Journey through Transcarpathia
It all started with the closing of the only water park in Kyiv. We visited it with enviable regularity - about once every 2-3 years. But nevertheless, the news about the closure of the water park for some reason was very upsetting. At least he was awesome. And then it turns out that a new one has just opened in Transcarpathia, how can one not try it? In fact, there were holidays, and sitting at home is definitely not about us, so the three of us went on another good trip, and at the same time to the water park on the way.
Traveling around native Ukraine is always a joy. When traveling around Ukraine, I have one fear - the condition of the trains. But this time there was a beautiful exception to the rule, despite the fact that we had tickets for the cheapest train without air conditioning. For some reason, it was our carriage that turned out to be modern, comfortable, clean and air-conditioned. The rest of the cars looked much simpler. The ride was very, very comfortable. The first city on our route is Beregovo. Here we already stopped a couple of years ago and booked a room in the same hotel, just by phone.
We booked a month in advance, then a couple of weeks later the hotel called back and clarified that we would come. And on the day of arrival, the hostess says that she will put us in another hotel, it is a little out of the city and with a shared bathroom, otherwise they had a "lining out". And for some reason they found out about the overlay right now, when it will be problematic for us to find other hotels during the holidays. Usually such problems are solved by the magic phrase in English "Then I call Booking". But it wasn’t there, they booked directly. I had to imitate the support of Booking myself. I don’t know who and where they settled in the end, but we got exactly our room, in our hotel, in the city center. Dasha and I would make good representatives of technical support for tourists.
We celebrated this event with excellent dumplings with potatoes, pancakes with cottage cheese and other sweets in one of the restaurants. Beregovo is famous for its thermal springs. Summer this year was very cold, but all 35 and a clear sun fell on our trip. But we do not deviate from the plan: thermal springs, therefore, thermal springs. Moreover, it will be +40 there, so even a little more we will even feel the difference in heat. In addition to us, probably the whole city decided to feel the difference in heat.
Surprisingly, everything fit into the thermal pools compactly. If so many people were shown to me and asked if they could fit in the thermal pools, my answer would be no. But in tight quarters, but not offended, we really spent a few positive hours. On a wave of positive, we went to have a meal in Zolota Pavu - this is a local castle-restaurant here.
Even though it was originally a casino, you still feel like you are at the king's reception. In general, travel and weight loss are incompatible things for me. Further, according to the plan, we had an hour of cooling under the air conditioner in the room. When we cooled down, we plucked up determination and took up our favorite thing in the western part of Ukraine - hiking in the mountains. We chose the most excellent mountain with a cross on top. It took about an hour to go there and just caught a gorgeous sunset.
On the second day, from the very morning, we made several attempts to go to Kosino and failed completely, because minibuses and buses do not go to Kosino on weekends, and for 15 km of the road, taxi drivers want 240 UAH, moreover, against the fact that people united with each other. In general, somehow not brotherly. And if you add the return trip and tickets to the water park to this price, then the trip will turn out to be more expensive than air travel to another country. We decided to postpone this idea until better times and immediately go to Mukachevo. We came to the hotel, packed our things, went outside with backpacks and hitchhiked the first car. But instead of Mukachevo, they decided to clarify whether the driver plans to call in Kosino. Fortunately for us, the man was driving to the outlet, which is located right next to the water park. Moreover, he happily told us that he would take us for free, and even flatly refused to take money to compensate for gasoline. My faith in the kindness of the Transcarpathian population was revived) Such moments really warm the soul.
We have repeatedly noticed that the heart of Ukrainian kindness is located directly in the Carpathians and, unfortunately, the Carpathians and Transcarpathians often do not fall into this circle. It has already been checked several times. But there was a really pleasant exception to the rule. It was a local resident who sells in a shop near the water park. After talking, we learned that the driver and his family are going to fly to Egypt for a vacation soon. I think that his kindness will return to him and, most likely, he will get exclusively the best room with a sea view without any additional payments.
The water park was already waiting for us, brand new, brand new. You pay entry, you get 3 hours, which includes half an hour of the coolest saunas, all the thermal pools, themed pools in the form of drinks (our favorite with the smell of wine) and the water park itself, as well as climbing ropes and trampolines. Despite the very large number of people, the thermal zone significantly weeds out the influx from the water park. We went to the water park first. It is very conveniently done that all the slides branch off from one four-story tower. Moreover, the main part of the people, as a rule, is concentrated near one or two slides, where there is a large queue. On all other slides, the average wait was up to one and a half minutes. And it's Sunday!
In two hours, we rolled from the belly. And even despite our extensive experience in riding extreme slides, this water park found the slide on which I almost sat during the flight. Misha flatly refused to go up one of the high hills. And I understand him, obviously not all slides are suitable for a seven-year-old boy. I offered Misha a condition: he goes down - and ice cream in the evening. Misha thought for a couple of seconds, but then said, as he cut off, that he did not agree. I went on the attack: "And for two ice creams? You will also be a hero! " Unexpectedly for me, Misha said: "Well, let's try! ".
That's bold! I went down first to belay below, Misha, without a doubt, also went on an extreme flight. And here is our winner! Let's run to mom and tell her about the victory. "Hare, guess which hill Misha just moved down from? : )" By the way, Dasha moved down that hill only once and said that she had had enough. Misha moved out again and asked if he was entitled to two more ice creams now. I praised his quality of profit seeking. In general, it was not in vain that Misha was taught to swim, now such cool entertainments as adult water parks are available to him.
We spent the last hour in thermal zones and saunas. How wonderful it was! Especially the saunas. Just for the sake of these saunas, I wanted to pay another three hours to get another 30 minutes. But this would not be very rational, since part of the time will be spent on having lunch, and food on the territory of the water park is not so cheap. As a result, for the same money you will get significantly less time and more costs. Decided it wasn't worth it.
Since all things are with us, there is no need to return to Berehove and you can immediately move on. We walked 5 minutes to the track. A sad man and a woman stood there and said that they had been unsuccessfully catching cars for 20 minutes. Dasha raised her hand and the first car stopped. Yes, that day we had a "Lucky Pen". The car was not going exactly where we needed, but with such a "Lucky handle" this is not a problem. We drove about 10 km and got off on another highway, where another group of people were waiting for a minibus. This time, Dasha didn't even have to wave her hand for the minibus to arrive immediately. Oddly enough, but today's planned difficult route turned out to be extremely easy. In Mukachevo, our favorite hotel "with suitcases" was already waiting for us, and our favorite tavern was near the hotel.
A working laptop in the hotel connected to the Internet, without even asking for a password) This hotel was also well known to the laptop. A wave of memories flooded over Misha, he happily remembered where he walked, where he played construction toys and where the bathroom was. Today, in addition to walking around our beloved Mukachevo, we have planned, of course, climbing the mountain. True, maleh was not calculated over time, and the result was a night mountain with a night forest that wraps it up. We tried not to enter the forest itself, but to move only along the paved road, but, nevertheless, the crickets chirped ominously from the darkness. The return trip didn't work out even more. We decided to shorten it a bit and got completely into the sinister "haschi".
It was a joy to return to the hotel unharmed.
The cool morning started with a cool outdoor pool. The pool was actually not that cool, but I find any water cold in the morning. This pool is our discovery. You pay 100 UAH per adult and the pool is ours for the whole day. And I would not say to the people that there are many. In Kyiv, you can’t go to the pool so cheaply) We swam, got drunk, and we can move on, our next stop is Uzhgorod. Uzhgorod, like Mukachevo, cannot but rejoice, it is simply cool. Once upon a time, we, still very young, fed ducks here from the bridge. And now Mishka is discovering this beautiful city with us!
We checked into a brand new hotel. Everything was perfectly new, but one minus - there were no screens on the windows and mosquitoes sat on the ceiling. I closed all the windows and decided to bang one of them. Even though the ceiling was high, I flew like a superman. Clap! The mosquito left a trace, as if a small meteor flew and hooked the ceiling. Given the perfect snow-whiteness of the new ceiling, the traces of our crime were clearly visible. I decided to correct the situation. Wet toilet paper. There was an idea to wash the ceiling in a jump, but I put the chair on the nightstand and carefully climbed out to the top. Unfortunately, the paper turned out to be of poor quality and, in addition to the trace from the meteor, now there was also a pink aura from toilet paper.
Hotel, sorry, I'll fix it. He took a piece of rag, wet it, climbed back to the top of the rickety structure. And he began to clean up. When it seemed that it couldn't get any worse… the whitewash was washed off the ceiling. It was a fiasco. But I will give the hotel the highest rating. By the way, despite the precariousness of the structure, which I climbed every time, I felt confident. It was not for nothing that a year ago, Anton and I in the office organized a competition to see who would stay the longest on the “surf board”, which balances on a log. I knew these skills would come in handy someday. In addition to the standard festivities around the city, the quarry was an obligatory item, which Dasha and I each time honorably walked over the cliffs.
This time, Misha had to climb around the quarry. The idea was not the safest, but Misha passed the initiation courageously. To our surprise, there were many vacationers near the quarry, there was a cafe. We didn’t even know that people were swimming here, since the last time we were here in the cold season and never in the summer.
Then there was an honorable bath in the evening, clear water. We swam until it got dark. But we can’t do without climbing a mountain in the evening, since there is one such mountain right next to the quarry. But the coolest thing is that our short route in Western Ukraine has been successfully completed, we are great!
Proudly wandered towards the hotel. On the way there was a bit of a strange adventure: barriers were lowered at the railway crossing, the cars stopped, we were waiting for the train, we waited for a long time, but it never arrived. And even when we crossed and went quite far, it was clear that the barriers were still lowered.
The next day I had a work day, I traditionally worked remotely for one day, and Dasha and Misha continued to conquer Uzhgorod. Toward evening we once again managed to swim in the lake and take a walk along the linden alley. Here is such a trip that turned out to be the closing of the seventh year of our travels.
