L'viv, Ukraine

This was actually our first day in L'viv.

To save money we decided to walk across the border from Poland to Ukraine. An interesting experience.

From Krakow we took a four hour train to the eastern city of Przemy?l, which, at first, looked just like any other post-soviet industrial forgotten city. We were later assured by some locals that the old town is rather attractive. From Przemy?l we took a small mini-bus (marshrukta - get used to this word) to the actual border crossing where we joined the other lines of scarf wearing babushkas cramming their way across the border. Exiting Poland was easy enough and so, too, was entering Ukraine. The only slightly unusual thing was being asked "where are you going?, "where are you staying?". Felt like a bit of a Soviet hangover.

The Cyrillic alphabet has an immediate distancing effect on me. An isolation from the language of a country. But it's an isolation that I like (for the most part - until I'm lost) as it's a challenge. The no man's land between Ukraine and Poland is nothing more than a few hundred metres. But in the five minutes it takes to walk from one nation to the other it feels like you have warped a few hundred miles. Poland, really, is central Europe. Ukraine, really, is most definitely East.

We made it L'viv on another marshrukta with the help from a friendly Polish/German/Ukrainian/Hindu guy. Sounds complicated but the important thing is that he was friendly.