There are no planes to Lviv due to the war, so the logistics around the summer school are a bit more involved. The recommended route is to take one of the trains from Poland to Lviv. I chose to go by car on a two-day journey.
A roadtrip!
I never thought of myself as a ‘car person’, but I’ve concluded I really value the freedom and preparatory simplicity it provides. I also was a bit hesitant to rely on my ability to reserve the correct connecting train/plane tickets and be everywhere on time. And being away for six weeks, I had a lot of stuff I wanted to take with me — enough to fill a car.
Almost a year ago, I drove from the east of the Netherlands to the North-East of Poland for a wedding. That was 1200km and took me almost 17 hours (with pitstops and power naps). My passenger blasted the Galavant soundtrack in the car to keep me awake. It was clearly more than what I should do in one day. So I’ve learned to chunk the trip! In this case — I’d travel to Lviv in two days.
Saturday: Netherlands to Poland (Wrocław)
Saturday 7th of June at 9:30 Dutch time I left my home (in the East of the Netherlands) — one and a half hour later than expected. I’d go east for a long drive over the German Autobahn in the direction of Berlin, then Dresden, the crossing into Poland to stay at my hotel in Wrocław.
In Poland, I passed the same truck from the Netherlands with humanitarian aid for Ukraine twice — I must be a slow pitstopper. In the hotel restaurant in Poland a drunkish man was escorted away by security. Other than that, Saturday was pretty uneventful.
Sunday: Poland to Ukraine (border)
From Wrocław to the Ukrainian border is a four and a half hour drive, but I didn’t know what to expect from the border crossing. So, Sunday 8th of June I left the hotel after an early breakfast (8:15).
Do you know that comfortable feeling of driving for hours on near-empty highways at near-constant speeds? Imagine what I felt when (A) I noticed my passport no longer being right next to me where I explicitly left it, and (B) I suddenly remembered I took it with me inside a Polish pitstop two hours ago. After some swearing and stopping at the nearest parking spot with a lot of anxiety, it turns out it was in my pants. False alarm 🤷!
Sunday: waiting at the border
The big moment. I arrived at 13:40 on the border between Poland and Ukraine. Everyone queued up in the center lane, no one in the right. I follow suit, step out and with some handwaving and broken Ukrainian ask the car in front of me why we’re all here (point to center lane) and not here (point to right lane). Then I get a response in Ukrainian and jump back into my car… to fetch my mobile phone for the translation function. Luckily, the kind Ukrainians did the same thing and were already using their own phone for translations. Turns out they didn’t know why there was only one long queue either.
Sunday: waiting at the border on the Polish side
First, I had to convince the Polish border guards. A stern-looking female border guard asked me for my passport and vehicle registration [kentekenbewijs]. Then she asked “private or business” and I answered “private“. She looked up — intensely. To defuse whatever suspicions she had I elaborated: “I’m learning the Ukrainian language in Lviv”. Her response was as spontaneous as mutually unexpected: “Wèh!?”. I re-upped the game by saying: “Я вчу Українську мову”. I showed the invoice of the Ukrainian Catholic University (that offers the course). She relented and let me pass…
Sunday: waiting at the border on the Ukrainian side
I simply parked my car on the empty left booth — there were no cars there. Apparently there was no queue there, but I forced it into existence by simply putting my car there. Luckily, the English-speaking Ukrainian border guard entering the booth was very friendly and she did accept my explanation that I wanted to learn the Ukrainian language in Lviv. I just had to park my car a bit further down to the next booth…
Suddenly, three border guards approached me.
- “Luhansk!?” I explained them “No, Lviv”.
- “Donetsk!?” I reiterated my previous answer. I suppose there are standard questions and that being associated with those provinces is suspicious by default.
- Obeying short instructions like “open” and “drop”, I revealed my possessions. One guard sees my typically Dutch products and says to the others: “Hollandia”. Satisfied I’m not carrying illicit goods, they turn their inquisition to me personally.
- “Student?” Well, yes, for this course, but I’m a working citizen — but how do you explain that to border guards that don’t speak English well. Using the translation function on my phone again! So, I translate a short explanation in voice from Dutch to Ukrainian. Side-effect: they believe I’m actually Dutch.
- They start discussing amongst each other quite elaborately. I don’t follow and zone out a bit.
- “IT?” I say yes. (I later learned that in Ukraine being in “IT” is often associated with weird/expensive hobbies.)
A fourth border guard approaches me. He does speak English and asks again why I’m here. I explain once again I’m here to learn the Ukrainian language. I immediately followed up with “Я вчу Українську мову але не так добре” and a lot of handwaving. The border guard smugly asks “You don’t learn well, or you don’t speak Ukrainian well?” Well, to ask the question is to answer it. (I literally said “I learn the Ukrainian language but not so well”.)
He returned my identification papers and wished me a pleasant stay.
Reflection on the border checks
In total, both border checks took about 1,5 hours of mostly idling. (I would later learn this was actually quite fast, and that I should expect that going back into Poland will take anywhere from 4 to 22 hours.)
I also want to recognise the difficult job of the border guards on both sides. Defending your country from hostile invaders is difficult enough, but stopping traitors and smugglers who hide their intentions is not easy either. How do you assess in a few moments that some stranger is a threat or not, based on some documents, possessions and impressions? I can only hope that Ukraine defeats the russians soon — and that Europe welcomes Ukraine in the Union and Schengen.
Sunday: from the Ukrainian border to Lviv
The road from the border to Lviv was definitely interesting. Roads are hard but very bumpy and damaged. Children play on the same 50 km/h roads that cars drive past with 70km/h. I’ve seen a police car being tailgated and overtaken by multiple cars as they crossed speed limits and road lines. The road to Lviv was pretty calm and pleasant, though. I looked at some commercial signs and listened to some Ukrainian radio and was pleased to recognise some words.
Sunday: dinner with a friend
I made a Ukrainian friend from Lviv soon after the full-scale invasion. We met up for dinner and had interesting cultural exchanges — we talked about superstitions, Sint Nicolas, het Sinterklaasjournaal and we heard Ukrainian folk songs being sung in the restaurant. More about that some other time perhaps.
We learned there would probably be an air raid tonight, according to some information channels we’re subscribed to. And it was true — that night, an air raid alert began at 03:00 and lasted until 05:30. It means getting dressed, going to the shelter and trying (in vain) to sleep on the furniture there. (Also — Lviv region wasn’t hit this night but other regions nearby were.)
Nice! A really good read Wanno. I do hope that the following chapters are still in English as my Ukrainain is bad 😀
Hope to read more soon!