For a stylish farewell to Ukraine, I could not miss the place that made northern Ukraine famous throughout the world - Chernobyl.

From Odessa I followed the river Bug (a different Bug than the one I crossed in Poland, but they have springs close to each other) straight to the center, or nucleus of Ukraine. Nucleus is the better word actually.

At the southeastern tip of the Moldavian border the Dniester spreads into a wide lagoon that cuts the southern tip of Ukraine around Izmail from the rest of the country.

Initially, Moldova does not differ much from Romania – either in the language or the landscape. Towards Chisinau however start to appear vineyards, fruit orchards and more Russian. A pleasant detail providing refreshment to cyclists is that each village maintains traditional manual wells – and obviously many people still have to use them every day. I stopped in the local tourist area, in the valley of the villages of Trebujeni and Butuceni. The valley is a green gorge at the bottom of a clay cut to the surrounding plains. Local visitors are coming to admire excavations and remains from the eras stretching from Dacian, Mongolian to Moldavian monasteries. As a passer-by, my attention was rather caught by the fact that this was probably the only place where I saw village…

In Ukraine I got too far east, so I just briefly tangented Romania. Carpathian hills were replaced by nearly flat land of fields stretching to all sides. The only trick is that roads are built simply straight ahead – ignoring any terrain waves – so there is still a need to pedal. I stopped in Suceava, former capital of the historical Moldova county, with a seat fortress from that time. From many monasteries around I chose to look at the one in Probota – still fortified, still inhabited by practicing sisters. Towards Moldovan border the countryside changes into vast pastures, occasionally fields, where you can meet just local herders (cowboys?), with their cows, horses and sharp herding dogs. Practical observation: if such environment stretches for the next 20 km, it…

From Ubľa I slipped across the border to Sub-Carpathian Ukraine. And those few kilometres really make a difference.