Umph umph umph umph
Yesterday was travel day. We started off with a very pleasant train ride from Kiev to Odessa. The Ukrainians sure know how to make a train ride comfortable. Each wagon comes with its own steward, serving tea and sweets. After departing, he opened our four-man cabin door and threw us each a bag with linen (if you’d like to take a nap during the 8-hour ride), napkins, and shoe polish. I’m still a bit puzzled about the shoe polish part. At one of the stops we also got off the train to buy some raspberries, dumplings and two bottles of beer, all for less the price of one glass of milk at the Swedish railway company SJ.
Coming closer to the arrival time to Odessa, we found out that the train was delayed for more than one hour. As it seemed, we would miss the bus to our final destination, Vilkovo. Fortunately, our helping hand from the touristic base in Vilkovo, who would meet us at the train station, succeeded in persuading the bus driver to wait for us.
We rushed through the train station, following the man in the green shirt. Classical opera was playing through the announcement speakers. Somehow we managed to get in to the already crammed minibus, with loads of equipment. And somehow nobody seemed to be that bothered about our late arrival and enormous space allocation. Tobias even found a Ukrainian to talk to about Norway and fishing. We drove west, crossing the Moldavian border and back again, towards the delta of Donau.
I had imagined a dark green cottage close to a foggy river with willows and frogs and dogs running around. I was right about the dogs. When we arrived, picked up by some guy in a diesel smelling Niva, the first thing we saw and heard was a small amusement park, sporting three carousels and loud euro trance. Looking a bit further along the street, we saw a number of bars trying to outperform each other with colored flashy light chains and one man Casio keyboard orchestras. With dogs running around our legs barking, our very friendly host showed us to our house, and we soon went out to further explore the night life.
It is really hard describe the kind of place we have ended up in. While I write this, i hear a symphony of different pop musics from a distance, all with the famous umph umph umph umph bass drum which seems to more than any EU proposition unite the people of Europe. A bit further away, a Colosseum-inspired building is glowing in green. While inside, we are greeted by a laser laden light show, umph umph umph umph music and a young master of ceremony in sunglasses somewhat desperately trying to make the night one to remember.
It would be foolish to mock with the urge for trying to have a good time. Still, I must admit that after imagining John Baueresqe swamps, this lo-fi Las Vegas came as a surprise. But we got everything we wanted in mud and narrow canals the next day, when meeting the friendly people of Vilkovo.