Gunnar Rundgren på resa / on tour

So now I am finally in Ukraine. I stayed a bit longer in Poland than planned, but I enjoyed it. The entry to Ukraine was not so stylish. I travelled in a bus that had seen it's better days. This was a completely local bus thing carrying mainly older women with loads of bags and boxes. Looking as if they were on their way to or from the market.  I was an exotic element in the bus, and there were a lot of discussions between the passengers and the driver about this strange creature with the bike on the bus. But they were friendly. Surprisingly the Ukrainian border control was also very friendly, even if it took time. The officer was a women named Laila with a warm smile and great looks, she even carried her uniform with a grace. Instead of inquiring a lot, she assisted me filling in the form correctly.



The country side changed quite markedly. Fields became a lot bigger on the Ukrainian side, and there were very few houses in the farm areas. Perhaps they are still kolchozes, but I don't think so because everywhere in these big fields farmers were plowing small plots with horses - yes I saw more horses yesterday than on the whole trip so far.

I had to change bus in Novojavrovsk, fortunately the driver getting me there also helped me onto the next bus.
That bus stopped in the outskirts of Lvov, so I took my stuff and headed for the town, looking for a place to stay and the tourist information.

I am not exactly an inexperienced traveller, ok I haven't gone by bike a lot but nevertheless, IT WAS A SHOCK. Kampala, Uganda has both better roads and better drivers than Lvov, but Kampala doesn't have the amount of cars, trolley busses and trams that Lvov has. Drivers just take any turns and any directions. Red lights seem to be advisory, roads are really VERY bad (and I have seen a lot). the tram rails are an additional problem as they often rise 10 cm above the road surface and they are hard to pass over with the bicycle. The sever bumps also made my load sliding to the side, caused my back light to fall of and made an impact on my bottom similar to a ten hour ride. Don't think I will do a lot of biking in this city. It was incredibly hard to find a hotel and in the end I ended up in a real upmarket - but not pleasant place. Far above my budget so I will look for another place now.

For the rest Lvov has a certain charm. It is also an old town with a lot of nice buildings. But it is very big and a bit difficult to get a handle of. I will try today and perhaps report more later on.

My plan is to stay here for some days and get a bit accustomed to Ukaraine, to the language and in particular the alphabet, the road signs etc. After that I will start my criss-crossing of Ukraine, ending hopefully in Jalta. My idea is to go a rather straight line, but park the bicycle and make excursions by train or bus or boat, eg into the Carpathians, to Kiev etc. But we will see, plans are loose and open.

Regarding my remark about the US elections, I note that this hotel has a special event tonight: the show of an old Premier League game with a NEW TRANSLATION OF THE SPEAKER COMMENTS!. Hey that is something important compared to who is going to rule the USA!