2006/06/18

D4 - Uzhgorod


14JUN - Day 4 - Uzhgorod - Km359
 
Ahir hi va haver canvi de plans, en comptes de marxar el mateix dia cap a Odessa, decideixo quedar-me a Uzhgorod, la capital de Transcarpatia, que vol dir "mes enlla dels Carpats", si es mira des de Kiev o Moscu es aixi, pero per mi es la regio abans de creuar els Carpats. Vaig canviar d'opinio perque feia bon dia i la gent semblava amable i oberta, a mes estava cansat del cap de setmana a Budapest i tenia ganes de passar un dia tranquil. Em quedo a l'Hotel Atlant on conec Kate (Ekaterina), la unica persona de l'hotel que es pot comunicar fluent en angles i que treballa a l'agencia de viatges, no a recepcio tot i que la hi criden sovint. M'ajuda amb el bitllet de tren i m'explica coses de la ciutat mentre passegem per la ciutat. Nascuda a Moscu va emigrar a Uzhgorod amb els seus pares fa 10 anys quan ella en tenia 10. No parla ni hongares ni ucrania i em diu que de vegades la gent no es amable amb els ciutadans que nomes parlen rus. Em parla molt dels Estats Units on hi te un munt d'amics i on sembla que ella tambe te ganes d'emigrar aviat.
La ciutat es petita i la part vella peatonal podria ser qualsevol altre ciutat hongaresa si no fos pels cartells en cirilic per tot arreu. M'assec a sopar i soc la victima persistent dels nens del carrer mal vestits i bruts que els pares m'envien demanant diners... Hrivna es la moneda de Ucraina. Aproximadament 6UAH equivalen a 1EUR.
 
Yesterday, when I left the train station in Tchop, was a sunny day, I felt happy to be again in Ukraine, good mood. I wanted to eat something in Uzhgorod, a much nicer city 15km north of Tchop, which is basically a hub for trains and little else. The plan was to buy the ticket to Odessa for 5pm and eat something in the city while waiting. Talking to the taxi driver that brings me to the city and looking around I decide to spend one night in this lovely town and delay my arrival to Odessa by one day.
Uzhgorod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzhgorod) is the capital of the Transcarpatia region, still looks like a hungarian village, the taxi driver says that 99% of the people speaks hungarian. I had the feeling that he exagerated after I talked to some locals and heard the coinversations in the street.
I check-in at Hotel Atlant for 30EUR. Kate, 20 year old from the travel agency comes with me to buy the ticket to Odessa. Born in Russia she arrived with her parents to Uzhgorod 10 years ago, she teaches dancing on weekends, study to be book-keeper and work in the hotel travel agency but she is the only one that can speak fluent english in the hotel, so she does "reception" work as well. I hear american-english in the street, its a turistic town full of terraces along the river, small shops in pedestrian streets and people walking on the old town all day. Brazil was playing that night in the WorlCup, I watched the match with a bunch of teenagers on the street.
 
 

posted by budapest2beijing at 21:29