Given the task of choosing a vehicle for a year-long trip across Europe and Asia, not many would opt for a Soviet-era car produced in 1970.
But the choice makes sense for Ukrainian couple Anna and Vadym Grynenko and their three-and-a-half-year-old son Liubomyr, who are taking off from Kyiv in a bright blue Volga Gaz-21 in early August on just such a trip.
The couple have made it their goal to celebrate Liubomyr’s birthday in a different country every year, and travel the world with their child. They say they are not rich, and will finance their trip with savings, money from renting out their apartment while they are gone, and working while they are on the road.
“You can travel with a child, and you don’t need millions of dollars for this,” Anna Grynenko says.
Grynenko says they decided to travel by car because they will be able to save money sleeping in it if there’s no other affordable option.
Her husband Vadym is fond of retro cars, and he picked this one carefully for their trip, exchanging their own one-year-old crossover Kia Niro for the almost half-century-old Volga. They will switch back to their own car when they get back to Kyiv.
“(We chose) a retro car because these new models of cars … can be difficult to fix, but this won’t require much, and my husband can fix any problem easily anywhere,” she adds.
“As it is an old car we won’t travel more than 300-400 kilometers per day, we aren’t in a hurry and want to enjoy ourselves,” she says.
Ukrainian couple Anna and Vadym Grynenko and their three-and-a-half-year-old son Liubomyr, who will take a trip across Europe and Asia by a bright blue Volga Gaz-21, pose for a picture by the car in Kyiv on June 26.
(Oleg Petrasiuk)
The old car was also the inspiration for the name the couple have given to their upcoming trip: The Blue Dream. The family will drive from Ukraine to Finland, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, France, and Spain. After traveling around much of Europe, they plan to figure out how to get to Iran, from where they will try to reach Malaysia.
Child on board
The family began travelling when their son was three months old. They travelled around Ukraine by car, spending two weeks in Odesa and Poltava, and exploring the Carpathian Mountains twice – for one month each time.
The family flew to Sri Lanka to celebrate Liubomyr’s first birthday, and soon took off for a six-month trip across Europe, and then Central America, using buses or cheap flights.
According to Grynenko, the upcoming trip will cost the couple up to $3,000 per month.
Apart from using savings and income from renting out their apartment in Kyiv, the couple plan to make money by selling t-shirts with images of their Blue Dream Volga, as well as eco-friendly aqua punching bags (they are made without the use of plastic).
While on the trip, the partners will also keep working, too: Grynenko is a blogger, and her husband is a self-employed sales manager.
“We will also try to work in the places we go to,” she says.
Grynenko say they can’t wait to start their trip, as each journey is an opportunity to learn about different cultures, cuisines, people, and much more.
“I used to be an introvert and a suspicious person, but travelling has helped me a lot,” she says. “It has also made my son friendlier.”
“Travelling is our happiness, and our son is our inspiration, we want to spend all our money on travelling, because this is our passion.”
To follow the Grynenko family’s adventures, check out their website www.gryntravel.com (Russian only)
