20 Most Unusual Attractions and Entertainment for the Fans in Ukraine during Euro 2012

Where can fans take a break from football? We have chosen the most unusual places and entertainment in our four cities of Euro 2012. From this list, we excluded such famous objects as Kievo-Pecherska Lavra, House with Chimeras, or Lviv Market Square.

KIEV

Alcoflag. Capital restaurants are already thinking of exclusive treats by football championship. So, the bartender-Iranian Shayan Shams prepared alcohol drinks - shot-drink in the form of flags of countries participants of Euro 2012. You can try cocktails "Ukraine" and "Poland". Ukraine is the orange juice plus blue curacao, and Poland - grenadine plus shaked sambuca with some secret ingredient. Price - 50 UAH. You can drink it in a cafe on Kontraktova Square.

On APC (armored personnel carrier) and airplane. One of the most extraordinary entertainment - riding on an APC (price: 800 UAH per hour plus 2000 for delivery and gasoline) on the field or in the forest. It accommodates 13 passengers plus the driver of the firm. One can have a fly in small aircraft Yak-52 (one passenger) and Yak-18T (two passengers) on the airfield Chayka. It costs 60 UAH / min. Time is counted from the moment of takeoff to landing. Minimum time - 15 minutes (900 UAH).

Elevator to shield and football sites. The most interesting tour for the fans: the elevator in the monument "Mother-Motherland", which rises to a height of 30-storeys. It costs 200 UAH. Also for Euro 2012 there will be special tours of football places in the capital for fans, said manager of project “Interesting Kiev” Arseniy Finberg. Preliminary cost - 100 Euros for a group of 10-15 people.

Go to the Zone. The interesting is the trip to the Chernobyl zone - the dead city of Pripyat, sarcophagus, dinner near Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. It costs 570 UAH per person, the interpreter is paid for separately.

KHARKIV

Old Tram. You can make a trip on the tram "Annushka" of the 20-ies last century. From the train window you can look at the center and the main streets of the city. According to the director of tour agency that organizes tours by tram, Marguerite Ovsepian, by 2012 in Kharkov there will be the special route from South Railway Station to the “Metalist” Stadium. The conductor and the driver of the tram are in 100 years old uniform, the guide explains how these vehicles were used in previous times. "The guard was sitting behind and opened the door manually. It was convenient to catch the stowaways. Journey on retro tram costs 30 UAH per person.

Flying over the city. You can ride over Kharkov at a height of 20 m on the ropeway, which is located in Gorky Park. The journey in the cabin from the park to botanical garden costs 20 UAH. Back way will cost another 20. By 2012 the park is promised to create the own Disneyland. According to designers, it will be the best amusement park in the former USSR (it’s invested 20 million Euros).

Ride the "armor". The guests will be impressed by journey through the city on the BRDM (Combat Patrol Vehicle). The combat vehicle is converted to a passenger one, with twisted handles and a red carpet. Price - 800 UAH per hour.

Bygone Luxury. The fans of not only football, but also architectural masterpieces, can look at the estate of the Kharkov region (Sharovka, Staryi Merchyk, Natalievka). The noble nests preserved well.

DONETSK

Donbass Arena. For football fans there are held offering tours at the main football arena. Here at the Museum of FC Shakhtar there are collected antique balls of thick leather handmade, unusual football shoes and knit shirts with lacing on the chest. You can get in the holy of holies of the team - coaching and locker rooms. The tour with veterans of the “miners” (Shakhtar players) of 1970-1990 is held once a week. Price - from 50 UAH.

Ukrainian Technoland. The project "Ukrainian Technoland", which is promised to be finished by the Euro-2012 in Yenakievo (50 km from Donetsk), involves the creation of the Museum of Industry on the basis of abandoned mines, "Profintern" and “Yunyi Kommunar”. At a depth of about 1000 meters before the tourists there will be opened discover the technical city, park of sculptures from scrap metal, there will be shown the process of coal mining in the XIX century. Mine “Yunyi Kommunar” is famous by the fact that in 1979 there was conducted an underground nuclear explosion for the degassing of coal seams.

"Stone graves". The reserve "Stone graves" is located near the village of Nazarovka in Volodarsky district in Donetsk region, about 125 km from Donetsk. The local figures haunt the esoteric. Some have seen Sumerian inscriptions here and convince us that our whole civilization originates from there. Others give mystical properties to the hill - an unusual energy, aura, so you can make a wish to win your favorite team. Tour price - 100 UAH.

Forged Euro. Park of forged figures behind the Donetsk City Council will surprise with the UEFA Cup and the “Alley of Euro 2012”.

Champaign Underground. At Artyomovsk Winery, which in 90 km from Donetsk, tourists are offered the trips into the earth, where are kept sparkling wines at a depth of 70 m. Tour includes wine tasting on the spot. Price - 60 UAH.

"Salt Mine". Salt mine in the settlement Soledar (100 km from Donetsk) with a depth of 300 meters is the most famous Ukrainian object of industrial tourism. One of the used mines is a mini-city with the church, lounges and unique salt sculptures in the form of palm trees by Mertsalov and a bas-relief of miners’ guardian angel Good Shubin. Descend into the earth is in the most ordinary of mine cage. Price of the tour - 120 UAH.

Watching the birds. To relax after the noise of the stadium one needs to go on nature. The pride of the Landscape Park "Meotdia" (125 km from Donetsk) is the numerous settlements of birds, unique in European scale. Especially for Euro 2012 there was built 26-meter tower, which will be equipped with an optical technique. With the tower the tourists will be offered to consider all the secrets of feathered life. Price - 20 UAH.

LVIV

Milking cows and sleep in the hay. The hit of the “euro program” is the Carpathians. A day in the wooden house will cost fans from 50 to 200 UAH, or 1500 UAH for the house with eight people. As an exotic you can milk a cow and go to sleep on a haystack. The owners of the cottage burn the “Gutsul bathhouse” on beech wood. The difference of this bathhouse from conventional steam rooms - instead of pool one pours itself with ice water from the wooden bucket (dizhka) hanging on the wall, which locals call “waterfall”. Two hours in the bath cost 200 UAH.

The rise to Goverla Mountain costs hundred UAH, this includes bringing by car to the mountain and instructor services. Mysticism fans will be brought to the Carpathian wizard Nechai (without an interpreter won’t do). Fans of folklore will see Gutsul wedding, try to paint pysanka egg and weave the wedding flowers (Ukrainian origami). For the fans there will be offered a separate tour - "Carpathian Program" for 4 days, although an overnight stay in tents, 3 meals a day and visiting the wedding, sitting by the fire with a magician Nechaev, eating sheep roasted on a spit with “nalivochka” (folk alcohol drink), bath with herbal teas, rafting on the mountain river and horseback riding. For the whole package - 150 euro.

Mushrooms-berries-fishing. In the mountains the fans will have fun with fishing, rafting, hike to pick mushrooms and berries (among foreigners has no tradition of “silent hunting”). “The Hosts” offer their services as escorts. They escort you to the mountain stream for trout fishing with their rods for fifty Euros, the same price for the mushroom and berry spots in the woods, and even cooked dumplings with a sauce of mushrooms gathered by guests for the evening.

Safari on "Bobik" (Russian SUV). Separate entertainment for foreigners is the trip on the broken roads in the mountain villages. The universal transport in the Carpathian Mountains is the "Bobik" (SUV UAZ). Journey on "UAZ" is cooler than jeep safari and costs one hundred UAH (foreigners can pay twice expensive). No less extreme would be bike ride (to rent mountain bike costs 15 UAH per hour or 70 UAH per day). By the way, it’s planned to create the special cycle lane from the Polish-Ukrainian border to Lviv for Euro-2012. Horseback riding - 30 UAH per hour.

Getting to hell. The new "funny" is bathing in a vat with mineral water (200 UAH per hour) on the bank of the river Butivlya in the village Korostyv near Skole. This unusual bath heals the nerves, heart, protects against colds and supposedly rejuvenates the skin, as after the expensive spa treatments. Tourists climb up to their neck in a huge iron kettle of 2000 liters, filled with hydrogen sulfide mineral water from the local spring. Uunder the boiler there is a fire, which heats the water to 40-45 degrees. The procedure looks scary - daredevil sits in a pot with a blazing hearth under it, which fires on firewood. Locals call the font "pekelnya" - because of associations with the boiling cauldrons of sinners in hell.

Games for the fans. Especially for sports fans there were developed tour game-rebuses (quest). "Fans will receive maps of Lviv and assignments on the topic of sports, they will have to run around - smiles a representative of a travel agencies Natalia Gladilova. - The fastest and smartest will receive prizes, gifts of Lviv, and then everyone goes on beer and coffee".

Beer with Coffee. As football fans adore beer, in Lviv they will have an opportunity to visit beer and old cellars, where the frothy drink is much cheaper than in Europe. The glass of beer costs between 10-15 UAH, whereas in Europe - 4-5 euro. At the local brewery there is a museum of beer, which has been brewed here since XIV century. In the basement there is a favorite among foreigners "Intoxicating House of Robert Domes", where are held jazz evenings (Kleparovskaya Street, 18). The separate tour covers fragrant coffee houses, for which the city is famous. A cup of "kava" (coffee) is from 10 UAH (in Europe - 2,5-3 Euro). The most popular "kav'yarnі" (Cafes) are "Golden Ducat" with the ghost (Fedorov Street, 20), “Svit Kawy” (Coffee World) (Cathedral Square, 6), "Mapa", which means map (Galician Street, 14), “Na bambetli”, translated from the local dialect as bed-shop (Market Sq, 29). And in the cafe “Vіrmenka” (Armenian) (Armenian Street, 19) there is made the real, as they say in Lviv, coffee Cezve in the sand.

Shooting from "Kalash" (AK-47 or Kalashnikov Automatic Rifle) in restaurant. Fans will not pass themed cafes. One can enter the scandalous "Kryivka" (Market Square, 14) in the style of the dugout of UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) only with a password "Slava Ukrainі" and it’s allowed to shoot blank bullets from the "Kalash" in the ceiling. Over the "Kryivka" there is "the most expensive restaurant of Galicia - cafe dedicated to the mysterious Order of Freemasons (prices in the menu are humorous, in fact, all ten times cheaper). Near the monument of the city founder Daniel of Galicia on the square of the same name there is a restaurant in an old renovated tram 1913. In the "indecent" cafe "Masokh" serve the waiters in the leather and with a whip, which optionally can imprison a client in handcuffs (Serbian Street, 7). And in the newly opened "House of Legends" there serve dwarfs (Staroevreyska Street, 48). At the entrance to this 5-storey "fantasy" cafe with a fire-breathing dragon on the facade (the animal periodically spewing sparks from the mouth) meets a man in the uniform of a chimney sweep. Tourists rub the buttons on his jacket for good luck. On the roof there is "parked" fantastic "air" Trabant (an old car, a symbol of the GDR), with oars and a propeller.

To live near the castle. Fans of antiquity and mysticism can go to Lviv castles with "ghosts" (from 150 UAH for a 1-day excursion with admission tickets, tours and travel by bus). True, unlike abroad, where palaces are repaired and sleek, our former Counts’ estates shock with devastation. You won’t see such ruins in Europe. By the way, foreigners will be able to live in a tent city near the castle Pidhirtsi and help repair it. There will be the international camp of volunteers, who will restore the old fortress. And on the border with Poland, near the foot of transition Shehini, there will be held festival “Fort-mission” in the usually closed to visitors fortress of the First World War. Here sat the famous hero of Jaroslav Hasek Soldier Schweik.

Race around at "Gorbatyi" (funny name of Ukrainian national car “Zaporozhets”). To drive the rarity “Zaporozhets” costs 100 UAH, you won’t find such ridiculous machines abroad. There are a few dozens of “Zhuzhyk” (another ridiculous name of “Zaporozhets”) in Lviv (their owners joined the club of “Kazak"). According to Eugene Balva, the club is going to organize "Gorbatyi” taxi for the Euro 2012.

Article Authors: Maxim Skichko, Alexander Kharchenko, Oksana Ermolenko, Anastasia Bratkova

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