Hello dear blacksmiths! Hope that you all will come and see a beautiful European city – Ivano-Frankivsk! The preliminary info about th festival in Ivano-Frankivsk
So, if you’re a blacksmith and you want to join X International Blacksmith Festival in Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine (4-7 of May, 2012), you should know different ways of travelling to choose the best variant for you!
Here is some information.
The most expensive but the most comfortable is to travel by plane. Flights are costly but the fastest one. Ivano-Frankivsk has got an airport, but there flights are only to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. If you want, you can book a flight to Kiev and then to Ivano-Frankivsk or Lviv (Lvov) (the closest city with an airport). The cheapest flying company is the Wizzair, I think. Here is a link. If you will visit this site you will see that there are only two flights to Lviv (Lvov) and much more to Kiev. From Lviv (Lvov) we will organize transport as we did last years- for the participants it will be free, as usual. So last year most of the participants arrived during the daytime to Lviv (Lvov), where our friends met them, had a short excursion in the downtown and were led to the transport. They arrived to Ivano-Frankivsk at night (8 pm). The hotel had been booked for them. Lviv is also beautiful city – much bigger and older. So if you are interested in sightseeing – arrive to Lviv one day earlier – our colleagues will organize a sightseeing tour around Lviv with the visit to Lviv Academy of Art or another place of interesting, then – a night in a hotel or hostel and then – trip to Ivano-Frankivsk. But Lviv’s hotels are more expensive. Kiev is also a possibility. Our friends will meet you there, then either take you with them in the car, or there is a night train to our city (in Kiev – 19:16 pm, in Ivano-Frankivsk 6:56 am next day, train # 43К). Kiev is a nice city and you may plan sightseeing either one day before or after our fest. Or you may arrive in Lviv – then visit our fest – then departure from Kiev (our friends from Kiev can take you there or you can use the same night train to Kiev (18:15 pm in Ivano-Frankivsk and 6:19 am next day in Kiev) Thus you will see 3 beautiful cities.
There are also flights from Budapest/Vienna/Warsaw to Lviv (Lvov). Distance from Vienna to Ivano-Frankivsk is about 1000 km.
The next, cheaper variant is travelling by train. There are some trains from Budapest/Wroclaw/Krakow or other big European cities to Lviv or Uzhgorod (city that is about 300 km from Ivano-Frankivsk). There are some buses from Uzhgorod, but it is very hard to travel through the Carpathian Mountains (a road there is very bad).
Some people go by car, and if you decide so, we can find you good companions fron your part of the world to travel here and share expenses. Directions: Vienna, Budapest(in Europe)– Chop, Uzhgorod, Stryj, Ivano-Frankivsk (in Ukraine)(southern route). I have to admit, that road there is very bad, but you will see beautiful Carpathian Mountains and some ethnical houses and people. And Wroclaw, Krakow, Przemysl(all in Poland) – Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk (in Ukraine)(northern route)
Beat hotels are about 50 euros per night, including breakfast. The cheaper – up to 15 euros (no breakfast, simpler conveniences). Take 25-30 euro as a medium price for a hotel.
Also you may rent a room/flat for a night. It will cost you from 5-6 euro/per night to 15-20 euro/per night. Link is here
Restaurants are cheap here (comparatively speaking – about 10 euros for full diner with drinks (also depends on the restaurant). Beer, traditional tasty dishes are very cheap and good!
Last year we had a program for 3 full days. Those who wanted to know the country better and understand the national characters and customs stayed one more night in our city and next day as an extra programme we went to the mountain resort, had a programme there all day, stayed overnight at the hotel in the mountains. After that, next day, the organized transport delivered participants to Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv airport so that people could manage their flights, trains and so on. But for this we need to know the schedule all flights of the participants.
We also appointed student-interpreters (English, German and French ) to the delegations to help you survive in the foreign country for all days of the stay.
I hope this information will be good enough for you to think about for some days and I think that you are interested in X International Blacksmith Festival in Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine) and you will join us this year!
Accommodation recommendations:
Hotel “Nadia” Nezaleghnosti street, 40
Tel. (0342) 72-70-79(75) www.nadia.if.ua
Other categories (higher class) will have 20% discount exclusively for participants of the festival.
Hotel “Dnister”, Sichovyh Sriltsiv Street, 12
Tel. (03422) 235 33, 27902, fax: 752403
60 hryvnias per person in any room except for the first class rooms and junior suites.
Useful tips for the participants
Register in the Registration tent – and get your badge (that is your admission to all festival activities), the programme of the festival and useful information: catalogue from the previous year, poster etc.
To forge on the square, please, register into the schedule of blacksmithing in the Registration tent
Useful information for participants
Klochko Mykhailo (the head of the Blacksmiths Union of Ukraine in Ivano-Frankivsk branch, the executive director of the “Blacksmiths’ Festival”) 050 338 94 23
Polubotko Sergiy (the head of the “Blacksmiths’ Festival”) 067 342 43 16
Polubotko Olga (the coordinator of the “Blacksmith Festival”, the coordinator of international guests) 097 635 21 98
All repeats