Andrew H
Towcester, United Kingdom
It's a long way to the top!
Jul 16, 2019
I booked this place through Expedia but on arrival I felt like I had just arrived from an alien spaceship. The nice lady behind the counter thumbed through the handwritten pages of an exercise book several times but found nothing resembling my booking. Neither my English nor the printed Expedia sheet helped much either as we attempted various forms of frustrated sign language. I was about to start drawing pictures when she called her teenage daughter who was learning English at school and we managed to establish, at least, that I would like to stay there for a time. To be honest, even a few days would be OK, although I had thought I'd reserved 14 days! Eventually a business-like chap arrives, still with zero comprehension of English but by various means we understand that he has no knowledge of the booking and doesn't have anywhere available for the whole period required. He can offer me 8 days so that's a start and we agree that. Next I get to choose the apartment. They all seem really good-sized and I recognise the bed in the one I had seen in the advert so I go for that. Really huge bed with room for six at least. Plus a double sofa bed and single bed chair in the lounge area. Whilst this was a pretty cool apartment visually and was pretty clean and well-equipped, it was on the top floor and, with no lift, that was one tough climb each time! I don't know whether the builders had used some particularly steep steps, maybe hoping to exhaust and annoy Russian visitors, but boy my muscles were aching by the time I did reach the top! With a big drum of water (which you'll need as apparently tap water isn't drinking water) I had to stop half-way and even my fit girlfriend, familiar with Ukraine lifts not working and hard work generally, found it tough-going. The apartment itself has a lock which takes some practice and for the first couple of days you'll find yourself waking everyone up by having to slam it shut as there is a kind of knack to turning the key it takes a while to learn. Inside the kitchen is excellent and everything works well, with plenty of dishes and cutlery etc. The lounge is open at both ends - to the kitchen dining area at one end and to the bedroom at the other. No problem for us but had one of us wanted privacy and to sleep without anyone being able to see or observe then the curtains dividing the spaces were not adequate. So if you're going with a girlfriend and your mum or gran this may not be ideal. The bathroom is massive, running most of the length of the apartment and with one of the biggest baths I've seen in a while. Water and things all worked well although the toilet flushing mechanism broke and never got repaired, despite our mentioning it. A silly plastic device needed to be replaced so we simply left the lid off and pulled at a suitable lever and achieved the required result anyway. No big deal. Parking is quite fun there. If you are really fortunate there won't be a German or Belgian there with a huge truck-like motor and you'll be able to turn around in the tight area provided. Failing that, just reverse out of the road that runs to the apartment and into the street where you can probably also get away with leaving a car for a while. The road to the apartment was a weird twisty route that seemed quite bizarre but that's just how the one-way system works there. Beware of massive holes in the road, of course, possibly the biggest in town and that's saying something. By the hospital was particularly bad and awkward to avoid. Immediately outside the apartments is a fairground and if you are changing your underwear with the windows open do check that the big wheel thing is not operational or you may give some people taking a ride on it a bit of a surprise. This was not cheap accommodation but it was good and, although the people running the place seem a bit odd, possibly Romanian, I'm told, they were pleasant enough, one or two ladies in particular being welcoming and chatty with my girlfriend, The main bloke was OK but the language difficulty was something I had not expected. I'll learn more Russian or Ukrainian for the next time. This is not a hotel or somewhere I would expect 'services' like breakfast or wake-up calls etc. It's an apartment where you look after yourself and get on with life. It does that pretty well.