Записки "иностранца" о Закарпатье Notes of a "foreigner" about Transcarpathia

There were three of us in Transcarpathia at the end of June-beginning of July 2008 in the boarding house "Sonyachna Dolina". Highly recommend as a complete alternative to the South. The boarding house is located on the territory of the sanatorium "Sonyachne Zakarpattya", but this is an autonomous institution of a very decent level. We lived in a junior suite, there are two of them, the area of ​ ​ the room is 38 sq. m. True, on the first floor. Medical building, residential and restaurant - all in one building. There are no social vouchers for Ukrainians, the level is 3 *, although they put 4 * on Turpravda. com, but this is from the evil one. There were white terry bathrobes in our room, but not in standard ones.
Meals for suites and junior suites are separate: according to a customized three-course menu, very decent: each meal with two appetizers, salads, desserts. request. Own pastries, fruits three times a day: apples, bananas, oranges, cherries. Dairy products are locally produced, and the meadows there are almost alpine. The tablecloths are the whitest, the chairs are stylish, the cutlery is heavy and of good design, the dishes are elegant, the tea is in beautiful teapots. The waitresses are pleasant, without impudence. The building has a bar with various drinks and coffee, and in front of the bar there is a covered terrace with wicker furniture. We were in Karlovy Vary, Slovenia, Montenegro (in sanatoriums), but only in Slovenia the level was higher. For Ukraine - the top of the service. There is a garcon, helps to carry suitcases, you can order a transfer - VW minibus. The territory is small, but its own. There is a swimming pool, for guests of the boarding house a 50% discount. The medical base is modern, the cost of the permit includes three of the simplest procedures. The rest are for a fee, but everything is available. The most modern clinical equipment, you can pass all the tests. Pressure and temperature are measured for free, unlike Crimean sanatoriums. below boarding houses and high-level hotels.
You may not like the fact that the boarding house is in the village of Polyana, which is somewhat aloof. It was only to our advantage: just a resort town and no locals, so my daughter was busy all day with other children, there are a lot of them. Our supervision in terms of "local go" was not required. As it turned out later, the locals pose no danger to anyone. A few more spoils the impression that in the immediate vicinity of the boarding house there are many frozen construction sites. On one of the branches, one hysterical lady squealed that the natural value of this resort was killed by construction projects, but this is a problem for all young resorts (Balchik, Pomorie, Crimea are generally disfigured to the last degree).

I bought procedures and went to them like a job - from 9 to 16 with a break for lunch. These were: baths with mineral water, coniferous baths, laser showers, ozekerite, electrosleep, laser, hydromassage baths, underwater massage, ozone therapy (intravenous injections), some kind of exotic Chinese massage. Since last autumn, they have invited Vietnamese and Chinese acupuncturists. I love water procedures very much, that's why I got it from the heart. But the main thing at this resort is the medicinal water "Polyana Kvasova". It alkalizes the body, which, as they say (and as I experienced it myself), is very useful.
Water is very strong, cleanses the body, and especially the liver. After the treatment, I have not felt the liver for 9 months now. True, before that I was in a sanatorium near Novosibirsk for cleaning the lymph and liver. Impressed! Especially nutrition: three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) without proteins (i. e. completely without meat), kefir and apples - Thursday and Saturday, on Tuesday - hunger plus liver cleansing, and carrot cutlets and oatmeal jelly were for happiness!
But further about the boarding house. If you drink only water there, then in this case the benefit will be great. Some of the vacationers we met there have been going there for years after having their gallbladder removed. They are already sick of both the water and the resort, but this is the best remedy for such diseases. The staff is 99% friendly and quite professional.
You can go on excursions to Uzhgorod, to waterfalls, to Voevodyno (there is fishing with eating caught fish, but in general it is beautiful to the point of obscenity).
On our own, we went to Mukachevo, it's nearby. You can go to the kolyba (national restaurant). Nearby is some restaurant of the world network and with world prices. For example, a barbecue in a kolyba cost 900 rubles. for 1 kg, and in the "world" restaurant - 2500 rubles.
Uzhgorod has great cakes and excellent coffee, restaurants of Hungarian cuisine, and Hungary is a good jump away there. A solid dinner with beer for three barely cost 500 rubles. Deruni with bilimi mushrooms - you can eat your mind, as my friend says (these are potato pancakes with porcini mushrooms), but they cost approx. 45 rubles a portion. The fat of "Alpine" pigs is simply fantastisch, as our German friends say. But this is sacred for me as a Ukrainian, where can I go without lard? Vodka "Khortytsya" in a kolyba -130 rubles per 0.5 liter.

People are very friendly, no nationalism. Yes, they are not Ukrainians, but Rusyns, they all want to secede from Ukraine, but is it necessary? In short - treatment and rest at a quite decent level. We booked by phone without prepayment somewhere in early May, a very professional manager Natalia asked only that in case of no arrival we warned in advance. We paid on the spot with a Visa Claccic card. It cost 890 hryvnia per day for three, i. e. about 4.500 rubles (770 hryvnia for two adults, 120 for a child. It seemed to me a reasonable cost for such a level).
The room has a TV, air conditioning, a telephone, a minibar with inexpensive drinks (they went well for the European Football Championship when they were too lazy to go to a bar or cafe), a set of dishes, a double bed and a sofa bed on which either daughter or father slept. The bed, however, had a cracked back, probably, in the heat of joy, someone gouged. Floors without carpet, I generally think that carpet in sanatoriums is nonsense, because. even the most powerful washing vacuum cleaners will not suck out all the dust after all the rest from this "European-style renovation". In this boarding house, the floors are made of parquet boards (it creaked, however, notably), and the furniture is made of natural wood. Again, not advertising, but a statement of facts. The room has a large loggia with plastic furniture, despite the first floor.
The bathroom is combined, a shower cabin of the European level, soap-and-rinse ones are not orphan, but Dove + specially packaged for a boarding house. Room cleaning every day. Nine snow-white towels were changed every day if they were used and not used, but simply moved from their place. Change of bed linen every three days. Linen of excellent quality. The maids were quieter than the ghosts; they didn’t shy away in our presence, only once they asked us to change clothes in front of us. I spent another 500 euros for additional procedures for everyone (and not only for them, but for beer, excursions, souvenirs). We were there for 11.5 days, we left at 3 o'clock in the morning, but they charged us for this in the amount of half a day (for 15 hours). This year I contacted Natalia - the prices were left at the level of last year, but about the prices for procedures I can't say anything.
Rest is not pretentious, but deeply healing, but you can get pleasure if you tune in correctly. Beer by Russian resort standards for ridiculous money is less than 20 rubles per bottle. Local wine of the company "Chigai" - around 60 rubles per 0.75 liter. Wine, of course, is so-so, but natural and for such money you can try. They say that there are also very good Transcarpathian wines. One shop offered 20-year-old homemade wine, but I have no confidence in this kind of product. I tried wine when I got tired of the treatment, and so that the liver would not be spoiled by sterility. We also walked through the mountains and through the valleys - beautiful to disgrace! We were looking for porcini mushrooms, but found only a couple of pieces, bought dried ones from local residents. And the locals carried boxes of cigarettes from the mountains. At the market in the resort town they sold both dried and pickled ones. But marinades from the market also do not inspire confidence in me. Very tasty Transcarpathian honey. At the sanatorium market, 30 hryvnia for a can of 0.5 liters, and at the market in Mukachevo, you can buy the same thing from grandmothers for 18 hryvnia. A kilogram of dried porcini mushrooms in Mukachevo costs 300 hryvnia. In Polyana - 120 hryvnia for 360 grams (3-liter jar). But this is with "stationary" traders. Those who come from the villages are sold for 80 hryvnia, you can buy for 60 hryvnia. It all depends on time, quantity of goods, quality - the market, in short.

The impression of the rest was very pleasant, although, as I wrote above, the presence of unfinished buildings can spoil the aesthetic impression of the resort for some. I'm already old enough, I've seen everything, so the construction sites didn't bother me. In addition, in front of our loggia there was an empty area on which there were pretty haystacks.
Travel time from Moscow by direct train No. 15 "Moscow-Uzhgorod" - 29 hours to Svalyava. We got to Polyana through Kyiv with a transfer, but we did it on purpose to wander around the city for half a day, take our daughter to the zoo. The zoo is magnificent, the Moscow one is resting in full. God forgive me, it seemed to me that the animals in the Kiev zoo live better than many Ukrainians. The tiger had a piece of meat in front of its nose, which more than one Ukrainian family could envy.
From Svaliava the remaining 10 km we went by taxi, bargained for 20 hryvnias on the square, on the platform in front of the train mafia taxi drivers asked for 30-50 hryvnias. The same taxi driver took us early in the morning to the Moscow train for the same 20 hryvnias. When we went to Mukachevo, at a bus stop in front of the resort town, an ancient GAZ-24 turned around, delivering a passenger to a sanatorium. The driver - a retired grandfather - answered our question how much the trip to Svalyava would cost, and how much you give, that's how much it will be, but I was bringing a passenger here, and from here I thought to go empty. Pause. And where else, at what resort can you hear this? In the Crimea (they write on the corresponding branches - I look at it, see below) such money is aching that you can ride it in Moscow for half a day. Although I am fully aware that Polyana is still oh-so-very far from a resort of any seedy European level. But nevertheless, it will be useful for those who are ill, and especially those suffering from internal diseases such as cholecystitis, pancreatitis, gastritis, to visit there. I repeat - not advertising and not custom publication. Everyone has their own head on their shoulders. You can find the website of the boarding house and see both prices and surroundings. I deliberately do not link to their web site. I will say one thing - their site is densely green, so as not to be confused with others. All the information is there. Tour operators and agencies naturally have higher prices.
I also walked with my wife in the rain like newlyweds, umbrellas, by the way, are at the exit, like in decent hotels of a serious level. From a frivolous level: they immediately warn that for the loss of an umbrella 40 hryvnia. And it’s clear to the stump that the damage caused must be compensated, and what is 40 hryvnias for an umbrella? But this is so, by the way. We witnessed a magnificent thunderstorm, when the lightning was not vertical, but horizontal. After the storm, the air was like heaven, if there is one. As our treating doctor said, communication with loved ones in nature is also a healing factor. Who would doubt that! By the way, he scammed us into expensive examinations and tests, but then I thought, not his own tests, but mine, will someday be useful for studying the dynamics of ailments. I want to emphasize - do not follow the attending physician, look around, listen to people, ask around, look at the prices (they are posted in the lobby of the medical building), and then dial the procedures. I advise even myself to prescribe them, because the majority have experience of communicating with sanatorium doctors, and the treatment regimen for a "personal disease" should be known to every more or less educated person. We, right from the taxi, plopped down to the head doctor (as if we lived in a junior suite, he only led suites and junior suites, or rather he bred for money - an old son of the tribe of Israel), he weaved us seven miles to heaven, and all in the forest. According to him, we were threatened with a quick and inevitable death if we did not buy all the procedures prescribed by him, plus some supposedly Swiss drug from everything and for everyone. As you can see, everything is the same everywhere and always. The cost of daily accommodation includes the cost of three procedures for 200 rubles for each adult. But they can take one mineral bath and one laser mineral water shower, if you convert this money into the procedures you need. The souls were green and red for some reason. One seemed to excite, the other calmed. Yes, for ladies - there is also a decent beautician, my wife dragged me to him too. There is a hammam, a cedar barrel, but they were not shown to me. Tangentors are quite modern, Czech or German, in Novosibirsk they were simpler. The pump rooms are right in the building, but it's better to go upstairs to the sources - they say it's more useful. Warm water from a well is still disgusting, but if you need it, then you need it!

This year I plan to go to the same regions, but for the treatment of the musculoskeletal system. There is one sanatorium there, I won’t voice it, but the reviews are positive, while Ukrainian t / o and t / a it is positioned as a very high level, prices in August are 4.620 hryvnias for 14 nights, i. e. less than 25 thousand rubles.
I already called there, you can go! The water there is rare, and in general there are 35 mineral waters in the local resorts out of 36 officially recognized in Europe. There is even one arsenic, which literally raises those suffering from joint diseases to their feet. Such water is available only in one place in France, but the prices for it are awful there, and in Transcarpathia they are extremely democratic. The sanatorium with this water has already been restored (the head of the National Security Council of Ukraine bought it and repaired it, however, she knows where to invest money! ), The Germans began to go there, but not our former compatriots, but the true ones who go there on the advice of their Transcarpathian business partners . In France, you see, it is quite expensive, unless the crisis helps the poor German businessmen. It is located, of course, in the wilderness, but you cannot supply such water through the water supply, you have to go to it yourself. If anyone is interested, write, I'll tell you the name, so as not to advertise here. It appeared on sale only this year, before that it was repaired. I am planning to go for silicon water for joints and skin. This is not far from Uzhgorod, the sanatorium was allegedly bought out by a large chemical concern from the Donbass, and there, who knows, if only it was decent. As they say, seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you!
In general, Transcarpathia is not Ukraine at all, but a completely special world! Who will be interested - write to me. I have become almost a fan of the resorts of Transcarpathia, and this is not advertising at all, but my own experience, still small, but very positive! I have been to many places, I flew across the Atlantic, I was in France, Switzerland, Germany, but those places will not leave anyone indifferent. And the air is there! I myself am an ethnic Ukrainian, I have been to the south of Ukraine many times (however, in my deep youth, the last time in 1998 in the Crimea), but Transcarpathia is different in that there is no feeling that they want to tear off not only money from you, but also skin. People in Transcarpathia greet everyone, as is inherent in our true national culture. For a complete picture, it should be noted, however, that the local population somehow distances itself from visitors, but this must be felt, it is difficult to convey this feeling in words. For myself, I explained this by the fact that they (Rusyns) have been under someone all their history (the words of a taxi driver-grandfather, who could not name a fare). They say it like this: if they were under the Russians, under the Ukraine, under the Austrians, etc. In fact, they remained Rusyns "under all. "
A rather serious local businessman, the owner of a network of gas stations, dined with us at the table, so he said that in his youth he had to learn not only Russian, but also Ukrainian at school. (By the way, he noted that this is the only boarding house in Ukraine in which everything is in one: accommodation, food, treatment. You don’t have to go anywhere. The comrade knows how to count money, that’s why he came there).

Being a linguist in a past life, I can say that Rusyns are not Ukrainians in terms of their language, the language is Slavic, but not Ukrainian. Rusyns are like a drop of oil in a cup of water - together, side by side, but - they do not mix. The problem of their self-determination is a long-standing and interesting one, a lot has been written about it, and periodically this problem is covered in serious publications "Profile, " Power ", Money". Most Rusyns live in the United States, they went there from persecution and live compactly there.
In my humble opinion, Transcarpathia is one of the main promising Ukrainian destinations. The main thing is a reasonable approach to their careful choice!
Have a good rest and a good choice in the coming season!
P. S.
This year, I definitely need to go to the Crimea after severe colds (my own and my daughter's), but I'm afraid to spoil my and my family's vacation after reading reviews. In my "first youth" there were simply no such "horrors" that are being written about now. Who will have advice - write, and I'll ask around on the Crimean branch.