So you’ve all heard my theory that to stay sane here you must take vacation every 2-3 months. So far I have succeed in doing this and am happily sane. Shortly after New Years Jason and I hopped a bus to northwestern Ukraine. It was a 12 hour bus ride to Lvov (Ukraine’s 3rd ? largest city). When we stepped off the bus we thought we had mistakenly bought tickets to the North Pole. It was so freaking cold. The thermometers read -15 C (5 F). I suddenly remembered why I avoid traveling in the winter. It took all of our will power to leave the hostel and explore the city. I made by bag considerably lighter by wearing all the clothes I brought yet I still couldn’t stay warm. Every 10 minutes we would have to duck into a store or café to warm ourselves and fight against frost bite and hypothermia. But it was sunny out and the city was beautiful. But we couldn’t take the cold and were ready to move on to Poland after a day and a half. 
So after a day and a half we caught a mini-bus on the second day to the border. We were told it was quicker to walk across the border than it was to take transport (Jason’s friend took a bus across and waited at the border for 10 hours). And luckily it was really easy to get transport to the border and beyond. And we were even luckier to meet a Canadian guy from Poland, studying in Ukraine. He spoke perfect English and Polish and showed us the quick way through the border- all in all it took 30 minutes. We posed as students. If we would have waited in the line at the border I am sure that today I would no longer be Jennifer the daughter, the sister, the friend, etc but instead Jennifer the popsicle. So we flashed our American passports (it is really an advantage sometimes having one) and walked right through. But we did have a bit of a problem with the border guard not believing that Jason was really Jason. His passport picture doesn’t look too much like him anymore, especially with his beard. It was pretty funny. I think it took 10 minutes to convince the guard that it was him but then he proceeded to say Jason’s name around 10 times in disbelief. But we made it through and the Polish let us in much easier. Our new Canadian-Polish friend was on a break to visit his parents in Poland. And did we luck out. His dad was picking him up at the border and offered to give us a ride to the nearby town where we could catch a train to Krakow. During the 15 minute ride to the train station we got to escape Eastern Europe as we rode in his brand new Chevy truck that was shipped over from North America speaking in English and reminiscing about America and Canada. But then we were thrown back into the cold and Eastern Europe. (half-hearted and sarcastic) hurray.
Our firs step was to get our train tickets. Bummer, we just missed a train and have a 2 hour wait. Not too bad though because it was around 8 and we needed food anyways. So we wandered around for oh 5 minutes before the cold wrestled us into the first cozy looking bar we came across. What better way to warm up than with beer. While sitting there contemplating if a dinner of beer was good enough we looked up at the clock and to our surprise was an hour behind our watches. Crap, Poland was an hour behind Ukraine and Moldova and therefore we had a three hour wait, ugh. So we made the best of it by drinking beer, eating French fries, and experimenting with all the options available on my camera.
Around 10 pm we forced ourselves out of the bar into the cold. We realized we still hadn’t eaten any dinner and were still hungry. The only place we could find open only had snickers, chips, and more beer to offer us. We got 2 of each. So we boarded the train and headed to Krakow. Around 2 am we arrived in my new favorite city. We woke ourselves and went on search of a internet café to see if we had a response and an address from the guy we were to be staying with. It took a while to find but we eventually made it to his place and fell into bed around 3:30am. The next few days were full of adventure. We walked everywhere and had tons of fun.
On our last day we visited Auschwitz, 2 hours outside of Krakow.
My vacation then came to a close and I had to travel back to Lvov to catch my bus back to Moldova. This was a long ordeal that began at 3am and didn’t end ‘til 6am the next day and involved very little sleeping. I had to take many different buses and wait a few hours between each one just to get back to Moldova. But I was greeted by tons of snow!
So after a day and a half we caught a mini-bus on the second day to the border. We were told it was quicker to walk across the border than it was to take transport (Jason’s friend took a bus across and waited at the border for 10 hours). And luckily it was really easy to get transport to the border and beyond. And we were even luckier to meet a Canadian guy from Poland, studying in Ukraine. He spoke perfect English and Polish and showed us the quick way through the border- all in all it took 30 minutes. We posed as students. If we would have waited in the line at the border I am sure that today I would no longer be Jennifer the daughter, the sister, the friend, etc but instead Jennifer the popsicle. So we flashed our American passports (it is really an advantage sometimes having one) and walked right through. But we did have a bit of a problem with the border guard not believing that Jason was really Jason. His passport picture doesn’t look too much like him anymore, especially with his beard. It was pretty funny. I think it took 10 minutes to convince the guard that it was him but then he proceeded to say Jason’s name around 10 times in disbelief. But we made it through and the Polish let us in much easier. Our new Canadian-Polish friend was on a break to visit his parents in Poland. And did we luck out. His dad was picking him up at the border and offered to give us a ride to the nearby town where we could catch a train to Krakow. During the 15 minute ride to the train station we got to escape Eastern Europe as we rode in his brand new Chevy truck that was shipped over from North America speaking in English and reminiscing about America and Canada. But then we were thrown back into the cold and Eastern Europe. (half-hearted and sarcastic) hurray.Our firs step was to get our train tickets. Bummer, we just missed a train and have a 2 hour wait. Not too bad though because it was around 8 and we needed food anyways. So we wandered around for oh 5 minutes before the cold wrestled us into the first cozy looking bar we came across. What better way to warm up than with beer. While sitting there contemplating if a dinner of beer was good enough we looked up at the clock and to our surprise was an hour behind our watches. Crap, Poland was an hour behind Ukraine and Moldova and therefore we had a three hour wait, ugh. So we made the best of it by drinking beer, eating French fries, and experimenting with all the options available on my camera.
Around 10 pm we forced ourselves out of the bar into the cold. We realized we still hadn’t eaten any dinner and were still hungry. The only place we could find open only had snickers, chips, and more beer to offer us. We got 2 of each. So we boarded the train and headed to Krakow. Around 2 am we arrived in my new favorite city. We woke ourselves and went on search of a internet café to see if we had a response and an address from the guy we were to be staying with. It took a while to find but we eventually made it to his place and fell into bed around 3:30am. The next few days were full of adventure. We walked everywhere and had tons of fun.
On our last day we visited Auschwitz, 2 hours outside of Krakow.
My vacation then came to a close and I had to travel back to Lvov to catch my bus back to Moldova. This was a long ordeal that began at 3am and didn’t end ‘til 6am the next day and involved very little sleeping. I had to take many different buses and wait a few hours between each one just to get back to Moldova. But I was greeted by tons of snow!
2 comments:
Hi Jennifer!
That vacation sounded very fun. And very cold.
oops. pressed publish too soon. :). The (new and improved)cabin looks really cool, so does Len and Carols, when you get back you won't be sure if you're in the right place. So far we have alot to go and Dad keeps changing his mind about everything, we have about 5 bedrooms, and many other spaces for sleeping too. Sounds like you're enjoying Moldova AND getting snow (which is NOT fair).
Can't wait to see you!
Kyla
P.S. Michael is REALLY tall.
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