surface was awful but as is the case with most back roads so far on this trip the better scenery and lack of traffic meant for a far more pleasant cycling experience.

***One of the Sovietesque buildings and accompanying statues on the way out of Ivano-Frankivsk***

***These electric buses are a left over of Soviet times in a lot cities that were once part of the old USSR. These were in most large cities since I had crossed the Ukraine border.***

***Out of Ivano-Frankivsk and into the countryside***

What had started out as a bit of an overcast day turned into a wonderful sunny day. Despite the cold and the snow storms of the first 3 days here, the Ukrainian winter was starting to become strangely pleasant.
I spent the day lazily cycling along this quiet road to Horodenka. There weren’t a huge amount of villages along the way, just really nice snowy rolling hills. At times the sunlight burst through the clouds which made for a brilliant sight. Later on the clouds disappeared entirely and I was just left with the sunlight and blue skies.

***Sunlight bursting through the clouds***

***Blue skies and sunshine, what more could you ask for***

The villages that I did pass through were very sleepy with not many people about. Other than the odd village there wasn’t much out here on this road apart from the typical elaborate Ukrainian bus stops and some interesting roadside sculptures and monuments which Ukraine seems to have a lot of.
The last 20 or so kilometres of the day were absolute bliss. It was an hour or so before sunset so the landscape was bathed in a wonderful golden light. I was up in the hills here and had a great view of the snowy landscape either side of me. Also there was only a car passing every 10 minutes. Oh, and I had a tailwind! It was a perfect hour of cycling which finally brought me to the village of Horodenka.

***Wartime monument on the way into one of the sleepy villages***

***A sculpture of a giant lobster pinching a barrel in the colours of the Ukrainian flag… yeah it didn’t make much sense to me either!***

***Typical Ukrainian gold domed church***

***The ornate mosaic bus stops continued throughout the day***

***I was glad I didn’t have to turn onto any smaller back roads today***

A rusting stork hidden in the trees by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. At first I thought it was a sculpture but once I had a look inside the pot I realised it was actually a well and the stork’s head at one time used to move up and down to retrieve the water. There’s something cool about finding random forgotten things like this hidden at the side of the road.

***Yet another ornate bus stop, the mosaics on these were always pretty interesting to look at, they usually varied widely from village to village.***

***The sun shining on me as I trundled along towards Horodenka***

This was the road going through part of Horodenka. The roads through the villages themselves were usually terrible around here with the tarmac mostly worn away and mud and potholes being left in its place.

I ended the day in Horodenka and checked into one of the only hotels in town. At €6 for the night the hotel wasn’t too shabby at all although I think they were aiming at a slightly different clientele than me as the room was done up all in red with heart shaped pillows! The painting on the wall of a half-naked woman lying beside a lion should have been the highlight of the room but the statue of a Buddhist monk riding a toad took that award! It was an unusual place but it was pretty damn good for €6.

It was here in this hotel that I finally started feeling sick from the local tap water. I had been drinking it all along the way with no issues at all. My plan was to keep going as far as I could until I started feeling sick as it just made filling my water bottles in the evening a bit easier. Despite the warnings in Eastern Poland and Ukraine I kept going and was absolutely fine but now here past Ivano-Frankivsk it looked like it had become too much for me. So with that I eventually unpacked the water filter I had brought along with me and used it for the first time. It was one of a couple of tools which I had brought with me that I didn’t really need throughout Europe. Due to this they were just lieing at the bottom of my bag until I made the crossing into Asia.

I had dinner there that evening as I hadn’t had any hot food since Lviv. Looking at the long menu I noticed an item called “Delicious Meat”, with that name I couldn’t resist ordering it! True to its word it was actually incredibly delicious. I don’t know what the sauce was made of but that combined with the tender meat made it one of the best dishes I have had on this trip. Along with this I had a large plate of potato cakes. The total came to under €2 in the end. These Ukrainian prices were a bit mad, I was making sure to enjoy the luxury and these easy days while they lasted.