Ending Point: N46°22 E48°03
Distance Traveled: 275.3 miles
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The man, the legend, the Vlad
Today was finally the day that we left Volgograd! But even that wasn’t an easy task, as we ran into Vlad on our way out of town; Vlad once again invited us to join him at his café for lunch, but we knew how (and around what time) that type of invitation would end. Bye bye, Volgograd! The entire time we’d been in Russia we were very conscious about where we got fuel for the Panda, and we’d only stop at either THK or LukOil. There are a lot gas stations selling bad fuel, and there are even counterfeit stations that copy the logos of the two we knew were safe. However, even being careful wasn’t enough: on our way out of the city we filled up at a LukOil, and within 40 miles the Panda was sputtering and her “check engine light” was flashing. We were worried, but after some time on the side of the road and some easy driving, the Panda healed herself and was back to normal operations. Soon we were once again confidently on the road to Astrakhan, with more proof that the Panda was indestructible. Upon arriving in Astrakhan we barely had time to catch our breath before our friends the Thunderyaks and our new friends the Cads & Bounders swooped us up to take us to dinner. The evening before they had met a new friend in Astrakhan who had helped them rent an apartment, and this evening we were all going out to dinner. Igor, our new friend, along with his girlfriend Nadia, had chosen the restaurant for the feast. Igor’s Russian skills were utilized fully as he ordered traditional southern Russian meals and drinks for all nine of us, and his translation skills came in very useful throughout the night. Igor and Nadia were incredibly gracious with their time and were excellent hosts to the city of Astrakhan, and we were very grateful for their help. As a matter of fact, Igor was so humble that he didn’t even tell us it was his birthday! It took some Facebook snooping to figure that one out, so of course we all splurged on dessert to celebrate. After Igor took us on a brief walking tour of the city by the Volga River, it was time for us to head back to the apartment and head to sleep. Starting Point: N48°42 E44°31
Ending Point: N46°22 E48°03 Distance Traveled: 275.3 miles
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The view of the Volga River from our hostel balcony.
We know, it's crazy to spend three days in the same place. We haven't done that any other time on the Mongol Rally! However, today we were lucky we didn't have to drive. Unfortunately, Chase woke up extremely ill, and throughout the entire day he didn't go any farther than the hostel bed to the hostel bathroom. Charla's day wasn't too much more exciting, as she never went farther than the market down the block throughout the day to see what they had that could make Chase feel better. Charla and the manager of our hostel (another vegetarian!) about to dig into some pasta. We stayed with Team Rougher Dan Khan, who we've been hanging out with in Volgograd since we got here. Tonight we got an unexpected surprise as the drivers in another rally also stayed in our hostel room; three Lithuanians in the Pamir Rally are driving from Vilnius, Lithuania, to Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Obviously, we are very familiar with our Rally and have spent weeks analyzing "Rally logistics", but it was interesting to hear the perspective of drivers on a completely different adventure and how the planning is going on their trip. Rougher Dan Khan is an Italian team, and tonight they showed off how great it is to be Italian by cooking a giant pasta dinner in the hostel kitchen. With meat and meat-free versions, the pasta sauce was also filled with a great assortment of vegetables. Dinner was a communal gathering with the Italians, Charla, and the Russian manager of the hostel, and it was a great time. Charla wishes we were traveling with Rougher Dan Khan more so that we could have more nights like this one throughout the trip! Even though Chase had yet to eat throughout the day, they also brought ice cream for after dinner, and Chase felt well enough by then to get in on the fun and enjoy some ice cream. Starting Point: N48°42 E44°31
Ending Point: N48°42 E44°31 Distance Traveled: 0.0 miles We woke up at the Local Hostel, which was soon becoming a Mongol Rally Hostel, as the other three members of the Thunderyaks arrived in the night. We swapped stories of the road over a market breakfast in the park just below the hostel and attempted to come up with a plan for the day. Well, planning too much isn’t Rally style, so we decided to go to the Mother Russia statue and take it from there. Many of the buses from our corner go to the statue, but we didn’t get on one of those. Once the bus turned in the wrong direction, we jumped off and then found a taxi nearby. Our German-speaking driver saw no problem with the six of us piling into his Soviet-era Lada, so off we went. We didn’t exactly communicate which historical location we wanted to go to, and so we made a stop at the museum on the Volga River and took in the panorama. From there, we found an underground tram station near the large Lenin statue and finally headed in the right direction. The Mother Russia statue is on the top of a small hill so she can be seen throughout the area. So, to get to her feet (you have to touch the statue or you haven’t really been there), we walked past a couple of reflecting pools and smaller statues and carvings. Then, we passed through a room with an eternal flame to commemorate the Russian soldiers who lost their lives in World War II. From Mother Russia’s feet, we could appreciate the scale of the statue and have a nice view of the city and river below. The journey back from the statue was much easier than the one there; we just had to take the underground tram five stops. We celebrated another good day in Volgograd with a big dinner at a café on the block that the Thunderyaks had found the night before. Dinner turned into drinks with the owner and his friends, who were also trying to help our Italian friends come up with a solution for their car problems. By the end of the night, Vlad (the owner and overall guy in charge) was calling us all brothers; he also thought that since we were coming from Alaska, we were practically Russian-Americans. Just before we left, we shared a bag of coffee from The Grind in Girdwood, Alaska, to cement our friendship. Starting Point: N48°42 E44°30
Ending Point: N48°42 E44°31 Distance Traveled: 0.7 miles
Our new friends approve of the Panda!
The sunflower field was a perfect place for the night judging by just how late we slept in the following morning. Once we got back on the road, it was a smooth drive until we hit the bumpy, pothole-dotted roads into Volgograd. Based on our arrival, Volgograd appeared the friendliest city to the Mongol Rally that we have passed so far. Driving along the main road into downtown, a man pulled up next to us honking and showing off a shirt that we couldn’t read. We’re assuming it was an old Rally shirt or one from a team because when he got close enough he gave us a thumbs-up and shouted “Mongol Rally!! Yeah!!” A few moments later, another car pulled up alongside and asked “Mongolia? We’re from Uzbekistan! Awesome!” Then, they threw us some beads with a spider carving for good luck on the journey. We knew we were in for a good time in Volgograd. Traffic wasn’t our friend at first though as we cruised around looking for a spot with Internet. Eventually, we made our way slightly out of town to juice bar in a mall. Once online, we saw that two other teams were still in Volgograd, so we turned around and headed towards the hostel where they were staying. Finding the hostel (through an archway, along a garden, ringing up from a steel door, taking the elevator to the fifth floor, and finding a door with an owl on it) was difficult but worth the effort once we met Lorenzo and Emanuele of Team Rougher Dan Khan and James from the Thunderyaks as well as Ting traveling from China. We went out to dinner nearby at a pub the first two found the day before. Though it took us a while to navigate the Russian-only menu, we did so to great success and enjoyed our first hot meal since leaving Moscow.While Lorenzo and Emmanuele worked through some of their issues with their car and its massive engine problems, James joined us out in the park for a beer. That night, however, was no ordinary night in the park. It was an evening of celebrating the Russian Navy! We had seen blue and white flags all over town as we were driving in, and suddenly it all made sense (we had wondered if the flags were for a football match, graduation, or if we’d accidentally found ourselves in Chechnya with an uprising starting). Soon, we were surrounded by a big group of friendly Russian soldiers who explained the holiday and really liked to shout “Russian tradition!!” Once we had all finished our beers, we went for a walk in the park to a café for another round. Conversation was all over the place in a mixture of languages, but the excitement and comradery was unforgettable. Starting Point: N51°47 E41°47
Ending Point: N48°42 E44°30 Distance Traveled: 294.8 miles We left the Ganza house after a quick breakfast so that we could meet another Ganza, Alexey, at the Fiat garage. The directions we plotted in our book of Moscow maps were perfect, and we arrived on time (Nikolai is much better than Google Maps, if only we could take him with us to Mongolia!). Only in Russia do you take your car in for an oil change and then have an offer of a suspension check. They were especially keen to check the suspension because we were planning to leave the city going east. While the car was being serviced, we went out for coffee with Alexey. Charla and Alexey had not seen each other in over ten years since Christopher and Olga’s wedding (Charla’s cousin and Alexey’s sister); there was a lot to catch up on! Once we returned to the dealership, all was relatively well with the car, and we set out on the ring road to leave Moscow. The drive out of Moscow was somewhat long, as the city seemed to never end! Eventually, we left the realm of the Moscow city map book and started crossing fields of sunflowers. The road surfaces varied quite a bit in the stretches between small towns, but they were fantastic compared to those in the Ukraine. At one of our stops, Chase befriended a group of gas station attendants who were interested in Alaska and our comically small blue car. Our drive also took us through a surprisingly colorful town called Tambov that we could have certainly spent a little more time in were it not getting late in the evening. Appropriately, the day ended in a sunflower field where fireworks from a wedding nearby provided our evening entertainment. Starting Point: N55°40 E37°19
Ending Point: N51°47 E41°47 Distance Traveled: 446.1 miles Still unaware that we had crossed into another time zone, we had quite a full night’s sleep and woke up to go downstairs to a full breakfast with the girls and Valentina. Shortly after breakfast, we began our day tour with Jenya that the Ganzas had organized. We were more than used to driving our little Panda around cities, but it was quite a treat to be driven around Moscow not only by someone who actually knew where he was going but also by someone driving a nice clean BMW. Valentina put a few sites on the must-see list, and so we went to those places first. As we drove into the city, we passed the Kremlin and headed straight to Red Square. After walking around Red Square and taking the typical tourist photos in front of Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin, we went to Gum, one of the largest and nicest shopping malls in the city. From there, we jumped back in the car with Jenya and headed to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to admire its architecture as well as its great view of the city. Because the Cathedral is located on the bank of the Moskva River, walking from the beautiful church across the bridge nearby (a bridge decorated with love lockets) allowed us to see a lot of the city. Back with Jenya, we cruised around for a while, as he pointed out notable streets and buildings of Moscow. After the driving tour, we decided to go back to the Kremlin to walk around the park and fountains outside, including a countdown clock for the upcoming winter Olympics in Sochi. We ended our day with Jenya at Moscow State University, also located on the river and offering a great view of the city. Our stop was a popular one, as many just-married couples and wedding parties cruised by. From there, we left the heart of the city and went back to the Ganzas for dinner and playtime in the garden. Starting Point: N55°40 E37°19
Ending Point: N55°40 E37°19 Distance Traveled: 0.0 miles We returned to the monument again in the morning to enjoy it in the sunshine and to feast on a breakfast of chocolate croissants before we started our day’s driving. Back on the road, we continued northeast towards the large city of Moscow. And, Moscow is a very large city! Most major cities have a ring-road surrounding them, or possibly even two if the city is a bigger city. Moscow has six ring-roads surrounding the city in a set of ever-growing concentric circles. After passing over or under five of the ring-roads and getting closer and closer to the city, we made it to Bakovka! Once we were in the correct suburb, however, the trick become figuring out where exactly in Bakovka Nikolai and Valentina live. After some adventuring down unexpected dirt roads in the midst of the sprawling urban environments (and driving the dirt roads again when we discovered that they didn’t go where we wanted them to), we finally happened upon the Ganzas' house. Upon entering the gated driveway, there was a very happy reunion in the Ganza driveway! Though she saw her cousins, Sophie and Alexa, over Thanksgiving in Michigan, Charla had not seen Nikolai and Valentina since she met them at the girls’ parents’ wedding long before they were born. Needless to say, we had a lot to catch up on, and dinner, a walk through the organic garden, and some late night cookies were the perfect answer. After driving through the chaos that surrounds Moscow, the garden was an absolute haven; it’s still hard to believe such a thing exists so close to the heart of the major city. Starting Point: N53°07 E34°36
Ending Point: N55°40 E37°19 Distance Traveled: 237.6 miles After last night's gray and rainy weather, we were extremely pleased to wake up to sunshine! We took a leisurely cruise through Konotop, and enjoyed the smiling people, the colorful train station, and Konotop's local trams hurrying people throughout the city. It was an entirely different city to the evening before! Unfortunately, there still was a tiny bit of Ukraine's ugly side on our way towards the border: Chase got stopped for speeding, but after negotiating the bribe down to ₴210 we were on our way to the border! Welcome to Russia! Post-Soviet industrial archeology! After the nightmare of getting into Ukraine, we were imagining the Ukrainian/Russian border to be extremely difficult; luckily, we found the opposite to be true! On the Ukrainian side Chase purchased our car insurance for Russia, and when the insurance salesman figured out we were driving the Mongol Rally she got excited! She left her booth and walked our paperwork to the Ukrainian officials for us to leave the country, thus allowing us to skip the line and just drive the car right out with very few questions. The Russian side was even better! All of the customs paperwork was in Russian, and of course we didn't understand a word of it. (And, of course, there is a lot of customs paperwork to bring a car into the country.) The poor border patrol officer, who didn't speak English, had to help us answer every question one by one, which took a lot of charades and miming. Eventually we got all of our paperwork ready to go, but it was quite the project. Right as we finished, an Italian woman who was riding a motorcycle into Russia and also didn't speak Russian asked the officer for help; Charla intervened, and using her Italian she instructed the woman on how to fill out the customs forms for her motorcycle the way we did for our car. The officer was so happy he didn't have to translate the whole thing again, he expedited our entry and waved us right through! Once we were in Russia, we knew we weren't going to make it all the way to Moscow before dark, so we starting hunting for a place to camp. We found a very nice monument in Khatsun, and cooked our dinner at the monument as the sun set. Khatsun was a tiny, tiny village, as we were surprised to find the massive "Khatsun" memorial clean and in wonderful shape. Even more surprising, while we were cooking dinner two memorial guards who were doing their rounds stopped to say hello and see what we were up to. Though we just entered Russia, it was immediately obvious that Russia took its history very seriously; it was nice to see that Russia truly respected its monuments and memorials, even in small out-of-the-way towns where very few people would see them. Starting Point: N51°16 E33°22
Ending Point: N53°07 E34°36 Distance Traveled: 219.6 miles After a rough start in the Ukraine, we were starting to really enjoy the country—well, we were starting to love Bila Tservka. We felt like new people after rest and showers, and the day only got better when we returned to the restaurant across the street, which called itself “Veranda” in English. Lunch was just as good as dinner the night before, and we certainly enjoyed the price of things there, as we again ordered three entrees between the two of us. Lunch there seemed an appropriate way to end our short time in Bila Tservka, so we set off towards the Russian border. Not long after getting back on the road, we spotted a big American school bus! It could only be the Rally vehicle belonging to the Dixie Chickens, who are driving around the world and including the Mongol Rally as one step of that journey. We pulled over for a quick chat while they moved their gear inside in preparation for the oncoming rain. We had different routes planned and set off towards Kiev. On a rainy night in the Ukraine, Panda is the only color. Kiev was a shockingly nice city to drive through. The highways didn’t go right through the middle of town, and best of all, there were street signs pointing us where we needed to go! From Kiev, the driving towards the border was fairly easy, despite the rain. Actually, the rain very much added to the atmosphere of post-Soviet northern Ukraine, where everything was grey, green, or beige. We took a detour through the town of Konotop, a town that we rather doubted that evening. As we kept going though, we discovered streetcars, shops, and restaurants. Rather than camp in the rain, we found a room there for the night. Starting Point: N49°47 E30°06
Ending Point: N51°16 E33°22 Distance Traveled: 238.7 miles After three and a half hours of sleeping soundly in the Panda on the roadside, we woke up to Faye tapping on the window about an hour before sunrise. Good morning! As the sun was rising, we found our way back to the main road and turned east to Odessa. As we passed through Tatarbunary, Pandaland dropped back down to one as the girls stopped at a garage to try and get their car fixed up. As we continued on, we wanted to avoid entering Moldova (and thus re-entering Ukraine) at all costs. Oddly enough, every main road connecting Odessa to southwest Ukraine was through Moldova; luckily for us there was one minor coastal road that would stay in the country. Let’s do it! Even by Eastern European standards, this road ranked poorly. On the side of the road there was a wide off-road path that had been created by people who chose to drive off the road rather than face the potholes; on the side of that was a second off-road path that had been carved by people who didn’t want to face the potholes or the mudpuddles of the first path. Factor in all the heavy truck traffic (because truckers love avoiding border crossings), and it was an adventure of a road. The nice thing about the road is that it did allow us to cruise through a few beautiful beach towns along the Black Sea. By the time we got to Odessa we weren’t really interested in exploring the city anymore, and decided to get out in the country. We headed north out of Odessa and just kept on driving. By four in the afternoon we realized we had been on the road for over 25 of the last 29 hours, and it was time for a well-earned break. By exploring the town of Bila Tserkva, and with some excited hand gestures from a Ukrainian woman at a Lukoil gas station, we found ourselves the City Park Hotel; luckily for us, City Park was so interested in the Mongol Rally they offered us a cheap rate for the night, including a light breakfast. (Two ragged Americans with a good story must be a lot more interesting than their usual clientele of Ukrainian businessmen visiting their satellite offices.) Across the street was a delicious restaurant, and after a bit of dinner (well, maybe a feast) we chose an early bedtime and called it a night. Today's lesson: Food and sleep are very important. Also, things often look better in daylight. Starting Point: N45°35 E28°35
Ending Point: N49°47 E30°06 Distance Traveled: 453.3 miles |