This morning started off with me waking up at 7am after only a little over five hours of sleep. I took what I would like to think was a quick shower, but we all know I lack this concept, and got dressed. I did my best to pack properly and said goodbye to a few hostel mates. Also I must admit that this was one of the harder hostel goodbyes. I became good friends with a good amount of people there. Last night night I had a blast with Ellen and Scott. You see Scott is an Aussie, but he's also half Polish so he gave us a tour of Old Town last night pretending to be fully Polish. It was really a laugh the whole thing. Best part may have been him trying to speak his broken Polish to the girl at mcdonlds that spoke perfect English. A+ for effort right?
I checked out of my hostel and grabbed a quick breakfast to eat with me on the train and set off dragging my suitcase and another bag. I got on the train to find the first car completely full and wondered through the train until I could find a cabin that had a seat. I came across one that had three guys sitting in it, but then I heard Mama Otters voice in the back of my head about being safe so I kept looking for another cabin. I found one with a woman, a teenage boy and a nun in it. Seemed like a score to me and it was until the nun pulled out her laptop. Now the fact that the nun even has a laptop is kind of odd to me. She plugged in her headphones and started to listening to music, except there was one problem, it was still playing on the speakers. It was fine for a while, it was in Polish and I just put my headphones on and listened to my music and ate my breakfast. A little bit later a guy with the food cart came by ( I am still waiting for that witch from Harry Potter to come down a train and sell me chocolate frogs someday) and the nun and I both got tea. By this time she had switched to a song in English and the food guy kind of chuckled as he shut the door. At this point I kind of lost it. God was punishing me for the night before. I just knew it. The same song kept playing over and over again. It didn't end for the longest time.
The train ride that was suppose to be four hours was finally over after five hours, (welcome to Poland!) and I was in the border town of Przemyśl. From there I took a small bus to the actual border. At the border I got the pleasure of walking through all these Ukrainians on the Polish side trying to sell vodka and cigarets as it is they are cheeper in Ukraine. I went through the Polish side of the border and the woman had slight trouble finding the stamp for when I came into the EU, guess I travel too much and then she sent me on my way. I then got to walk through no mans land, did I mention this was all slightly up hill? I then got to the Ukrainian side and again got slight hassle from the border people. Its not often they have an American crossing this way I guess, but they were friendly the whole time. I am pretty sure they were just wondering what the heck I was doing going to Ukraine for February, just like everyone else I know. As soon as I came out of the border building a guy wanted to take me to Lviv in a taxi (It's like 40 miles away). I shook him off and then another guy told me he would take me for 30 Euros. I told him no that I was taking the bus. Mind you this was all conversed through very broken English on there part and like three words of Ukrainian on my part. I ended up finally getting to my small bus which was only a little over $2 American. I was the only non-Ukrainian on there and I couldn't have been happier. This is the real way to travel so you see the real culture. We drove through countryside and towns until we reached Lviv. I found my tram and took a seat and sat there in the freezing cold for about 10 minuets before it finally moved. I sat there thinking, Welcome back to Lviv and its horrible public transportation. Looks like someone is going to be walking a lot. The thing finally moved and I patiently waited until I saw places that I knew so I would know where to get off. I am pleased to say that I found my hostel without a map by memory. I got to the hostel and just laughed that it had not changed one bit, where as little Lviv has grown up since the last time I was here. I have the same bed and everything. I will take some pictures of my pad of the next month and post them for sure. Tomorrow I think I am going to spend going grocery shopping and I need to get a dictionary badly and I am going to go buy a months worth of Ballet tickets. Also I might look into sleeping sometime too.
Also I am including for your viewing pleasure an over happy me about being on a bus to Lviv <3
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