Friday, September 07, 2007
Lviv, Ukraine
Things are difficult in Ukraine. Even though I didn't understand the language in Slovakia, Poland or Lithuania, at least I could read the letters, and then it's often possible to get an idea of what's going on. The culture here is also quite different. East Europe by comparison is very European. I'm in Lviv now, which is a big town. There don't seem to be many restaurants or bars here. There are stalls where they sell beer and you can sit outside to drink it, but last night the only place I could find to eat was a McDonald's. I think I might have signed up to the KarmaBanque boycott of McDonald's, but I lapsed last night. At least Big Mac is the same in any language, and even looks similar the way they write it in cyrillic, but it's just as repulsive in Ukraine as it is in any other country.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Chop, Ukraine
I got on the train for Lviv at Kosice, Slovakia, at 7:24 but I didn't have a ticket. I'd gone to what I think was the Kasa, ticket booth, in kosice station but the woman behind the curtains didn't speak any English. I showed her my print out with the train I wanted to get on it, but she just wrote down the time of the train on it, even though the time was already on there. I told her I wanted to buy a ticket but she was just pointing to the train. It was about 7:10. I should have said billet instead of ticket, she probably would have understood that. Anyway, I assumed I'd be able to buy a ticket on the train.
There was a train going to Kiev, then further up the platform there was a coach going to Lviv. I asked a ticket inspector on there if I could buy a ticket, showing him my printout. He was saying billette and I was saying I wanted to buy one. I took out my wallet to show him my money. In one of the compartments there was another guard, a woman, eating breakfast. I couldn't buy a ticket on the train, at least not for Lviv. I had to get off the train, which wasn't yet moving, and get on the carriage behind that was going to the border town of Chop. I could buy a ticket on the train for Chop and then at Chop I'd have to get off and buy a ticket for Lviv.
Just before Chop, at the border, passport control got on. There train was stopped for ages at this customs post, a number of men in uniform hanging around outside on the platform. At Chop there was another passport control in the station. I had to fill out an entry form, twice. Getting through I could see that the train for Lviv was still at the platform. Passing a number of taxi touts and money changing touts, one guy holding out a handful of notes, I found the ticket kiosk and said Lviv, pointing to the train outside. The woman in the booth wrote down 15:10, which at first I thought was the price, but then she pointed to the clock. It was now about 11 o'clock. I thought maybe the train out there was going to sit there for 4 hours, but she gave me the arrival time which was a couple of hours later than the time on my printout, so I guessed it would be another train I'd be getting. She wouldn't take payment on my card, and said bank, so I had to go outside and find a bank. At least the cash points here speak English, though everything is written in cyrillic so it's not easy to work out what's what. I could see some people standing at what looked like a cash machine, and it was.
When I got back to the station with my cash the Lviv train was still at the platform, but it left as I was buying the ticket for the later 15:10 train. I don't know why they didn't give me the option before of buying a ticket for the earlier train, but I wasn't in a position to argue. At least I'd have some time to have something to eat in this town. I hadn't had any breakfast.
I found a place that looked like a restaurant, with tables outside on a terrace and some women inside sitting at a table eating. I sat down at a table and waited. One off the women from the eating table came over. I made eating signs, pointing to my mounth. She said no, or nyet. But she offered me coffee. I noticed some slices of what looked like cake on the counter and pointed to them. She took out one. I saw it wasn't that big so asked for another. It turned out to be some kind of garlic bread.
I eventually found the town's restaurant, but could read anything on the menu. The waitress went through a number of options. She suggested borsch, which I know - a soup - she said the word soup. I'd had borsch in Lithuania where it was a cold beetroot soup served with a plate of boiled potatoes. Didn't like it much, but I needed to eat something. Then the waitress was suggesting a main course, going through various things I didn't understand and I was just saying yes, or da. People do seem to speak and understand Russian here, though it's no longer the official langauge and according to the Lonely Planet they don't like speaking Russian in the west of Ukraine, which is where I now am. I understood fish and nodded, and pomodora (tomato). She was asking what kind of garnish I wanted and I was just trying to say I don't care. Just bring me food and I'll eat it. I'm not fussy.
There was a train going to Kiev, then further up the platform there was a coach going to Lviv. I asked a ticket inspector on there if I could buy a ticket, showing him my printout. He was saying billette and I was saying I wanted to buy one. I took out my wallet to show him my money. In one of the compartments there was another guard, a woman, eating breakfast. I couldn't buy a ticket on the train, at least not for Lviv. I had to get off the train, which wasn't yet moving, and get on the carriage behind that was going to the border town of Chop. I could buy a ticket on the train for Chop and then at Chop I'd have to get off and buy a ticket for Lviv.
Just before Chop, at the border, passport control got on. There train was stopped for ages at this customs post, a number of men in uniform hanging around outside on the platform. At Chop there was another passport control in the station. I had to fill out an entry form, twice. Getting through I could see that the train for Lviv was still at the platform. Passing a number of taxi touts and money changing touts, one guy holding out a handful of notes, I found the ticket kiosk and said Lviv, pointing to the train outside. The woman in the booth wrote down 15:10, which at first I thought was the price, but then she pointed to the clock. It was now about 11 o'clock. I thought maybe the train out there was going to sit there for 4 hours, but she gave me the arrival time which was a couple of hours later than the time on my printout, so I guessed it would be another train I'd be getting. She wouldn't take payment on my card, and said bank, so I had to go outside and find a bank. At least the cash points here speak English, though everything is written in cyrillic so it's not easy to work out what's what. I could see some people standing at what looked like a cash machine, and it was.
When I got back to the station with my cash the Lviv train was still at the platform, but it left as I was buying the ticket for the later 15:10 train. I don't know why they didn't give me the option before of buying a ticket for the earlier train, but I wasn't in a position to argue. At least I'd have some time to have something to eat in this town. I hadn't had any breakfast.
I found a place that looked like a restaurant, with tables outside on a terrace and some women inside sitting at a table eating. I sat down at a table and waited. One off the women from the eating table came over. I made eating signs, pointing to my mounth. She said no, or nyet. But she offered me coffee. I noticed some slices of what looked like cake on the counter and pointed to them. She took out one. I saw it wasn't that big so asked for another. It turned out to be some kind of garlic bread.
I eventually found the town's restaurant, but could read anything on the menu. The waitress went through a number of options. She suggested borsch, which I know - a soup - she said the word soup. I'd had borsch in Lithuania where it was a cold beetroot soup served with a plate of boiled potatoes. Didn't like it much, but I needed to eat something. Then the waitress was suggesting a main course, going through various things I didn't understand and I was just saying yes, or da. People do seem to speak and understand Russian here, though it's no longer the official langauge and according to the Lonely Planet they don't like speaking Russian in the west of Ukraine, which is where I now am. I understood fish and nodded, and pomodora (tomato). She was asking what kind of garnish I wanted and I was just trying to say I don't care. Just bring me food and I'll eat it. I'm not fussy.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Email to Gordon Brown
Re: Government response to petition 'NoVATonBikes'
Dear Gordon
Thanks for the reply. It's good of you to get back to me. Tony never did. However, I'm a bit disappointed you don't want to go for this, and your response that you can't because the EU won't let you sounds a bit lame, and plays into the hands of Eurosceptics (you're not a Eurosceptic are you?). If Europe is a democratic institution, which it's supposed to be, then surely the British government could campaign to abolish VAT on bikes and bike parts as part of a Europe-wide kind of thing. Climate change is going to affect all EU nations so I would have thought they would all want to encourage people out of their cars and onto bikes wherever possible. As well as being good for the environment, cycling is also good for people's health and for their state of mind. When you're on a bike you're open to a world, and on public transport you're in a social environment, whereas people who spend too long in cars, closed off to the world and to the people around them, end up like Jeremy Clarkson, which I'm sure you'll agree is not good.
If the EU don't go for the scrapping VAT thing, then there's plenty of other stuff you can do. The way the government subsidizes solar panels. Something like that. Or tax relief on bicycle manufacturers, retailers and repairers. I know you don't like losing money, so to balance your books you could always raise tax on the high emitting Jeremy Clarksons. Some of them will moan, but things have changed since the roads protests a few years ago. Driving is becoming a bit like smoking. People know it's bad, so maybe with a bit of carrot and stick you'll actually see some of these Jeremy Clarksons getting out of their cars onto bikes. But when people take up cycling they need to ride a decent bike, one that's a pleasure to ride, not a struggle, otherwise they're just going to be put off and go back to their cars. The trouble is, a decent bike can cost a lot of money, more than many people would be prepared to spend, particularly if they're only tentatively thinking about taking up cycling and aren't too sure if they're going to stick at it.
I think in Paris they have a city-wide bike hire scheme, where people can just take a bike and then they pay for however long they keep it. That sounds like a good idea. Something like that would get people into cycling, make it a more normal kind of thing. Many people who haven't ridden a bike for ages fear they may have forgotten how, or think they're too old or out of shape, which puts them off buying one, but if it were easy to just pick up a bike like you apparently can in Paris now, and just ride it for a day, or just for an hour, that could get a lot of people back into cycling.
Regards
...
Dear Gordon
Thanks for the reply. It's good of you to get back to me. Tony never did. However, I'm a bit disappointed you don't want to go for this, and your response that you can't because the EU won't let you sounds a bit lame, and plays into the hands of Eurosceptics (you're not a Eurosceptic are you?). If Europe is a democratic institution, which it's supposed to be, then surely the British government could campaign to abolish VAT on bikes and bike parts as part of a Europe-wide kind of thing. Climate change is going to affect all EU nations so I would have thought they would all want to encourage people out of their cars and onto bikes wherever possible. As well as being good for the environment, cycling is also good for people's health and for their state of mind. When you're on a bike you're open to a world, and on public transport you're in a social environment, whereas people who spend too long in cars, closed off to the world and to the people around them, end up like Jeremy Clarkson, which I'm sure you'll agree is not good.
If the EU don't go for the scrapping VAT thing, then there's plenty of other stuff you can do. The way the government subsidizes solar panels. Something like that. Or tax relief on bicycle manufacturers, retailers and repairers. I know you don't like losing money, so to balance your books you could always raise tax on the high emitting Jeremy Clarksons. Some of them will moan, but things have changed since the roads protests a few years ago. Driving is becoming a bit like smoking. People know it's bad, so maybe with a bit of carrot and stick you'll actually see some of these Jeremy Clarksons getting out of their cars onto bikes. But when people take up cycling they need to ride a decent bike, one that's a pleasure to ride, not a struggle, otherwise they're just going to be put off and go back to their cars. The trouble is, a decent bike can cost a lot of money, more than many people would be prepared to spend, particularly if they're only tentatively thinking about taking up cycling and aren't too sure if they're going to stick at it.
I think in Paris they have a city-wide bike hire scheme, where people can just take a bike and then they pay for however long they keep it. That sounds like a good idea. Something like that would get people into cycling, make it a more normal kind of thing. Many people who haven't ridden a bike for ages fear they may have forgotten how, or think they're too old or out of shape, which puts them off buying one, but if it were easy to just pick up a bike like you apparently can in Paris now, and just ride it for a day, or just for an hour, that could get a lot of people back into cycling.
Regards
...
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