In this post, we reveal the best place to cross the Ukrainian border at Malyi Bereznyi, speak of our travel arrangements in Slovakia and Poland and close the Chapter of our Berlin to Georgia trip.
As already mentioned, we were about to do some riding today. We chose a stable at Voyevodyno Hotel at Schönborn Park as they were on our way and they did answer the phone to confirm that they are still in existence. The landscape there was quite pleasing and offered some good opportunities to stay the night with a Land Rover – we chose to camp near a stream, overlooking the hills. But the riding turned out to be a let-down – we could only walk as we were within the confines of a hotel - all the roads were paved - and when we had finally gotten through to the other side, there was only a stony path in the forest. We followed that for a few minutes before we turned back. On our way back we were allowed to trot around the tiny reservoir at the hotel – to fulfil the promise of going faster. They actually have good horses and as I mentioned before, the surroundings are really beautiful – so maybe if you take a half day tour instead of the hour-long one, you would have a better experience – but don't take the short one if you are a good rider and want to complete something challenging.
There was just one last thing left on our to-do list before we would leave Ukraine: grocery shopping - lots of cookies, buckwheat and cheap cigarettes were to be bought. We had already stocked up our alcohol supplies: At some point, we had stopped at a small supermarket in the middle of Ukraine to get some food. Out of six rows of shelves in this shop, four were used for alcohol, mostly vodka. We left the shop with no food but a number of vodka bottles.
A couple of days ago we had decided to cross the Ukrainian-Slovakian border instead of the Ukrainian-Polish one. The horror stories of spending 6 hours at the border made us think that it would be more fun to do some extra kilometres in Slovakia instead. The border crossing near Malyi Bereznyi was okay – there were around 10 cars in front of us but unlike the fast Bosnian-Croatian border it took us an hour. The car was examined thoroughly and apart of this explainable procedure there was a number of unexplainable delays like the border guards took our IDs and disappeared with them for a longer period. But people say it is nothing like the Polish border crossing – where the guards just take a break whenever they want and there is a short queue for those who want to pay extra. Besides, Slovakia is a great place to go to – green hills, very low prices, in winter it even has some of the cheapest ski resorts. We stayed in the Polish Tatry for a night. It is a nice place without a doubt, however, be prepared that a number of smaller roads are private. If you are following our footsteps and hesitating whether to stay in Slovakia or in Poland for a night, go for Slovakia. Its less populated and its landscape is more suitable for good Land Rover campsites.
We hope you enjoyed reading about our adventures getting from Berlin to Georgia. We made a day by day description of our travels so that you may get an idea of how much time you would spend driving and where you could find the best campsites. Was it helpful? We would be happy to get your feedback! Stay with us on our next trips!
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