Hello all,
I've been considering a trip the the FSU since Jan. Kept putting it off to consentrate of paying off bills.... Anyways, I will have the whole month of November off. My questions are as follows:
1. My starting point will be the CDG airpoirt in Paris. Should I fly, or get a train ticket. Also, what is a good site to purchase/price these tickets.
2. I have been leaning towards a visit to Romania. I dated a wonderful woman from there, and am guessing that other Romanian girls are as beautiful and pleasant to be around. Should I go somewhere else?
3. Is there a destination that will be cheaper and safer than Romania that I can easily get to from Paris?
4. Lastly, I would like to stay at least a week maybe two....should I stay in a hotel or try to find a short term apartment?
1. Go to http://voyages.kelkoo.fr/b/a/c_172201_billet_davion.html for air ticket prices.
2. There are beautiful, and fat & ugly, women wherever you go.
3. The entire world is accessible from Paris.
4. In the Eastern block apartments are better, do a www.google. com for 'city name apartment'. For FSU hotels then www.besteastern.com but if you want a western standard hotel, you will certainly pay a high price for it.
I agree with everything Martin said - except for one thing in his point number 4.
To be SURE every FSU city has BIG EXPENSIVE hotels. Huge and glorious looking on the outside - shabby and second rate (or third rate or fourth rate) on the inside. "Improved rooms" will cost you an arm and a leg - and will generally have two hard twin size beds mounted sideways to the wall ("Soviet style"). Whn someone flushes the toilet above you, it migh tsound like Niagara Falls - neither heat or electricity nor warm water is guaranteed at at any given time (and asking for all three at the SAME time ALL DAY is a little unrealistic). You will stand on a platform surrounded by a cheap plastic curtain with a handheld showerhead head when you take your shower. If you look cosely you will find hair on the sheets and blankets as a welcoming gift from those who stayed at the hotel before you and since it is customary to wear slippers - don't be surprised to discover that the floor is absolutely filthy.
This just describes the hotel I sayed at in Odessa - at $90 per night for me and an additional $30 per night when my lady stayed there. Did I mention that the slightly smaller than twin beds were permanently afixed to congruent walls so (of course) they could not be pushed together?
I HAVE seen pictures on the internet of luxurious suites at some hotels. Carved wood dressers and whirlpool tubs APPEAR to be available - but the price can easily be several hundreds of dollars per night.
But there IS an alternative.
Google on "private hotel", or sometimes "business hotel". You are likely to find a modern structure, perhaps two or three years old - with intenet available, fireplaces, whirlpool tub, security, breakfast included in the price and they REGISTER YOU (a requirement for Moldova and other places) at a very reasonable price.
I paid $52 per night for an incredible place in Moldova. I know, I know, apartments are cheaper. But I've heard horror stories of encounters in dark hallways where people suspect a rich foreigner might be passing through etc. etc.
Just get to the gate of the private and the courtyard is fenced in, someone carries your bags to your door and turn on the outside lights as you approach - and NO you do not have to tip.
Well Jet I must say you make it all sound very attractive. Much more comfortable than my apartment. Do they have toilets as well? Luxury bloody luxury!!
A bed screwed to the wall!!
Sometimes I lie on my blanket on the floor and dream of a bed screwed to the wall.
Seriously though I do think an apartment is the way to go. They are cheaper and more comfortable I think. I have now stayed in 4 and I think they are pretty good value for money. I don't like the water disappearing though. At least the toilet flushes unlike Tangiers in Morocco. God forgive me for remembering that!! A horrible flashback.
Martin - I haven't stayed at that one. But the breakfasts where I stayed in Moldova were served either in bed or in a small secuded dining room. Not bad.
Izi - hae you moticed that FSU hotels have nothing like box springs under the mattresses, or any kind of spring support what so ever. Mattresses are laid on wooden platforms (did I mention that these are sometimes SCREWED (AFFIXED) INTO THE DAMN WALL!!) I guess I did mention that.
Since blankets are difficult to wash - and wash machines are still the exception rather than the rule in the FSU (my former-roommate-lady has seen them in stores but knows of no one who has one) - blankets are not washed very often - certainly not easch time a new guest arrives. Instead you will find SMALLER blankets (we needed two as each only covers on person) and they are zipped into a covering made from sheets (and obviously zippers).
I honestly don't know if this system is all that typical - but it seemed to be at every hotel we stayed at and my former-roomate-lady said it was the way things were done there.
Jet
Are you sure this was Ukraine because it sounds more like Mexico. It has the feel of a 'hotel' I stayed in at a roadside bus station in god-knows-where, Southern Mexico. Even the walls didn't go up to the ceiling. I half expected some swarthy gent to come slithering over the wall with a knife between his teeth!!
All I got was stray dogs trying to eat me on the way to the 'restaurant' in the pitch dark.
Ahhhh what it is to be young, stupid and lost in Latin America!!
I have stayed at the Borispol hotel twice this spring and payed around $40 a night and was good value or $80 for a very large better room,
3 weeks ago I payed $80 for the one I had payed $40 for earlyer this year, so that ones off the list, anyone else notied this ?
Back to the apartments in the centr for $50 !
I do have to say, that my one night at the Borispol hotel was not that bad.
Because I wasn't prepared to pay the pre-booking surcharge of 50% I just turned up but could only get one of the cheapest, non air-conditioned, rooms but the price was ridiculously cheap.
With overnight outside air temperatures, during the summer, of approximately 35 celcius I couldn't sleep but that was because of the humidity, the room was adequate and the bed comfortable.
The ajoining restaurant was charging bar, rather than restaurant, prices and I had quite a pleasant evening, despite without being with my loved one (being in transit), sitting outside and supping cheap, but good, beer.
Certainly, during the cooler months, the cheapest rooms at this hotel are perfectly adequate.
hotels are generally overprized in former SU.
after tokyo moscow is to be considered to be the most expensive city regarding lodging in hotels worldwide.
being in moldova i avoid hotels absolutelly. usually i rent an apartment with kitchen, bathroom, toilet, 2 sleeping romms and living room. includes cleaning, washing machine, 1 or 2 tvīs and full music equipment.
location is protected by security. costs per day are eur 25,-.
xxl:
if you will have ever got in contact with ukrainian girls, you wonīt miss the romanian girls. ucraina extended the visa free entrance for eu, us + other citizens until next spring.
from charles de gaulle you can fly very easy to germany. very safe and also nice girls :-) :-)
WT