nice photos....awesome ride. "...we Croatians are Slavs like Ukrainians and Russians so we understand each other quite well." Funny, I thought Croats are Persian.
Hi Pudla, what's that meal that Kaso cooked for you on first day of the trip? Looks like some kind of pancakes.
This brings back alot of great memories. I found Russian museums very interesting. Some allows photos with no flash, some no pictures at all, some only with a permit. There was always someone following us Americans around making sure we were following the rules. They are very proud of their soldiers. I really like Volgograd, thanks for the great pics.
Hi Zeko! All I know is that it was very tasty. I think that it was some kind of tortilla, you should ask Kaso when you see him about details. Thanks Phone Guy! I am always very careful in museums and other memorial sites. Good thing is that Vladim and Vladimir were with us. I immediately asked them is it allowed to take pictures in museum. We have to pay some extra fee for taking pictures.
Day seven, 06.06.08, really bad day We woke up early and after the breakfast in hotel we were ready to go. Day was perfect for riding and we made good progress. We crossed Don and we stopped to take some pictures of river and bridge. There was also small monument for Soviet pilots who fell during WWII. After taking pictures, I sat on my bike and turned the key. Absolutely nothing happened, nothing, even display stayed blank… What now, my first idea was that there is problem with sidestand switch. Then I checked battery cables. They were OK. It started looking as flat battery, but how this can be possible. It is new bike (07). We agreed that we should try to start it with the cables. But, we had no cables, so Linza went to the first village along the road and came back with two precious pieces of wire. He managed to find some kind of spare parts shop. We tried it and luckily my bike started. Cables were short so our starting procedure looked like this: I had to remove my left side pannier, Linza removed his right, then Kaso stepped between bikes and helped us with cables, then I started my bike, Kaso attached my pannier using spare key and put my seat because I had to rev the bike. After some time we became quite efficient team. To make matters worse, we had to exit Russia before midnight because of our visa. We had double entry visa and 06.06 was date of our first exit. We took visas before abandoning Turkey part of our plan. We decided to try to reach border and in the meantime Linza contacted Roman who arranged new battery for me in Donetsk, Ukraine. But Donetsk was far away. Bike was running OK, so we were back on the road. After 150 km we stopped for fuel. I tried to restart my bike but nothing happened, battery was completely dead. Cables again… Then, after few kilometers my ABS light come on, bike started to stall below 3.500 rpm, things weren’t looking good. We were nervous and we were probably driving too fast, but not 200 km/h as policeman who stopped us near this monument claimed. We knew that it will be costly one, negotiations started ad 500 Euro and ended at 300. Late afternoon we were at the border. Kaso and I were turned back at the end of the queue by Russian border guard, it will be no big problem because there were only few cars but I had to push my bike. Luckily we managed to enter Ukraine without problems, but officials informed us that with our visa we got only five days to get out of the country. Nobody told us so in consulate in Zagreb. Our plan went to hell again. We entered Krasnodon, first bigger city after the border. My bike was running badly so I decided to stop and try to find battery. I stopped first car coming from nearby street, man didn’t know anything, but guy in car behind was ready to help. Linza went with him. He took Linza to garage where guys were repairing scooters and bikes. They used translator on their computer to communicate. In the meantime I managed to stop another rider, Yura on Ural. He was part of the same crew from garage. Soon we all gathered around my bike, they had 12 V, 9 Ah battery from scooter which we installed and my bike started without the problem. Soon their boss appeared with completely new battery. Price was 40$, very fair. We installed it and bike was starting and running fine. I was feeling much better, we spend some time chatting with the guys. We bought them few beers. They told us that we should go to Luhansk, bigger city near Krasnodon because it will be easier to find place to sleep there. I was really grateful for their help. One hour later we were in hotel in Luhansk. They had really cool looking beds. Good ending of bad day. To be continued…
I hadn't seen the topic yet! As allways, your reports are quite inspiring Damir. Is looking really really good Nice pics, nice places and historical backgorund = perfect. Greetings to Linza and Kaso BOK!!!
Fantastic report Those statues in Mamayev Kurgan are amazing....a mix of greek / italian flair but with guns and grenades Those paintings in the Stalingrad Museum of battle through snow are awe inspiring too Thanks for the great photo's and report...your capturing the mood really well!
Thank you all! Day eight, 07.06.08, bike party in Chrerkasy We got few decisions to make in the morning. We had only four days left before our visa expires, so we were discussing our options. Go to Crimea, go directly to Odessa and bypass Crimea… Then we decided that we should not try to reach Black Sea at all. Our plan was to ride 700 km and reach Chrerkasy. It was Saturday and bike party was supposed to be held there. Roman and his friends will be there, so we decided to thank him in person for all his help. My bike started without problems and I was quite confident that new battery will be OK for rest of our trip. So we contacted battery guy in Donetsk and he said that it is perfectly OK if we won’t come to pick up battery from him. So 700 km on all types of Ukrainian roads, only constant thing was crazy drivers. We passed through Dniepropetrovsk without getting lost. OK, without getting completely lost. We had some really bad looking cans for dinner, but they tasted OK. Linza also arranged meeting with Roman. We reached Cherkasy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherkasy) at sunset. Party was held on the other side of the Dnieper, so we crossed big bridge and reached party location. Few minutes later Roman, Dmitry and few of their friends appeared. It was dark, so we don’t have lot of pictures. We didn’t spend lot of time at the party. We also met Skif from Donietsk and his friends. Our friends took us to the fine restaurant because we had so much to talk about. Party lasted till four o’clock next morning. Day nine, 08.06.08, talking it easy After hard day yesterday we decided that we need some rest. Our plan was to ride only about 300 km. Linza and I took a walk along banks of Dnieper. We took few photos before parting our ways. Skif's Goldwing. Linza with Roman and Dmitry. There were a lot of bikes on the road that morning. It was time to move on, our Russian and Ukrainian friends were going to Zaporozhe, and so after 30 km it was time to part our ways. Thanks friends! We decided to take a swim in the Dnieper. Kaso showed us that Bandit can handle soft stuff. Refreshed we hit the road again. We reached Bela Cirkva and friendly guy on scooter escorted us to the hotel. To be continued…
Day ten, 09.06.08, towards Kamianets-Podilskyi We were not in hurry, so we decided to explore small roads between Bela Cirkva and Kamianets-Podilskyi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamianets-Podilskyi). There were some cobblestone sections. Interesting monument We spotted small lake and went to explore it. We passed through small city named Bar, there is also Bar in Montenegro where our friend Gasho lives, so we took this picture. There are also some friendly police officers in Ukraine, those guys helped us with directions. We met local rider, Igor. He sold his bike and was delivering it to the new owner. We had nice lunch together. KamianetsPodilskyi is quite touristy city, so we found ourselves nice accommodation. It was getting dark when we went to the old city. We also met local rider on Ural. Tomorrow will be our last day in Ukraine, so we asked him what border crossing he will suggest for crossing into Romania. We decided to come to the old city early in the morning tomorrow to take some more pictures. After beer we were ready for sleep. To be continued