13th of April 2011
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I got early up, organized my documents, had a good breakfast, got some extra money for the ferry and headed for the “end of Ukraine”, another 18km from Kerch.
When I reached the ferry terminal I had exactly 3000km on my tachometer.
Mentally prepared for everything to come, I had to wait 2h for the ferry, border control and customs to start. NO corruption, nothing! Just endless forms, checks and 2 interviews from one bald guy in civil clothes (KGB? :-) about my job and business in Russia and where I have friends in Russia…well, I have a business visa for Russia, otherwise one cannot make a multiple entry journey over a period of 4 months.
In total it took 5 hours to complete everything when they waved me into Russia. My plan in the morning was to go to Tuapse or even Sochi, now with another hour time shift unreachable.
And “ups” my GPS showed no roads anymore (actually it showed me that I was driving on the open sea..) and also not the route I planned the night before on my laptop…something to sort out.
Meanwhile a bit better at reading the Russian letters + having my Russia roadmap from my ex-colleague Michail from Moscow, I think I can manage also w/o a GPS.
What makes me a bigger headache is that I found some oily drops under the motorbike while it stood on the ferry. I was not able to locate where these came from, maybe from the suspension strut. My first thought was to go directly to Krasnodar to meet the motorbike dealer where I would hopefully also see my tires again which were sent there from Germany, but now seeing no further spill I think I will proceed to Sochi tomorrow.
Actually, I just made it 70km to Anapa, a small city at the Black Sea. This time it was no problem at all to find a hotel, but since I had no Ruble (at the frontier there was no money exchange or ATM!) nobody was willing to give me a room without seeing cash…I tried even to convince them taking 50 USD from me (>3 times the rooms price!) for letting me check in and pay them later with Ruble, no way. So, I HAD to get money which was not an easy task.
I tried 3 ATM’s w/o getting anything, from one I got at least a receipt which I couldn’t read. The 4th worked, meanwhile 8 hours w/o food and drink… After check-in a quick shower and now I sit in the village’s Plaza Hotel w/o internet access because they told me that this is the only good restaurant in town…Anyway I am happy, the door man Igor helped me with ordering my food and where to get online access...nobody here speaks English, at least no one whom I met:-)
end of Ukraine:-) there it is mentioned: lucky way! :-)
When I reached the ferry terminal I had exactly 3000km on my tachometer.
Mentally prepared for everything to come, I had to wait 2h for the ferry, border control and customs to start. NO corruption, nothing! Just endless forms, checks and 2 interviews from one bald guy in civil clothes (KGB? :-) about my job and business in Russia and where I have friends in Russia…well, I have a business visa for Russia, otherwise one cannot make a multiple entry journey over a period of 4 months.
In total it took 5 hours to complete everything when they waved me into Russia. My plan in the morning was to go to Tuapse or even Sochi, now with another hour time shift unreachable.
And “ups” my GPS showed no roads anymore (actually it showed me that I was driving on the open sea..) and also not the route I planned the night before on my laptop…something to sort out.
Meanwhile a bit better at reading the Russian letters + having my Russia roadmap from my ex-colleague Michail from Moscow, I think I can manage also w/o a GPS.
What makes me a bigger headache is that I found some oily drops under the motorbike while it stood on the ferry. I was not able to locate where these came from, maybe from the suspension strut. My first thought was to go directly to Krasnodar to meet the motorbike dealer where I would hopefully also see my tires again which were sent there from Germany, but now seeing no further spill I think I will proceed to Sochi tomorrow.
Actually, I just made it 70km to Anapa, a small city at the Black Sea. This time it was no problem at all to find a hotel, but since I had no Ruble (at the frontier there was no money exchange or ATM!) nobody was willing to give me a room without seeing cash…I tried even to convince them taking 50 USD from me (>3 times the rooms price!) for letting me check in and pay them later with Ruble, no way. So, I HAD to get money which was not an easy task.
I tried 3 ATM’s w/o getting anything, from one I got at least a receipt which I couldn’t read. The 4th worked, meanwhile 8 hours w/o food and drink… After check-in a quick shower and now I sit in the village’s Plaza Hotel w/o internet access because they told me that this is the only good restaurant in town…Anyway I am happy, the door man Igor helped me with ordering my food and where to get online access...nobody here speaks English, at least no one whom I met:-)
end of Ukraine:-) there it is mentioned: lucky way! :-)
