How do Ukrainian auto travelers see our country? The correspondent carefully studied the forums and blogs and talked with the daredevils.
Politics is politics, but nobody canceled real life. Ukrainians and Russians are brothers. Sometimes it's natural. Relatives in Rostov-on-Don, Saratov, relatives in Kiev and the Kherson region … Close people are now divided not only by borders, but also by political passions. As a result, planes do not fly from Ukraine to Russia and trains almost do not travel. And the cheapest and most popular transport is a personal car, too, perhaps, banned? It turns out not! Little by little, daredevils begin to set off - and they are precisely for the daredevils and madmen in Ukraine and are kept - to conquer Russia in their cars.
BY CAR? ONLY ARISTOCRATS OR … BLOGGERS
In Ukraine, propaganda against Russia pours out of every iron. "Aggressor country", "occupier" … How in such an environment to decide on an independent journey in your car? That's right, either out of need or for the extreme.
Subscribers began to intimidate Kharkiv blogger Maxim Tarasko:
“Are you out of your mind? To Russia by car !!! Yes, every cop will slow you down on your numbers and take revenge for everything. Either aristocrats or degenerates now drive to Russia by car …"
“There are no roads, nothing. Where are you going?"
Promotional video:
"Oh, McDONALDS!" WHERE ARE THE SANCTIONS?"
Kiev - Saratov, this route was made by father and son (they did not give their last name, it is only known that the son maintains a blog on YouTube, called the Indigo Racing Club. This is their first trip after the Maidan, although before that the family here she went to see her relatives regularly, and they carefully recorded their adventures.
The video of travels in Russia begins with shots taken in complete darkness. In the headlights, only a terribly broken road is visible. A voice-over with a strong Ukrainian accent says: "20 kilometers to the Ukrainian-Russian border." The next picture - the sun is already shining, and the young man, the author of the blog, reports:
- All right, we are already in Russia. We are switching to Russian. By the way, the Ukrainian customs is five incomprehensible booths. Near them is an enamel bucket filled with gobies. Do what you want, go wherever you want. This is not the case at Russian customs. Everything is strict, everything is serious. The Russian border is like heaven and earth in comparison with the Ukrainian one. Here, as in Europe, and there, as on a collective farm.
Ukrainians share their impressions in the comments below the video:
McDonald's are everywhere, European stores - Austin, Bill. Everything is working. Where are these sanctions?"
At the gas station, Ukrainians are greatly surprised by cheap gasoline and expensive food.
- Coffee they have here 50 hryvnia! But petrol and gas are two times cheaper than ours. In Ukraine, the opposite is true. The food is cheap and the gas is expensive. Strange, why is that?
As for the quality of the roads. Apparently, instead of a thousand words about a two-lane federal highway, quite European in appearance, the young man decides to simply keep silent. Behind the scenes, only the music of the Leningrad group plays.
Rostov-on-Don.
ABOUT! PATCHES LIKE US!
“Why are you silent? The asphalt is so smooth. If only I could say a word,”subscribers are indignant. And the Ukrainian traveler said. As soon as I drove into the town of Kalininsk, Saratov Region, they were assigned to my father.
- Well, you see, if the asphalt on the highway is decent, then in the towns it is. Pits and ditches. ABOUT! The road is in Ukrainian style, - pointing to a fresh patch.
- Sho you want. Everything, like we have in Ukraine, nothing supernatural. Slavs are Slavs. - the father laughs.
On the way back, the Kievite was no longer surprised at anything. And only after jumping over the border, back to his native Ukraine, he wrote down a speech with the following conclusions:
- What conclusion - diesel fuel and gasoline are cheaper. The products are very expensive. The names for vodka and sweets are very funny. During the entire journey, I was stopped once by the police, and then in such an area where they have the right to stop. Thank God, there were no more problems. So drive safely. Everyone scared us. They won't be allowed at the border, the cops will pinch. But, as you can see, everything is ok.
MOSCOW IS A BEAUTIFUL CITY
Many desperate Ukrainian bloggers make trial sorties to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don. Just for fun. I watched 5 or 6 of these videos. And everywhere everything is the same - when entering Russia, everyone is trying to find some kind of negative. And they find where it is not.
But all skepticism quickly disappears. In Moscow, the guys fall into a stupor:
- I was in Lviv and thought that architecture would no longer surprise me. But here (in Moscow) it is not only beautiful, but also very large-scale. It's cool in Moscow - a big, big, beautiful city. I recommend to everyone. Come, it's beautiful and calm here.
In response to this video, comments from hospitable Russians rained down:
“Guys! And earlier, under the Soviet Union, we left Moscow in Zhiguli at 4 am, and at 6 pm we were already at my grandmother's near Kiev, for two days then it rocked from the road, but there were no borders. Come to us again, Russia is very big, there is something to see and where to go, and good people are always welcome!"
PS There are more than one or two such desperate bloggers who made forays into the "occupied territory". It is they who break through the information blockade, overturning Kiev propaganda by personal experience …
HOME IN CRIMEA
They were afraid to admit that from Lviv …
Travel to Crimea is a separate line in the entire Ukrainian Internet. It has been 5 years since the historic referendum. The first Ukrainian swallows reached out to see what was being done there under Russia.
I was fascinated by the blog of a simple Ukrainian housewife, My fanny time. She, clearly far from politics, with her husband went to Crimea by car.
“We decided through Krasnoperekopsk. The road here is worse, but there are fewer queues,”the Ukrainian woman begins to describe her journey. - Wow, what airport. They started construction. God, construction is underway everywhere!"
For the next few minutes, construction is shown, construction and construction again. And this is all just a suburb of Simferopol.
“We are a little shocked here, because so many roads are being built, all routes are expanding. Probably, something grand is being prepared - the flow of people and the flow of money …
“I don’t know where I am at all?” How could this be done? - does not stand up and inserts a replica spouse.
For a week, the lady filmed everything in detail - the Sevastopol embankment, the day of the Navy, a boat trip and even a tour of a modest room for 800 rubles a day, which she and her husband rented. At the end of the trip, the unfortunate blogger wrote a separate post:
“At first I was shocked and even wanted to remove all the videos out of harm's way. Many wrote that you will now return home, you will be shot. You have shown so many unnecessary things. SBU will ambush you now. But I don't understand why we can't go to the place where we have a lot of friends and acquaintances. Where we lived and studied for 5 years. Where there is something connected to every street. We are an ordinary average family. We just went there to rest. Write what you want."
The audience responded immediately:
“Now in Ukraine you will be SEPAR if you show at least something good! They are obliged to go around all the garbage dumps, to remove the most expensive prices in the cafe - otherwise they are crazy !!!"
“Now the author of the video has to travel around Ukraine on Russian numbers. I think amazing discoveries await him."
“Yes, everything is fine in Crimea, calm, and nobody stopped me at the Dnipropetrovsk rooms either. All people are adequate and a priori think: once you come to Crimea, it means that you have good intentions - to have a rest or to do business."
“I live in Gelendzhik. We have a lot of cars here with Ukrainian numbers. In winter I rented an apartment to Ukrainians, they first said that they were from Kharkov. Then it turned out that from Lviv. They were afraid to admit, they thought I would treat worse.
Fools!"
VASILISA NIKOLAEVA