Day 18, 2015.05.30 Biela Hora

This Morning started a bit strange. I left my room and it seemed that I was alone. Front door Restaurant door were locked. I walked around in the Building and met the women of the shop that is in the same building. Ok with hand and feet I figured out that Natascha advised her to take the money for the room. With some new supplies and exited for my day in Ukraine I left the shop. I started with some minor roads in the Carpathians of Ukraine. But I had to accept soon that the nearly run down thread of my tires will bring me into trouble as soon the conditions get difficult.

So I made my way on the most horrible asphalt roads I ever experienced. They changed from asphalt to gravel from one minute to the other and you can be really happy if you not hit a pothole every 10 seconds. Many of them were dangerously deep and the other vehicles drive everywhere to prevent damage. I just can recommend don’t go on the roads I was with any vehicle, it’s annoying and seriously dangerous. Later a police control was on my way. I was a bit confused that the officer wanted to see my passport. The situation started to get clearer when he explained that I have to pay a penalty because I stopped after the line. He led me to a dark room where a second completed the show with a try to get somebody that speaks English to his private cell phone. It was exactly the show that travellers told me from other countries. It was so damn obvious that they just wanted to cheat me for money. I paid a “penalty around 17€ for these bastards to get my documents back. A few km ahead I saw a pompous residential area. My mind was just full of fury. I drove already 200km of this horrible asphalt roads, had seen so much huge social differences and all that showed just what happens when a government is so damn corrupt.

When I stopped to take these pictures in front of a motorcycle dealer of the broken Kamaz, a man stopped his car near to my bike and looked at it. I could see on his gesture that he was proud that a German took the long way to visit his country. He reminded me that it’s not the majority that brings a country in that circumstances and I needed that in that moment. But he couldn’t change my mind to leave Ukraine on the same day. The penalty”was the money for a second accommodation and I didn’t wanted to go to a cash machine again. Finding an accommodation that you can pay with credit card was all the time difficult on that trip. Before I left Ukraine I wanted to take at least one picture of the impressive churches. The roofs of this churches and chapels can really may blind you. A few kms later I passed a police control again but this time I wasn’t hesitated again. But the officer of the border police made me nervous again. He looked sceptical to my bike and in my mind where thoughts like: “”No I definitely don’t want to open all my luggage” and “I don’t have any cash left to pay a second penalty for bullshit”. Then the officer smiled and pointed on the stickers of the Hönnetrail” (a small charity Enduro Event in Germany) and said “Coming from Paris Dakar?” and laughed. He gave me back a lot of trust in Ukraine authorities. A Second lead me in front of the queue because I’m driving am Motorcycle and I was happy again. Thanks for an emotional roller-coaster Ukraine.