What Local Guide means to me: survival guide that is always with me!

Since I started traveling, the local guide has become an integral part of my life. Only recently I was able to realize how important Google Inc. did by creating a program in which people all over the world can help each other for free.

This summer I spent my vacation in western Ukraine, namely in Zakarpattya. I want to talk a little about the region.

There are big cities, such as Mukachevo or Uzhgorod, but still, most people live in mountainous areas in villages, from where it is not always easy to get to. These are the places where the sky meets mountains, where the wind shakes the pine trees and cradles them…
To get to this place was difficult for us and amounted to about 25 hours, most of which I spent in the train.
Mountains greeted us with cool and light rain, but after a day the weather returned to normal and it became more comfortable to stay here.
We chose a very remote holiday destination - the village of Mezhgirya.
In this area, the infrastructure is very poorly developed and you need to get from one village to another either by hitchhiking or by buses. Our plan was great. To conquer nearby mountains, see the waterfalls and climb to the top of the most popular destinations.
The next day we started our research!
Thinking that we could easily book a transport or catch a bus was a mistake. Buses went on schedule, but it was simply not realistic to wait for them or catch them along the way. They just didn’t make any stops!
But hitchhiking was also not an easy way. We decided that we would not waste time in vain and started our way on foot.

Our goal was Mount Gybma and the waterfall “Shypit”, but in order to get there it was necessary to go 40 km, and given that this was mountainous terrain, our challenge was complicated.


We were lucky there because we were able to catch a car and were brought almost to the appointed place. Therefore, as you understand, it was not possible to remember the road.

The time there was unforgettable: kilometers on mountain roads on foot, hitchhiking, as well as meeting new interesting people with whom we also explored the area.


Everything was cool until we had to return home. I want to notice that we went very far from our village.
We walked along the highway and all attempts to catch a ride were unsuccessful. It began to get dark and we understand that we are lost. Firstly it was just panic. What to do? Where to sleep? it’s cold in the mountains at night, even on the hottest day…wild animals and we are practically without food and water.
Here we had to go our whole way on our feet.
But this was one of the most exciting trips thanks to the guys from the local guide who had already been there, they became our faithful guides. We opened Google maps and try to understand where were we and what was going on!

Thanks to this, we pulled ourselves together, stopped panic, found springs of water that were already marked on the map by other travelers and also walked 10 km of the road with the confidence that we are going in the right direction. This we understood precisely thanks to the photographs that community members left on the ground.

This journey motivated me to pay more attention to helping others in what I already know. Helped to look at new technologies from a new perspective.

Many people say new technologies have filled our lives and robots will soon displace humans. I don’t think so, I’m sure that only thanks to such programs we have taken millions of steps forward.


Until recently, the local guide was just a service for me where I can read a review of a restaurant or find out how to get from one part of the city to another faster as well as share my local photos and leave a review about the place where I was. Now I know that this is a survival guide that I never want to lose!

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