Not wanting to spend 24hrs driving in my car, i made a stop for a couple of days in Wisla, south of Poland. I stayed in a luxurious hotel (Hotel Golebiewski) to kick off the holiday in a relax state. This was no ordinary hotel. It had a big swimming pool area, with several slides, several types of saunas. yakuzi's, etc. In the morning and afternoon there was a big buffet (all-you-can-eat). I stayed inthe hotel for the weekend together with Anthony, Magda and Pauline (1yr), and Marek, Machek (5?yrs), Monika and Magda (2?yrs).

In the evening you could go to the arcades or the disco underneath the hotel (free entry for hotel guests). Highlight of the weekend of course was to party and dance with Monika and Magda, while Anthony and Marek watched the kids.  The night after Anthony and I got drunk on good old Polish wodka (Zubrowka). On monday i left for a couple of days in....

I visited Krakow in 2003, but was there for just half a day. I promised myself to go back, as the first visit was too short (and too wet because of the continious rain). This time i was all alone, which is really not very fun being on your own. The only advantage is that you can see and do whatever you want, so i did walk alot. And i mean alot. Also the weather helped, clear blue sky...

On the second day i met with Andrzej, Marta, Marco, Ingrid and Florence on the Krakow Airport. For the ladies i had a single red rose to welcome them to Poland, although we didn't plan on staying for long. The girls joined me in my car to Lviv, the guys had to take the train. There was a little competition of who would make it first to Lviv....

Our trip started with a huge road construction work between Krakow and Tarnow, in which we covered 50 km in 4 hours. Luckiliy i was not bored because i had three skinny chicks to entertain me. Btw, this included 4 nationalities: Dutch (me), French (Florence), Spanish (actually Ingrid is a hybrid Spanish/Dutch) and Ukrainski (Marta). After Tarnow it was ok, but it took a total of 7 hours to get from Krakow to the border. And when ai say border, i mean the line to cross the border started problably 3 km before it. Of course, by now i had still the vivid recollection of my first attempt to cross the border (in December last year, see other blog entry). It took me ONLY 3.5 hours, but that was because i skipped the line a little by following a city bus on the wrong side of the road. Also this time i managed to follow a big fuel truck driving on the wrong side of the road (the two lanes in the right direction was one big traffic jam).

I managed to drive up just before the border area, but being still on the wrong side of the road, the people in the line were not very willing to let me back in. An Italian toursit in front of me was order to go back to the beginning of the line by a police officer. He really didn't want to. We offered stroopwafels, money, etc. to this guy to let us in, but he wouldn't budge. Luckily i was able to squeeze in in front of him, when he made a mistake by giving me just a little space to put my car into the line (at ram speed). Made it into the border area, where this guy behind me got a warning of the police not to let people cut into the line. After this the guy came up to me to le me know he was prepared to drive his car into mine. Yeah, i can smell b*llsh*t a mile away.

So crossing the Polish side took ten minutes altogether. Crossing the Ukrainian side took 1.5 hours. First i had to explain why i was with my car. Had to explain why with three girls...from different nations...all going to the same adress in Lviv (you have to fill out this form with your personal data, dna, where you're staying, what you are doing here, etc). Then this custom official gets smart saying he wants to join us by filling out this form also... We played along, he asked us if we brought any food, because that's not alowed. Of course i had food (i'm from Holland for god's sake), i had a case of stroopwafels clearly visible, but i guess i ahve a honest face when i replied NO.

We even had stamp nr.2 and stamp nr. 3 walking to our cars and giving us the stamps (instead of me chasing these stamp like last winter). I guess it pays to have hot chickies in your car (doors will open...it's so much easier).

We lost the compition by two hours, arriving in Lviv late that night. Also watched two women fight to get into the only bus from the border to Lviv. And let me tell you, these women didn't fight like ladies, when women fight, they fight to win, anything goes. We couldn't pass the bus, so we waited 10 minutes before border officials made an end to it (which were standing on top of it, doing nothing).

I saw Lviv fir the first time in the winter. Winter in Ukraine can be harse. You only go out when need to, you do what you do, and get the hell inside again. In summer is more relaxing of course. Next couple of days we toured the centre of Lviv. Our proffessional and unpayed tour guides were Andrzej and Marta. We payed a visit to famous restaurants like Amadeus and of course Split at the freedom square. Also it was nice to see the Opera building on the inside, which was beautifull. Night life was in the disco called Micto, but even on a saturday night it is not very busy. I guess most people flee the city in the summer and go to Odessa or something.

Additional tour guides were Khrystyna (and later also Olessa). I met Khrystyna in the winter, when she and her aunt Marta welcomed me in the appartment. This time, as we were with a larger group, we stayed in another bigger appartment of Pani Romana. This included traditional Ukrainian breakfast made by Pani Romana. She speaks Polish, so we could communicate a little (i mean a little because my Polish is worse than...). Khrystyna also showed me around outside the centre, visiting a park and taking a close look at the big new house of the mayor being build.

Made a visit to on old town with wooden houses and churches.

Highlight was the Lychakivsky Cemetery, but we had to climb over the wall at the back, because it was already closed. After a while we got busted by security officers, which we then paid/bribed to let us continue our sightseeing adventure.

On the last day i cooked the famous Dutch Aardappelanders potato dish, with a special sauce i brought from Holland, 2000 km away. I invited Pani Romana, Khrystyna and her brother, Marta and Andrzej. I only saw Khrystyna in jeans, and somehow i convinced her to wear a dress (whcih was red and really looked good on her) during this diner.

There was also an independence day celebration, but was the mood was not good because of an airline accident the day before.

* Contineously eat different pastries in places like Veronica or Tsukernia. I recommend the two tyoes of chocolate made pastry (black and white cake and cream)

* Just walk around and take some time to see the details on the buildings in/around the old center (watch it btw when you cross the streets, cars will use your body to stop!)

* Drink gggggabibski (local town beer Lvivski)

* Get around using the old tram system for 50 kobecks (there old, but safe: women drive the trams)

Kiev

We took the sleep train at 11 pm to Kiev, in order to arrive around 7 am in the morning. Couldn't sleep because it was to hot and a very bumpy ride. When we arrived at the appartment, i went out for a little walk (appartment was right in the center). Kiev is a big city, but they have an amazing metro system. I have a feeling the stairs takes you a kilometer underground, there really long. Also the system is fast, every two minutes a metro. It needs to be fast, because it's the main means of transportation of it's citizens.

First day we visited the main street and square, and a couple of gold plated churches. We also visited this very old church dated from mediaval times. The next day however 4 of 6 people got sick from food poisining. Of course, Marco as an Italian, was more sensitive to bad food than the rest of us, and had to be taken to a modern state-of-the-art, no sorry, it was STATE hospital to get his stomach flushed. I was  sick too but not as bad, especially after being sang to by Marta to finally get me some sleep and rest after this ordeal. Next day i was ready to see a couple of dead people who were mummyfied and buried on the same place they spend their whole lifes just praying. We had to return to Lviv, so there was no time to visit Czernobyl :-(, maybe next time. Also like to mentioin that i saw the movie Casanova, after which i tried all corny tacticts from the movie on Florence...succes rate: 0%. She was more happy with her newly bought jacket (remember Kiev?).

 

Made my way back to Warsaw, to visit Wojtec, Ewa and Jas. Also met up with Agniezska and Pawel for some drinks. And that was it! There are some pictures of course i posted in the album section.

 

* 'I laik skinny b... eeeuh, skinny chicks' (thanks to Florence)

* [insert arbitrary puking sound] (remember Kiev?)

* 'You guys get a room!' (after seeing Marta and Andrzej kiss like only newlyweds do)

* 'Dwa piwa, tre cola, i twi numer telefon!'

* 'F**k that s**t'

* Andrzej's Valenki Kozackchow

* Grazy Goat

* 'S'kildoo?'

* STM (Stupid Toursit Mode)

* Kinderhoofdjes

* Marco not being a virgin anymore (remember Kiev?)

* 'Next you're gonna tell me i have to kiss a guy to get better...' (remember Kiev?)

* Bassanova