Despite the desire to see more outside of Europe, we have made the decision, via the South, to head back towards the Netherlands.
In addition to Scotland and the Netherlands, we now experience that Ukraine also feels like coming home. It is a special experience to come home. We land in Ukraine, where spring has started. RoadKapje is neatly waiting for us in the sun, with a new battery! Thank you very much men from Rusbana! With the help of you, RoadKapje has had a warm cozy wintering and we can inhabit her again. After cleaning up and cleaning for a few days, we removed the temporary residents and rearranged RoadKapje.
The generosity and hospitality of the residents of Ukraine makes the transition from very warm countries to the somewhat fresh spring in Ukraine very pleasant!
We have the desire to visit several friends we met in our trip through Ukraine last year, from west to east. Despite the sweet invitations, we travel almost immediately from Kiev to the Black Sea. Because of this, the reunion of some will unfortunately not yet take place. Fortunately we also see some friends and acquaintances again and we have nice new encounters.
Familiar with the roads, we first visit Lehedzyne. This village is home to very creative and cordial people! Just a cup of tea leads to sleep on their couch and / or lunch together and / or our car full of Ukrainian delicacies. Together musing about our Ukrainian future plans. Also in Odessa we see, with pleasure, a friend and her daughter again. We celebrate spring together, in the sun, on the beach of the Black Sea.
We follow the west side of the coast, to the Danube Delta. In this UNESCO nature reserve is the border between Ukraine and Romania. We visit Bilhorod-Dnistrovsky, the former Akkerman and the Giethoorn / Venice of Ukraine, Vylkove. On the way we see many storks on their nests and we see pelicans flying! This delta area is a protected area, so that many animal species can continue to live.
Via slippery mud roads along reed fields, arable lands, meadows and river beds, we drive to the border crossing at the three-country point of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. We have been in Moldova for 10 minutes and 100 meters and have driven there! This includes the customs check time, with the setting of the inbound and outbound stamp!
Then we are again at the Romanian border crossing, where we are welcomed again in the European Union! Thank you again, many lovely, generous, hospitable people from Ukraine, we look forward to seeing you again in the future and wish you a healthy sustainable future.
Moldova is on our list to visit a little longer in the future. After a few more kilometers of driving on a road full of holes, the roads in Romania get considerably better. Along the other side of the river we say goodbye to Ukraine and enjoy the many storks in the meadows and nests, on high poles. We follow the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. This way we see a very small part of Romania. The language of Romania is surprisingly different for us. Although this country is for the most part surrounded by Slavic countries, the language belongs to the Romance languages and is related to Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese. We switch back to the Latin alphabet when reading the traffic signs.
Along the coast we drive through cities that, for the most part, consist of hotels, restaurants, guest houses and spas. We suspect that these cities will be more populated in the summer. At present, renovation is the biggest activity that we see. In addition to summer tourism, we have seen various excavations from the Greek era along the coast.
In Constinesti we arrive at a hotel-restaurant Pefta Pescarului. We are allowed to spend the night here in the recently excavated parking lot in RoadKapje.
The next day the parking lot is filled with the old asphalt, which has been scraped off the local provincial road. The employees are also very busy renovating the terrace. We can help them a few days, a little bit by moving a tree and planting some seeds. The next day we meet the friendly relaxed creative painter who helps with the designing of the terrace. Together we paint cupboards and he makes decorations for the windows with the girls.
We enjoy the coast of the Black Sea, where we are closely monitored by the coast guard. In addition to the wreck that has been around for years, a boat a week before was sunk with prohibited means destined for the Netherlands, a large part of which is still on the seabed off the coast. Somewhat suspicious that with Dutch license plates we are hanging around here for a few days ... we ourselves find a skull of a dolphin.
Via a visit to the village, Vama Veche, we leave Romania. People from Romania, we have got a small impression of the coastal area and can admire it. We also wish you a healthy, sustainable future! After months without driving and having been in cars with air conditioning, it is familiar and pleasant to be able to smell, feel and see where we are driving again. Through the cracks of RoadKapje, odors such as fresh bread, burns, dust, engine oil and diesel from passing UAZ Bukhankas can penetrate our nose again. She said goodbye to Ukraine in style. Slipping through the mud it is very nice to experience that she has been covered with the right tires for this job.
P.S. Dear people from Ukraine: for a long time, we were able to enjoy delicious food from your pickled vegetables, fruit, meat and fish! Superrrrrrr Thanks!
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