It's My Pierogi-tive

After being in the US for two months, I went back to Krakow for approximately 9 days before heading off on another journey, this time to Donegal (north-west Ireland) for a few days, and then England for a little over a week (it’s my great-aunt’s 91st birthday!). Getting to Donegal from Krakow was a bit of a schlep, since Ryanair has a monopoly on budget flights into Dublin and most of Ireland. Sadly, I was forced to break my “I will never, ever fly Ryanair!” vow – but it really wasn’t that bad (aside from the fact that they charge you for everything, like most budget airlines, and spent most of the 30 minute trip trying to sell you everything from cigarettes to food. No thanks.) So, I ended up flying Easy Jet from Krakow to Liverpool, Ryanair from Liverpool to Dublin, and then another airline called Flybe from Dublin to Carrickfinn (Donegal’s airport, and also where I was headed). On top of that, there was too much fog to land in Donegal the first day, so after circling for about 90 minutes, we went back to Dublin! I made some lovely “plane friends” – there were only about 10 passengers, most of them older people with +1s who had been in Dublin for doctors’ appointments, so they were entertained to find a lone American on a rarely-trafficked route.

Anyway, my friends live in Carrickfinn, which is right on the coast in the Donegal Gaeltacht, so nearly everyone speaks Irish. It’s a fairly rural area, but very beautiful, and I slept very soundly after the city+construction noise of Krakow. It’s also a hotbed of Irish music, which is great if you’re me. Donegal music is fairly distinctive, and it has a lot of Scottish influence, both in choice of tunes (like highlands and strathspeys), plus in the style in which tunes are played. I was lucky enough to get to go to an all-Irish cabaret, where one of the guest acts was an Irish-ska band (in addition to, you know, the regular guy from Zimbabwe doing his take on Irish step-dancing while singing in Irish, which was just great). But I digress. Without further ado -  picture time!

The view from the house

The bay with the tide out

Errigal, Donegal's highest mountain

Some water

One of my friends was returning to the US this week, and she wanted to see Dresden before she left. Also an Irish group (Altan) I know was playing a concert there, and I’ve been deprived of Irish music in Poland. Also Dresden is an awesome city. So we went.

But first we were stuck in Wrocław for a few hours, thanks to the [in]efficiency of the PKP (Polish trains). I have to say, this experience was definitely a vote in favour of taking the first train possible, in case it’s delayed, so that you have options for the connecting trains. Also, it seems that the PKP is checking student IDs these days, so if you’re travelling on a student ticket, make sure you have your legitymacja with you, and that the stickers are valid, otherwise, they’ll make you buy a full price ticket.

A Wrocław gnome

We think this is the old town hall

The rynek reminds me of Prague

I was surprised by how cosmopolitan Wrocław was. They had restaurants with real salads! (Yes, I judge cities based on their salad offerings.) Another note for travellers: the Wrocław train station is actually WORSE than the Krakow one in terms of being a construction mess.

But anyway, we finally made it to Dresden.

Pickle plate at Sophienkeller. I can never resist.

There's a really tiny nun feeding the birds in this one.

Dresden sunset!

Also, the concert was awesome. Here’s a brief clip of a piece called Is the Big Man Within that I recorded for my mother (it’s her favourite). It’s unique because the A part is a slip jig (9/8 time), while the B part is a regular jig (6/8 time). The sound quality is a bit meh – iPhones aren’t great for this sort of thing.

And finally, on the way back, we successfully managed to all PKP trains and take lovely, lovely, nice, new, Deutsche Bahn trains the WHOLE WAY. It was a wonderful treat.

Our trip to the city of many names was relatively uneventful, given how we chose to get there: we walked across the Polish-Ukrainian border. It’s actually a lot simpler than it sounds, and apparently much quicker than taking a bus or train directly through from Krakow. The way to do it is: you take a train from Krakow to Przemyśl (something like 40zl per person), then from Przemyśl, you take a minibus to the border town on the Polish side, called Medyka (2zl per person). At this point, you begin the walk across the border, which took us about 30 minutes, including passing through both checkpoints. As one would expect, given that it is an external EU border, the Polish checkpoint is a lot more professional-looking than the Ukrainian one. After passing the Polish border, you walk for a few minutes through a fenced in area, after which the Ukrainian border guard will give your passport a cursory glance and a careless stamp and wave you on through. I was very excited, because this stamp became the first on my passport extension!we

This is what you'd see if you were going into Poland - a long line of people waiting to get back into Ukraine.

We became very excited when we saw the Ukraine sign.

Ukraine welcomes you!

So anyway, we successfully crossed the border. Then, after the border crossing, you have to walk a ways down the road and then turn left at the first intersection to get to the bus station, which I believe Wikitravel described as ‘new and modern’, although I would beg to differ. From there, it’s fairly easy to catch a small bus, called a marshrutka, to L’viv. Of course, you must first contend with the taxi drivers who will tell you that there is no such bus, as well as the hordes of people trying to push their way onto the bus without tickets. The ticket taking process is a bit suspect – before we boarded, the driver announced, “Only people with tickets can get on!” because of how many people were pushing and shoving. However, once the bus was full, he simply said, “Ok, does everyone have a ticket?” and then we set off. Along the way, we’d stop periodically and cram a few more people from the side of the road in, to the point where the door was bulging outwards.

The bus makes many stops along the way, and the road is in relatively poor condition (perhaps a slightly surprising fact, since it is the main east-west thoroughfare and connects Ukraine to Poland), so by the time we got to L’viv, it was already early evening. Our hostel was fairly mediocre (“WC and shower on the floor” that you actually had to go outside to get to them…although they were on the same floor), but we were seduced by the fact that it had historical value – Pilsudski lived in the building! – and was centrally located. Also, it was 9€ a night,

I’d heard mixed things about L’viv from various people, but I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The city itself has a slightly more bohemian, laid-back vibe than Krakow – for example, you see many more casually dressed people going out for the evening. Admittedly, we did have a number of excellent recommendations from a friend who is a L’viv native.

Our first night we ate at a place called Gasova Lyampa (Oil Lamp – apparently the first one was invented in L’viv), on Virmens’ka Street, followed by snacks and drinks at a magical place called Kryivka, at Rynek Square 14, where we returned the following evening. Kryivka is a 24-hour Ukrainian-resistance themed restaurant/bar, and you need the password (“haslo” in Ukrainian) in order to enter, after which you are offered a shot of vodka. The restaurant is decorated with pictures of resistance fighters all over, as well as some military equipment, and many of the dishes are named for fighters, with their biographies underneath. Both Gasova Lyampa and Kryivka serve very tasty western Ukrainian food, and they were the culinary highlights of L’viv for me, although the cafe at Dzyga Gallery has some excellent teas (we didn’t eat there).

As we only had one full day in L’viv before heading off to Kyiv, we mostly spent it wandering around the city somewhat aimlessly. We followed some dirt paths up into the hills and simply enjoyed the fact that, for once, it wasn’t pouring.

Also a common sight in Poland (although the Lada is not) - heels, baby carriage, middle of cooblestone street

JP2 - Ukrainian Edition

After cavorting about in the fresh air, we decided to set out for Kiev by the 8:37 train, which we missed by about 2 minutes after a 15 minute wait for a taxi, followed by an incredibly slow-moving ticket line after the realisation that it was not possible to buy tickets on the train.

On Saturday, I will be embarking on my voyage of the summer, to (ideally) a whole slew of places I’ve never been to before. My current plan is:

Train to L’viv/Lwow for a day or so
Train to Kyiv for a few days
Train to Odessa for a day or so
Ferry across the Black Sea to Varna (Bulgaria)
And from there, I will meander my way through the former Yugoslavia, perhaps going to Belgrade (provided that things with Kosovo don’t really deteriorate further in the next few days), Sarajevo and Split, and then up the coast to Zagreb somewhere around the 18th to catch a train to…
Salzburg, to see a friend perform in Die Zauberflote
And finally to Munich, where I’ll meet up with my parents/sister

I want to see the Balkans before the EU gets its claws into them, and I want to see summer (Krakow has had rather a lot of rain lately…). Along the way, I’ll try to be posting updates here/on Twitter/on Facebook to confirm that I am alive.