Category: Ukraine

  If you have read the previous post you will know that I gave a brief description of Lviv and posted it around mid-day. I then decided where I would head to in the morning and made a hotel booking in case the border crossing was bad and it was late when I arrived. I then went walking around the city again before packing up ready for today’s drive. Bad plan! I discovered a considerable amount more about the city of Lviv that I hadn’t discovered earlier and it is a beautiful city. Those that follow me regularly will know I am not a lover of cities, I prefer nature, mountains and deserts. Lviv, even under the current circumstances is vibrant, the population is enjoying its freedom, the children were playing, screaming and laughing in the waterspouts of the main square. On almost all of the park benches there are earnest chess matches being played by enthusiastic men of all ages and...

I woke somewhat earlier than normal this morning startled by the wailing of the Air Raid Siren. Still bleary-eyed my first thought was “it’s a practise” followed by “What? At five o’clock in the morning”. As a post war baby, I can remember the sirens being tested every so often in the early fifties and we always waited for the short ‘all clear’ blast following. Do they sound an ‘all clear’ here, are we supposed to get out of bed and go somewhere? Oh, to hell with all that, I’m going back to sleep. But I defy anyone not to continue listening for the sound of an aircraft, or roar of an incoming missile, for a few minutes at least. I saw later in the news today that in fact Odessa was hit by two missiles with another two destroyed. If they were fired from a ship in the Black Sea the trajectory would have crossed us among many other towns...

Over breakfast at The Frontier Hotel I met the owner is a Maltese gentleman and who at the age of 19 bought a brand new MG Midget as his first car. He was thrilled to see Bridget and learn what we are doing, albeit he questioned the wisdom of visiting some locations. We left the hotel at 08:30 and drove, without incident, the 500 metres to the border. The queue was not too long and in total it took less than an hour to negotiate Customs and Passport control for exiting Romania and entering The Ukraine. However, it took another twenty minutes to purchase a green card for Bridget. I had no local currency to pay for the card and the only ATM at the border was broken! Eventually, the broker and I came to an understanding, I only had 20€, so he would charge me 20€. As we left the border the queue of cars and charity workers waiting to cross...