Captains Log

Arrival. 4 June 2009.

Arrived in Poland. Ryanair flight from Bristol to Rzeszow (pronounced shay-shouf): £10 return, no pesky card fees thanks to M having a visa electron. Eight of us found our way to the hostel in the centre of town at about 22.30. Set our stuff down in the room and headed out to eat. Apparently there was a curfew of 22.00 but the lady at reception indicated that she would give us an hour to go eat. Ste appears to have lost £20 in a kerfuffle over paying for our rooms. We head to a kebab shop across the rynek and get some food. After staying up late talking R(1) finds a massive hold in his sheets, Ste decides to eschew the bedding and curl under his leopard print blanket. Sheets are tiny.

5 June 2009. Day one.

I was very perplexed this morning when my phone alarm went off, only once, at 8.00. This perplexed me as the phone was turned off. Apparently it is meant to do that.

On the way to the station we stopped by a supermarket for some food. Two sausages, bread, yogurt and water came to about 7zl. The lady selling the tickets was lovely, working out the best price for us, a single for 14zl, and the next three for 10zl each. Better price than we expected. It was a slow stopping train to Przemysl (pronounced pshi-mish) which meant that there were loads of tiny stops in the middle of the countryside where maybe one or two people would get on or off. The conductor didn’t wait around though, giving as little as 8 seconds from stop to go. The countryside was generally unruly and unpopulated. There were long strips of farmland instead of more regularly shaped fields. Small patches of land near the tracks and stations were converted to allotments. There looked to be a rather large market in Przemysl when we arrived. Didn’t go there, tried to find some lunch. I stuck with bread and some surprisingly nice peaches from a little vegetable stand near the bus station.

We bought bus tickets to L’viv, Ukraine, and waited in the station. We saw our bus pull in, and almost immediately people started loading it down with goods. Some cars and vans pulled up to the bus and carried things in out of view. This was all very suspicious, not made any less so by the amount of American Dollars exchanging hands. By the time we got into the bus, there were boxes of strawberries filling half of the seats that we had to move out of the way. The rear of the bus was stacked high with spools of nylon string. There were bags of walnuts under seats and mysterious boxes in a secret compartment behind the front bumper.

I sat down next to J in the back and soon got to chatting to a Polish lad about our age whose name may have been Bartlett. He and his friends were traveling to Ukraine as it was cheap. He advised against taking the Ukrainian mini-buses (which apparently are dirt cheap and go just about everywhere). We should stick to the main coaches and trains. Walking across the border is possible, but sometimes gets busy and you may end up standing in a crowd in the rain for hours before being let across. Our border crossing did not go quickly though. At the first stop, before the Polish passport control, we were stuck waiting at the border while lots of money changed hands at the front of the bus. After about half an hour, we made it to passport control to leave Poland. Didn’t take too long and we crept towards the Ukrainian control. This took much longer. Passports were collected, and we were given travel documents to fill out and keep with on us throughout our travels. The older Ukrainian ladies next to us advised we write down that we were visiting for tourism, but laughed when I asked if ‘revenge’ or ‘espionage’ would be acceptable.

That turned out to be the quick and easy part of the journey. M had a closer inspection because his passport photo didn’t look like him. Border guards lead out bus to a garage where they started pulling out and inspecting items from the bus, discovering the illicit packages of meat hidden in the front. They pulled the smuggled goods out and took loads of pictures before making us wait for quite some time, inches from the road to freedom. It was maybe over three hours for the whole ordeal. This didn’t set good precedent because apparently it is more common to be held up for a long time when trying to get back into the EU, when cigarette smuggling is rampant. This is when we decided that we would have to take a train the entire way back.

Once we were finally released (in a bizarre rush back to the bus) we sped across the border. Finally in Ukraine, I looked out to find simple suburb-spaced houses with front yards converted into miniature farms. No wasted space. Every now and then a shrine, a cross, or a statue of the Virgin Mary would appear on the side of the road, evidence of a strong Orthodox church.

Once in L’viv train station, we emptied a few of the cash machines of all their hryvnia (which has been massively devalued in the recent economic excitement). Bartlett recommended we get a 40 hryvnia taxi to the hostel and went off with his group. We quickly left to go to “Fat House” (translated) before it closed. This was a chain buffet restaurant which is cheap, filling and Ukrainian. On the way back to the hostel, we found a questionable cafe which had coffee, food and a broad selection of drinks. Ste and I ended up talking to an old Russian man who claimed to have fought in Afganistan – somehow, Ste ended up giving the man some money to buy some chicken from the cafe and never got his change back.

6 June. First full day in L’viv.

J and I got up around 9 and headed to the cafe for a questionable coffee. Went back to the hostel to find everyone getting ready to go out for the day. Went to Double Coffee, a posh sit down coffee and food chain which was actually more expensive than eating in Britain! After breakfast, we checked the time of the England v. Kazakhstan match and looked up trains to Kiev. Walking around J, S, Big L, R(2) and I found a book market, where I bought a cheap pin to put on my camera strap. We found an art and junk market later which was an excellent find. Most stalls were set up with artwork and textiles, but some were just tables laden with old stuff. Silverware, cameras, cutthroat razors and cigarette cases in abundance. I bought a necklace and looked at a number of cameras (“good soviet quality!”). There was a wicked large format camera with a fogged glass viewer, broken shutter cable, for only 200 hryvnia. I also saw a number of old leather suitcases. These are some of the things that i somewhat regret not buying.

Got some pizza for lunch. Went back to Fat House for dinner. Tried in vain to find a place to watch the England Kazakhstan match.

7 June.

Nice and Sunny day. Bought sausage, yogurt and two litres of multivitamin juice for breakfast. We all went walking together, up a large forested hill, didn’t find anything interesting except a man who had apparently fallen asleep there the night before lying on a log. Lay around in a park near the university for some time. Lunch was a bit of a mix up when the waitress didn’t remember who ordered what, and didn’t know any english. As we didn’t know what exactly we had ordered (things with english translations like “Combined Team of Meat”) it was difficult for us to sort out what was whose.

It poured down rain all afternoon so we stayed in the hostel playing Ping-Pong. We headed to the train station around 9 to catch our overnight to Kiev. Guy in station saw my camera and wanted his picture taken.

8 June. Arrival in Kiev.
Our train got in at about 7.40. Pulled in next to the Kiev-Vladivostock train, one of the longest scheduled trains in the world. We immediately went to book our tickets back to Rzeszow. We were given two options, not cheap. 761 hyrvnia for one train the whole way. We didn’t really discuss our options and just went ahead and bought the tickets.

R(2) noted that people were very trusting in Kiev. He said, about the taxi driver “There were 8 of us, we could have taken his car.” But… he was a taxi driver. This was delirious early morning talking. At any rate, it took us a while to find the hostel, having not written down the door code and there being no signs on the door. Finally found it and dropped our stuff off. It was a bank holiday of sorts so the main street near Independence Square was blocked off to traffic. Grabbed a Mr. Snack (translated) for breakfast before exploring further.

J pointed us to a food market that was excellent. One large covered market with tables piled high with vegetables, spices, sweets, nuts, fruit, raw meat, fish, and sausages. The sellers would vie loudly for your attention, and money. The ladies selling cooked meats would offer random samples from their tables to entice a sale. I ended up getting a chunk of ham and some bread.

We regrouped at the hostel and planned a short sightseeing tour. M and I attracted some local who kept yelling excitedly about something in Ukranian, the only things we could make out was “fascist” and “hitler kaput.” Moved on to Dynamo Kiev stadium, which we could not get in. This is where Soviet POWs who had formerly been Dynamo Kiev players regularly thrashed Nazi military teams.

9 June.

We started out with some more sightseeing, going back to the St. Sophia national preserve, which we visited the day before. We went in today, 2 hryvnia to get in, 3 more to climb the bell tower. This was well worth it for the view, it was much higher than it looked from the outside. We walked down a street towards St. Andrews cathedral where there was a market recommended by the hostel owner. Turned out to be tourist tat. Not quality junk. Shame. Went to Chernobyl Museum and Botanical Gardens. Had a disgusting dinner at a place recommended by the hostel owner. Looked up some markets to visit the next day.

10 June.

Struck out early to go to some markets. Traveled far and wide in Kiev, but only found food markets and new goods markets. Nothing really good and classic like L’viv. Headed to Hidropark to meet up with the others. Walked around on the beaches of the Dnipro river until they spotted me, as i didn’t have enough credit to text to meet them. The beaches were packed with people. It was a nice sunny day, and the water was freezing cold. Swam around a bit and let the current move me slowly down the beach before swimming back in. Headed back to the hostel, grabbed some dinner and headed to the station.

We had to change money out of hryvnia before leaving. With no pounds available, I got 50 dollars for my 350 hryvnia. Purchased some last minute food and drink for the upcoming 17 hour train journey and climbed aboard. It was an immensely sweaty train and it didn’t take long for the boys to strip down to trousers only.

11 June. Final day.

Morning was passport control in the Ukrainian station at Mostiska. The carriage conductor came by and offered tea and coffee. We picked up some Polish passport inspectors and customs agents in the middle of nowhere on the way to Przemysl where we would change gauge. My previous post has the details on that change.

Finally we arrived in Rzeszow. We left our bags at the station and walked out. It was oddly quiet as we walked back to the main square. We found the tourist information centre was closed, and learned it was a public holiday. There were restaurants open, but not much else. People were out drinking and having ice cream in the beautiful weather. We had a good walk around, discovering that Rzeszow is actually really nice! There were lovely buildings and interesting places all over. We ended up settling down for a meal around 14:00 and staying there for quite some time. We headed to the main square for a sit down just before massive rain clouds moved in. A downpour ensued and we were forced into a heavy metal bar where we waited out the weather before returning to the station in time to catch a bus to the airport.