The night before we drove to Ukraine, Irina got back from a trip to Croatia. She expected her insurance card and documents to have arrived by courier, so we could take the car out of the country. She had confirmation from them about delivery of the documents to her apartment, but later that evening I received a phone call from her. And she didn't have a happy voice. The documents never came. So we spent the evening thinking of options (actually I spent the evening watching Hunger Games, while she made frantic phone calls)...we needed documents for her car, otherwise we couldn't go into Ukraine. We checked online for options, calling friends, calling the leasing company, and she even knocked on her neighbors' doors asking if they accidentally received her documents in the mail. All nope. So we decided to take Igors' car instead, since he has all of his documents (kind of...he has kind of a sketchy driver's license, but that's a different story). There were 7 of us going, so we needed 2 cars. Alan's car was set; he had his insurance card and was told he didn't need an authorization letter to take the care out of the country. So off we went.
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The internationl crew on the road trip to Lviv, Ukraine was Irina, Igors (both from Latvia), Mark (Scottish), Julia (Russian), Alan (English), Cristina (Romanian), and me (American, yo). The drive to Lviv is about 8 hours, depending on the border traffic, but we took the opportunity to make a few stops along the way.
The first stop was Lublin, a town in Poland a couple hours away from Warsaw, with a very nice Old Town, where a few of my Polish friends are from, or studied. We took about an hour to wander around, take a few pictures, and then head off again. The temperature was in the 80s, with perfect blue skies. Of course, that makes sightseeing even better. It was Constitution Day in Poland, so there were parades and celebrations all over the city. But I have no idea what it even means.
Castle in Lublin
Lublin Old Town
We continued on to a lake in between Lublin and Zamość for a picnic lunch and a swim. We found a nice grassy spot, close to a dock, where several locals sat around, swimming, drinking beer, and just relaxing. They stared at the foreigners for a few minutes as we arrived...I don't think they get too many of us around these parts. The picnic was nice, and we held our very first (unofficial) Warsaw International Triathlon Club open water swim. And by that I mean we swam about 30 meters, just so we could tell Ken we did it, then took a bunch of pictures of ourselves jumping into the water.
Picnic along a lake we found on the map
Warsaw International Triathlon Club swim training
And jumping picture training (where's Alan going?)
The roads on the way to Lviv were a mix of smooth and bumpy. Some roads were a feast of pot holes (that's not a good thing). No wonder it can take so long to drive long distances in Poland. The weather changed and we also had some big thunder and lightning storms. The roads also have poor drainage so we encountered many large puddles in the middle of the road. Too bad we already had our WITC swim training!
We finally got to the border, which was surprisingly not busy (only a few cars in front of us). Strangely, a few of the cars turned around at the border and went back the other way. It made the line go faster, but also worried me a bit. Igors' car went first (with me and Irina). Irina had to drive because she has an international license, and like I mentioned, Igors has a sketchy license that looks like he made it with art supplies in his bedroom when he was 14. We got thru the first check point (the Polish side) within 15 minutes.
When we got to the Ukrainian checkpoint, the lady saw my passport and said to her colleague "hurry up there are Americans here!" (but not in English - Irina told me what they said). I guess we have lots of clout around here. Then they saw Igors and Irina's Latvian passports, and I could see them relax as if to say "ohhh, there's only 1 American", after which they lost their sense of urgency. But all in all, it only took 5 minutes. Nobody even asked for the insurance card, so all that worry earlier was really for nothing.
Since Alan's car was behind us, we pulled over to the side to wait. As we were waiting one of the guards came up to us and decided to check our documents again, since we were just sitting there. I don't really understand why, but they did. Like so many other things I don't understand, that's just the way it is. That's when we all noticed several missed calls from Mark, who was in Alan's car. Missed calls from someone who is going through a border check to Ukraine can't be a good thing. Well, it's not the worst thing, because at least he was able to make calls....but we started to worry. At first we all told each other "I have a missed call from Mark, ho hum, la dee da". Then we thought, oh, maybe we should try to contact him back. Good idea. I checked my text messages, and saw this from Mark. It had 3 words: "We are F#@%'d" (instead "#@%" was actually different letters).
Uh oh.
Apparently Alan has his necessary documents, except his car registration was expired! In Poland, when you buy a car, they give you a temporary 1-week registration, which you have to renew right away (that's just the way it is, I guess). Alan didn't know that, so he's been driving around for the last year and a half with an expired registration. So anyway, they're stuck back at the Polish check point and Mark explains to us that "the police are coming, they might confiscate the car, we'll let you know if anyone gets arrested".
Uh, what?
It turned out that the police didn't harass them about it, but there was no way they were going to be able to bring the car into Ukraine. So, we had to think of options. 3 of us, with a car, are on the Ukraine side, while the others are on the Polish side, and we were still 65 km away from Lviv. We considered them taking a bus, train, or renting a car to get through. Except it was around 8pm and it was probably too late. The backup plan was for them to spend the night in Poland then come over in the morning. But we had to think of something else. The border guards wouldn't even let them walk across the border. So they came up with another brilliant plan.
Hitch hike across. The Ukrainian border. Brilliant!
The border guards actually suggested this. They won't let you walk across, but they don't mind if you jump in the back seat of some stranger's car and ride across. Even if this works, we still have a problem of driving them all to Lviv. So Igors, Irina and I start driving, to drop our stuff off at the hostel (and one of us will get out of the car)...then we'd come back and get them.
After all the worry about Irina's car, then Igors' license, in the end, it was Alan's that was the problem. And nobody even cared about the insurance card!
On our way to Lviv, within the first few kilometers, we came upon a road that was so absolutely crappy, that we maxed out at 30 kmph and averaged about 10 kmph, for about 3 or 4 km, We dodged pot holes, had to swerve constantly, it was getting dark, and it was hard to see. In other words, it would take us 3 years to get to Lviv at this rate...and then we'd have to come back for the other guys??? We were thinking that this is how horror movies start. And secretly I was thinking "let them sleep at the border" (just kidding guys!).
It turns out we had made a wrong turn, and that a major highway was just down the road. We crossed at Rava Ruska...so if you ever do that, don't follow the signs straight to Lviv...the road should turn to the left...otherwise you'll be on the worst road in the world! Seriously, it's the worst. In the end, it only took slightly more than an hour from the border. We checked into our hostel (Soviet Home Hostel), got our private apartment (4 beds in one room, 2 in the other, with a kitchen), then Igors and I went back to border to pick up the others. On the way, there was a huge lightning storm. This is also how horror movies start, so we think. By the way this trip has started, we were expecting the worst.
I was getting constant updates from Mark on the hitch hiking status. First Alan went, being picked up by a cop who, in his off time, helps transport tires across the border in his car (I guess it's normal??), then Julia went in the second car that stopped (not every car was willing, so this was over the course of an hour or so). The only problem with leaving Mark (the gentleman) to be the last to cross is that he is the only one that doesn't speak Polish. Or Russian. Or any language that people going through the border there speak. So, Mark had a nice little adventure. He was picked up by 2 nice gentleman, who didn't speak a word of English. So, Mark just pointed towards Ukraine, towards his passport, then back towards Ukraine. International sign language for "get me across the border, I'm clearly a legitimate tourist and not a terrorist or murderer". They seemed to get the message, so they let him in. Little did Mark know that he was in the middle of a smuggling operation. When he threw his bag in the trunk, he noticed that it was on top of an industrial size freezer. Why did these guys have an industrial size freezer?
Sitting quietly in the car, trying to decide if he made a good decision (thinking "well, not many cars stop for hitchhikers, so I gotta take advantage of my opportunities"), Mark calmly watched the drivers hand money to each of the guards at the border, wads of cash which they pulled from behind the glove compartment. Why do they have wads of cash behind the glove compartment? Maybe they were paying the guards just to get the hitch hiker across? Doubt it! So again, why did these guys have an industrial sized freezer? Drugs, kidneys, dead bodies...could be anything. Could be for Scottish tourists! Mark was not only worried about getting across the border to meet us, but now he was worried about getting arrested for being part of a smuggling operation, or even worse, making a one-way trip to the inside of the freezer! If you ever have a chance, ask him to tell you the story...it's quite entertaining. Actually, nobody was with him while this was happening, so he could have made all of it up. We like to tease him that it didn't really happen this way...instead, the 2 guys were really nice and took him to a strip club (that's they they had wads of cash). He just didn't want Julia to know.
In the end, they all got across safe and sound, and we finally picked them up and drove them back to the hostel. Mark was a bit shaken, but ok (at least he could walk straight). After we got to the hostel we went for food, to the only place we could find still serving past midnight. We sat down, ordered, and they came back and said there was no souvlaki, which is what we all ordered. But, there's salad. Ok, no problem. So we ordered salad. They came back and said there was no salad. So we ordered just some bread and cold meat (the only thing that they really had).
Igors, Alan and Irina...happy to be there!
The only food we could get...at least it was really good!
By this time it was 1:30am and we were starving. But we were too tired to do anything else. We had just arrived, so nobody had cash, and I noticed a sign on the wall that said they accept credit cards. So when the bill came, I handed over my card. The two waitresses standing there just laughed and shook their heads at me. Of course, they didn't take credit cards at that time. I mean, why would they when everything else was already going wrong?
This was just a preview of what was to come on the weekend, when everything seemed to go against us.
Afterall, we were in Ukraine.
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