Ivano-Frankivsk (?????-??????????)

Most of our previous Eastern European travels have essentially been city-hopping. Due to limited time we'd have to stick mainly to well-linked cities. In Ukraine we had a month. So, in an attempt to mix things up a bit we decided to route out some hiking/biking routes in the relatively untouched Ukrainian share of the mainly Romanian Carpathian National Park.

The gateway to the Carpathians, supposedly, Ivano-Frankivsk is one of the biggest cities in the region. I had idyllic visions of a city encircled with dramatic peaks and that was brimming with Hutsul culture. Instead it was rather drab and, (Ivano) frankly, a little boring.

It took us over an hour and a half to find the hostel which was tucked away in a warren of street- lightless Soviet tenements that over-looked an inner city lake. It had room for at least 12 customers but only had two - us.

The area around the hostel had a strange atmosphere. The streets were gravelly and unpaved. There was a certain bustle though as people came out from the tenements to sell vegetables from old, metal stalls.However, if it was in the UK, this area would have been avoided and most likely dubbed as 'rough'. In Ukraine it was everyday life for everyday people.