It's a beautiful, rainy morning in Yaremche, Ivano-Frankivsky region, Prykarpattya. Me and my friend My friend and I are sitting in a mini-bus, expecting an exciting journey to Solotvyne (Salt Lakes) near Rakhiv, in the far western side of Ukraine, which borders with Romania.

While being in a travel agency, we were told that the Salt Lakes are an amazing sight, similar to the Dead sea in Israel. These Lakes contain such an extreme amount of salt, that one can actually float on a the surface.

Highly motivated by such prospects, we bought tickets, sat in the mini-bus, and headed towards Zakarpattya.

Western Ukraine, and Prykarpattya region in particular, is an exquisite place. There are is beautiful, unpolluted nature, fragrant air and a great amount of medieval castles.

There is the highest mountain peak in Ukraine, named Hoverla. It is about 2,500 meters high.

Carpathian mountains are relatively young ones, and are covered densely with pine trees, named "Smereka" in Ukrainian. These trees have an amazing pink wood. Local people often cut smerekas in order to build cottages.

I was told that smereka can hold a few tons of water during a heavy spring rainfalls, and the disappearance of the trees is the one of the causes of floods in that region. Floods there can be very damaging. While driving across a river, we saw debries of a high concrete bridge, that had been broken by a flood.

Meanwhile, we have arrived to at our first stop on the Yablunezky pass. When we cross it, we will already be in the Zakarpattya region.