Ukraine

Saturday, July 6

At the Romanian/Moldovan border, when told we were going to Reni, the border control agent asked incredulously “why?” She accepted “tourist” but punctuated it with a slight eye roll.

We started walking the 1.6km through the narrow swath of land of Moldova we had to traverse to get to the Ukrainian border but thankfully a man and young son picked us up and deposited us at the border. The Moldovan/Ukrainian crossing took a chunk of time and once we crossed, discovered there was no ride sharing app available. Sigh. We tried hitching but cars were full and passed us by. A middle- age woman walked over the border like we did and had called someone so we watched intently to see if we could approach her for a ride. Her ride (husbsnd, brother, friend?) arrived in a Lada and they were generous in giving us a ride the 6km into Reni. DH2 was excited for his first ride in a Lada but noted that the interior smelled like gas.

Reni is a town of 18k people and it was obvious that we were the only tourists. We were the only guests at the hotel and stared at when we waked through town. We walked the train tracks along the Danube, picked up some food at the grocery store, and enjoyed dinner in the park with the multitudes of stray dogs and others enjoying the warm summer evening. We strolled through a lovely park and then sat ona corner waiting for a Leda to drive by the orthodox church so DH2 could get the perfect pic. Hey, if he could sit for 1.5 hour at the Charles Bridge in Prague for my perfect pic, I can sit for however long in Reni for his. Couple goals.

Sunday, July 7

A ten minute walk brought us to the bus station where a handful of people and as many dogs hung about. With only one other person on board, it only took 35 minutes to cross the Ukrainian/Moldovan border. A guard did a thorough search of our bags including all of my meds. Never had to do that before.