back to 'civilization'

sasha and i walked fast the 8kms back to lyuta and the bus to take us to kostrino. they were a lot of other russian and ukranian rainbows on the bus too, and we made a little family as we waited for the electricki to syanki. we played music the whole way, the conductoresses were appreciative and sat and listened to us on the train. we had a meal at syanki waiting for the connection to lviv, again more music, sasha and i with three others even did some busking along the whole train, making about 30  hryvnias, but more importantly, having a lot of fun! sasha left the train at samblar to get his connection for striy and the hitch back to chisinau, and even symka noticed that i felt very sad after he had left. he now had the rainbow flu bug full-on but still had enough energy to keep the music going.

 

at lviv, odik did his best with my phone to arrange hosts for us, and another lviv brother managed to find a short term rental house near the main square which came to be the rainbow welcome centre in lviv. i stayed one night at odik's place and one night at 'new welcome'. alex, one russian brother, gave me some healing balm for my flu symptoms, and i slept and rested most of my stay in lviv. ivan, symka and i saw odik off on his train to ternopil, and i in turn saw symka and ivan off on their train to kiev that early early morning. i waited at the electricki station for my connection to the polish border. only i got off at the wrong stop, a misunderstanding... in the end i had to walk 4 kms to mostriska and i had just arrived at the main road and asked someone for the road to sheyni when the marshutka pulls up for one guy waiting at the roadside. i run up and shout inside: "greniza?" "da!". and in i jump. the minibus is driving right to the border. here there is a separate processing for cars and people crossing on foot. the woman at the ukrainian side detains me a little, asking some questions... first time in ukraine? where did you cross the border? etc etc. by now there is a long queue building up after me, i hear the word baraban, people are no doubt talking about this strange guy with the drum... in the end, she reappears and stamps the passport and off i go. walking, walking, walking through the no-man's land until i reach: the polish side. it seems that they have given all the immigration/customs posts to young people which is nice to see, seems the older ones are upstairs putting their feet up! one young guy inevitably asks me to play the drum and i don't refuse. the other one is phoning his superiors upstairs, something about an english passport.... here we go again. i act bored and nonchalant, which i am. they swipe my passport through the machine reader and are obviously happy with the screen display, cos they don't detain me longer. supervisor must be pleased too, he doesn't need to get his feet off the desk to come down and deal with me in person. the young woman at the customs beckons me over: "do you have any vodka or cigarettes...." it's a useless exercise cos the real mafia smugglers doing the contraband business bribe the authorities anyway, but i just say, "no, i don't drink or smoke." she starts to feel inside my backpack which is full to the brim. "shall i take this out," i ask helpfully. "no, it's ok", she says, "you can go". i buckle up the pack and leave into the open air once more and find the road again from the border. the second car gives me a lift to przemsyl, where it starts to drizzle. i hitch anyway. six hours i am waiting, punctuated by a visit by the straz greniza guys. a small unmarked red fiat pulls up on the pavement in front of me and out jumps two paramilitary looking guys, one with shaved head and all the presence of a neo-nazi thug. "documentation", he asks. "yes, of course", i reply, handing them my passport. "where do you live?" "london". "just a moment," he says, and they both return to the car. and ten minutes of scrutinizing my passport and radioing in my details. and finally he gets out and hands it back and wishes me a good day. finally i get a lift to rzeszow, via the back roads. unbelievably, i am already putting the russian i have learnt into practise with the driver. he offers me a place to stay for the night out of the rain, and as it is still raining when we arrive in rzeszow, i take him up on the offer. i think he will take me to his friend's place but instead we pull up next to a modern looking church, the mass is in progress. i am introduced to one guy who shows me the way to the an adjoining building, what seems like a centre for visiting priests or the like. i have the whole place to myself, i take a very hot shower, i get some food and tea and a good night's sleep. at seven in the morning i get shown the door, not even time for a cup of tea! fortunately, this place is near the hitching point for krakow, where ola and i hitched from last year after the polish gathering. so i remembered the way quite well, and was there not two minutes before i get i lift from wojcech, a landscape gardener.he takes me to the other sideof tarnow for the hitching point to krakow, and an hour's wait before i get a lift in a very comfortable range-rover. marius takes me to 10kms before krakow, there is a lot of slow moving traffic passing my thumb and for sure most of them are going to krakow but none are too keen to give me a lift. in the end i mouth the word 'krakow' at one guy, and with a wave of his arm, i grab my stuff and jump in while he is still in the queue of traffic. martin drives me to the centre of krakow, and i find a bench in the green strip surrounding the old town.

and as i make myself a cheese sandwich, a rainbow couple approach me: it is elan and shakti, 'true' rainbow family! we chat a bit before they get their connection for berlin, and i accost a friendly-looking type to use their mobile phone. i get hold of kaja and after a couple of hours of busking, we meet at empik in the main square. and then straight to her flat, where now my dirty clothes are washed and hanging out to dry, i have a room to myself and a computer and internet access to update the blog. photos will follow soon!