Today I can finally tell you about all the things that have happened to me in the last 5 days, since I've come to Ukraine. It's been a short time, but really full of events - some of them really unexpected!
1. The way back home was already crazy enough! :) I flew to Budapest, then took a train to Záhony (the border station in Hungary) and thought I'd wait 1.5 hour for a train to Chop (the border station in Ukraine) and then spend the whole night waiting for the train to Lviv there. But my plan was too European! In Ukraine things are much more spontaneous. ;) In Záhony an Ukrainian taxi driver came to me and started convincing me to use his services.
- I'll take you to Chop for 5 euros!
- Well, it's a good price, but it won't help me - I'll have to wait for my train until the morning anyway. So I'll better take the train to Chop.
- But maybe you can catch the earlier train to Lviv?
- It departs from Chop in 8 minutes, at 23:10, so I don't think so... But... Do you think we could make it to Uzhgorod before 23:50?
Uzhgorod is the next station after Chop. Ukrainian trains are quite slow, so even though I obviously couldn't catch this one in Chop, we got to Uzhgorod much quicker than it did. I paid just 10 euro for this crazy international illegal taxi service and went to the ticket office at the Uzhgorod railway station just to learn that there were no tickets left to Lviv! I should have guessed that, it's hard to get them on Sunday evening! I still had 10 minutes until the departure, so I came to the 3rd class carriage and decided to solve this problem Ukrainian way. We have an expression: "їхати зайцем", which means "to travel as a bunny" literally. It stands for travelling without a ticket. ;)
- Will you take one "bunny" to Lviv?
- Sure!
That wasn't hard at all. ;) For 2.5 euro I was on a night train to Lviv and didn't have to spend the night at a railway station. I just realize I'm probably not the best person to fight or criticize corruption in Ukraine, am I? :D Just to justify myself, I can tell you that I only give bribes in extraordinary situations like this one.
2. I'm going to visit Iceland in less than a week, even though I thought it wouldn't be possible in the next several years. Not until I start earning good money or until low-cost airlines conquer Iceland! ;) I was going to meet a close friend of mine, who lives in Iceland, during a trip to Sweden to Denmark. Due to some problems, he unfortunately wouldn't be able to come. First I thought we should just cancel this trip and do it later... But then he would lose his plane tickets, there's no way to get a refund. So he came up with a idea which seemed completely crazy to me in the beginning - to change the dates of flights and the passenger's name (which is allowed for a fee) and then I could come to Reykjavik. First I didn't want to agree and I still feel very uncomfortable about it, because I wouldn't be able to afford this flight at the moment. But I realize it's better than just losing the ticket and even though I feel upset that we can't follow our original plan, I think I should just enjoy what the "fate" gives me! :) I remember that I've wanted to travel to Iceland since I was in primary school and my dad told me about an amazing island country in Northern Europe with few people, but full of mountains, volcanos and geysers. I really wanted to see it, but I thought I would never actually have a chance... Of course, I don't think we'll be able to travel all around Iceland, because my friend will have to work for most of the time. But even if I only get to see Reykjavik, it's still so much more than I could dream of! Oh yes, I wished for a year full of adventures, didn't I? :)
3. I've had a job interview and it went well, so I've started working for a translation agency in Lviv! For now I'll work remotely, even though they wanted me to work in the office, because I still have one semester of my studies left... and because I like the idea of working from home more, at least for now. ;) I don't expect much from this job, but it'll surely be a very useful experience. So far the only problem I can see is that I get to work only for about a hour a day, because I don't get enough requests from them. But I've calculated that if I only worked for 4 hours a day 20 days a month, it would be more than enough to live a comfortable life here (of course what is comfortable for me could be very humble for someone else!) and to save money for traveling. So I'll see how it goes and maybe I'll try to cooperate with more agencies later. Of course, at the moment I still can't work legally in Ukraine, so it's unofficial, but this could also be solved soon...
4. It's possible that I'll be able to get Ukrainian citizenship in May-June! Today I've been to the immigration office to ask which more papers should I bring to get my permanent residence permit, but it turned out that in my case it'll be much quicker and easier to get the citizenship. It seems that I've been entitled to get it since I was born (as my granny comes from Ukraine), I just wasn't aware of it. When and if I get it, I may have a small problem with my double citizenship, so I might need lawyer's help, but I think it's worth trying. I probably won't sound like a big patriot of Ukraine, but let's be realistic: it would be quite stupid of me to renounce EU citizenship under current circumstances here in Ukraine. Still, I'd be happy to have an Ukrainian passport. I know it's just a piece of paper, which doesn't define who I am, but symbolically that would mean that I have some kind of connection with this country forever and that I wouldn't have to explain why I feel Ukrainian anymore. So keep fingers crossed for my double citizenship! ;)
5. I've been having weird family issues, which are causing me a lot of stress and I don't know, whether I should even go to Poland tomorrow, but I think I will anyway. I just hope it won't be too stressful. The funny thing is that I've just been to Poland yesterday! I went to Przemyśl again to buy medicines for my landlady and to withdraw money, because for some reason nowadays the exchange rate is much better when I use an exchange point instead of withdrawing money in Ukraine. As I had to pay for the next semester of my studies, it made quite a huge difference, which means that I'm allowed to travel more! ;)
6. I've received a pile of mail! :D Yes, usually we talk about our piles of mail growing, but this time I can say that I've received one, because it suddenly went from 1 letter to 13! ;) I could see that coming, because a lot of letters were delayed during the Christmas/New Year period and I didn't manage to receive them before leaving Ukraine. Of course, now I feel overwhelmed with the amount of mail I have, because I can't write back to all the letters quickly. :( But I'll do my best! Actually, I've been trying to think of an logical explaination to a phenomenon, which many of my penpals have already experience: sometimes we have no letters at all and sometimes we have... what I have now! ;) The only explaination that comes to my mind is that usually a huge pile of mail grows (or arrives) during a period, when we're not really able to write a lot of letters (as we're busy, traveling etc.). This means that during this period of time our penpals don't receive letters from us. So when we finally manage to catch up with our mail, we find our mailboxes starving for at least a few weeks! Do you think that makes sense? But well, I think that instead of creating a new theory of hungry and overweight mailboxes, I should just show you what I've received this week (on Monday and Wednesday)! :)
 |
| From Antonina in Ukraine |
This letter came from my friend Antonina from Vinnytsia region. The strange thing is that she's sent it in December, but the cancellation says "20th January". Yes, our postal service had some delay during the holiday period!
 |
| From Anastasia in Ukraine |
One more Ukrainian letter - this time from Anastasia in Chernihiv. She gave birth to a baby boy on 1st January, but found time to write me a letter nevertheless! :)
 |
| From Taši in Slovenia |
This is one of the letters I was most worried about. Taši sent it in the beginning of December, so at the time I left Ukraine it already had been traveling for a month! Unfortunately, the letter got wet somewhere on the way, so I can't read some parts, but at least it's not lost. I love the special stamps Taši used - they show her and her husband. :)
 |
| From Marina in Russia |
Marina's envelopes are always amazing and this one isn't an exception! I wish I was so creative! :) I love her chatty letters and I hope that mail between Russia and Ukraine won't ever stop arriving, no matter how complicated is the political situation.
 |
| From Mihaela in Romania |
Mihaela sent a very nice answer to my intro, which was actually a continuation of our fascinating dialogue on Interpals. :) I'm so glad we've switched to snail mail!
 |
| From Katharina in Germany |
Katharina has also answered my intro, which I've sent a couple of months ago. I'd like to answer her letter as soon as possible, but I know she'll be moving abroad soon, so I should probably wait for her to tell me the new address. Oh, can you see the train stamp? :D
 |
| From Sandra in Germany |
One more letter from Germany - from my friend Sandra, who always writes long and thought-provoking ones. She's also sent me some samples of washi tapes, so I'll try to use them for my future letters! ;) Believe it or not, it's the first time I actually have washi tape in my hands!
 |
| From Olga in Belarus |
This letter comes from my dear Olga, whom I've already met for several times and with whom I'm going to travel more this year! ;)
 |
| From Essi in Finland |
And this one comes from my Finnish friend Essi, who's been missing slow Ukrainian night trains! :) She has partly written her letter during her holiday in France in Switzerland, and enclosed a yummy Swiss chocolate! :)
 |
| From Jennifer in UK |
This lovely intro came from Jennifer in the UK. She was supposed to write me a letter as a part of the random exchange, but we agreed that we'd actually try to become penpals and I have a very good feeling about this correspondence already! I just hope she won't mind me being a bit slow now...
A letter from my dear Bahanur, with whom I can discuss all the most controversial topics and whom I really hope to meet this year, before she moves halfway around the world away!
 |
| From Bahanur in Turkey |
 |
| From Brigitta in Hungary |
All the other letters came on Monday, but this one arrived two days later. :) It's from Brigitta, my Hungarian friend who has already hosted me twice - and each time she saw me being sick! Yes, I feel slightly embarassed about it. But I'm so happy that she keeps on answering my letters nevertheless! She has also used beautiful stamps, which are quite hard to get in Hungary, believe me!
 |
| A card from Martina in Slovenia |
I've also received two Christmas cards, which didn't make it on time due to the snail mail working like a real snail. ;) This beautiful handmade one is from Martina.
 |
| A card and bookmark from Kathrin in Germany |
And this one is from Kathrin! She's also made a lovely bookmark with my name, which I'm really thankful for! :)
 |
| Postcards from Tündi |
 |
| From Chelsea in the USA |
Last but not least, Chelsea from the USA sent me a big postcard showing the places she's been to in 2014. :) Chelsea is a friend, whom I've met thanks to Couchsurfing back in 2010, when she was traveling in Ukraine. It's so nice of her that she still remembers about me, even though several years have passed!
I think you'll understand why I haven't been able to write much in the last days with all those things happening at the same time. I've only managed to send a small package for Antonina and her little daughter.
 |
| For Antonina in Ukraine |
Now I'm working on my letter to Stav and I really hope that soon I'll be able to announce a lot of outgoing mail! I really feel bad each time my answers are delayed, but I hope not to disappoint my penpals. Tomorrow I'm most likely leaving Ukraine again and will be back on 15th or 16th February. And of course I'll keep you updated about my crazy journeys! :)
have a save trip!
ReplyDelete