Getting places in Ukraine

People in Ukraine walk where they are going, or take public transportation more often than not. This tram stop is in the center of the boulevard, some main streets in Dnepro have nice tree lined walkways with the tram tracks on either side. As you can see there are pigeons living in the city.








Of course we usually travel in our trusty Lada, but we have taken other forms of transportation here in Ukraine, like the train back from Kiev last week, which is one of the most popular ways people move around Ukraine. You can take the express, with seats or the overnight with fold-down bunks.


As you can tell in this photo of the highway, Garry is starting to dodge potholes as he drives down the road. Soon he will be swerving all over to save the tires and rims from constant repairs, since it's spring. Maxim told Garry a joke last year, The policeman in Ukraine pulls over the car going straight down the road to check if he's drunk, instead of the car that is swerving down the road like in North America. That's because a sober driver would try to miss the holes!




In the village, people travel on foot, by bicycle, motor scooter or motorcycle. If they don't have a car, they go to the city by marshutka, or bus. There is a bus that goes through the village three times a day that goes to Zaporosia. People catch the marshutka out at the highway, walking the 2 kms in and out, carrying whatever bags they are taking with them, unless they get a ride from someone. You see bikes being used as one way rides and carrying packages back with the person getting off the marshutka.



You may remember that Maxim's brother took a marshutka to go home to their village near the city of Kherson. Marshutkas are vans that travel set routes for set fees, some go from one city to another, but many travel routes inside cities. When I teach at Summer English Institute in July I have taken them. Sometimes they get very crowded, often you have to stand, instead of sitting in a seat (often guys will give older people and children their seat, as on trams and buses.) Once I nearly fell in the driver's lap when he turned the corner, some people are on the steps, and when someone wants to get off they yell to the driver and squeeze through to the front to get off, if they had a seat, then someone sits down.





The trams and aufto-buses are cheaper to ride, but have less routes that they go on, as they only travel the rails, or on the electric overhead wires in the city of Dnepro, and stop in scheduled places. The regular buses travel between cities, and I have taken them from Dnepro to the airport in Kiev, which is better than the train, because it drops you off in the parking lot at the airport. You get on at the bus station downtown and you get an assigned seat, just like on the train. People take the bus to places that the trains don't run, like smaller cities.



Of course when you are driving there are the other drivers to watch out for, like the black SUVs who seem to think they own the road! There are many more cars on the road than ten or fifteen years ago, but maybe half of the cars are vintage Ladas, Moskvieches, or classic Volgas (they were the cars that the top Soviets drove.)





What are the highheel stickers on the back of this car telling you? Caution: female driver! Honest, I know women who are proud to have these on their cars. This summer I was driving some Canadian teachers home after class, and one of the three guys in the car laughed and said- "look at that guy over there- he's thinking, three men in the car, why is the woman driving?"




and finally, look at the licence plate on this range rover...that's right, Illinois, maybe it got lost somewhere in Chicago and somehow was parked across from the Most-City Center Mall in Dnepropetroesk, Ukraine on Saturday afternoon!