Euro, złoty, hryvnia - 3.

The road in Ukraine was bad, our speed was about 40-50 km per hour and the traffic was scarce. 

But the landscape was nice and everything looked like Romania 25-30 years ago. We caught a glimpse of the shining, golden roof of the very first Orthodox church. Then, in a village we noticed a beautiful, deserted Catholic church, a Polish one.

We were getting hungry, so we stopped at the first restaurant on the roadside. They served us a very tasty and inexpensive meal (the boys played chess while we were waiting for it) but while looking at the place, its visitors and their cars we kept on wondering whether it wasn't run by some shady guys...

We crossed tiny villages and churches with their golden roofs shining in the late afternoon sun. All trees were in flower and there was no piece of land left uncultivated. As Ukrainian wages are very low and roads are extremely bad, the traffic was very scarce. The road was getting worse and worse and we were advancing extremely slowly. We had about 120 km in front of us to the nearest town but we decided to continue the journey only the next day. So we stopped at the very first inn and asked for accomodation. They charged us 6 euro per person and we slept in a nice wooden chalet with all the comfort we needed. We met a group of young people from Kiev who were on a trip, some of them spoke very good English and were of great help in communicating with the locals. I still keep in touch with one of them: Olga, a young artist. We drank a few beers and some local vodka and went to bed.

Because of the condition of the road the next morning we started very early and without waiting for the staff to wake up to make breakfast for us. We advanced with the painstaking speed of 12-15 km per hour. We had to get out of the car very often to protect its bottom. There was almost no traffic at all, the air was fresh and clear, the landscape very beautiful. 

We were crossing a national park and we saw deer, foxes, rabbits and hunting birds on our journey. We stopped in Uzhok, a larger village to buy some breakfast. The simple village shop looked and smelt just like the ones in communist Romania. Marcel Proust was right: it is amazing how certain smells awake the memories of the past. We stepped into this small shop and I could suddenly picture the one in the village where I spent the vacations in my childhood.

Speaking Russian in Ukraine is not very appreciated right now, and I don't speak much Russian anyway. But one thing is true: if you speak one Slavonic language, you'll understand the rest. My Croatian is far from perfect but is very helpful when I have to deal with people who only speak Ukrainian or Russian. The shopkeeper was a very nice lady who suggested some freshly baked doughnuts filled with sausages. They warmed it for us in the microwave oven and gave us napkins. We asked for some kefir and we had a delicious breakfast. Village people were coming and going on the road while we were eating. We were the first foreigners seen within months probably, tourists don't just walk around like in other parts of Europe.

The meeting point of two counties (oblast) is marked by a barrier guarded by armed policemen. We were stopped, our car and papers were checked. It seemed that they were looking for a reason to make us pay. We telephoned our friends' friend, a journalist who explained them that we were journalists too (well, at least our friends are...), so they allowed us to pass.

The road improved as we approached Uzhgorod (Ungvár in Hungarian), our next stop. We walked through the city a bit and took some time to get a good look of the bridge decorated with lovers' locks. We also have such a bridge in my hometown but it's a far cry from this one. Ukrainians are serious about love, or at least about showing it to the world. As we were about 1000 km from the warzone, the large number of soldiers walking up and down the city were the only sign of the ongoing conflict.

We had some coffee and a cake, my son had a big icecream, then we visited the fortress. The lady at the entrance was Hungarian and we had a nice chat with her. She told us that Hungarians from Hungary stopped coming since the war broke out but the number of Transylvanian visitors was rising.

We continued our journey to Mukachevo (in Hungarian: Munkács).They have a pretty castle on the top of a hill which played an interesting role in Hungarian history. We had a very forgettable meal in an expensive restaurant with really bad service. As it was our next stop, we went into a shop to buy a few things. Ukrainian vodka is really good, so I asked for a bottle of Horticia, the only brand I was familiar with. The lady at the counter put the bottle in front of me and said: this is made in Harkov (a town situated in the Russian inhabited part of the country), why don't you buy a vodka made here, around Lviv? It is also good, and it is ours. I was a bit surprised (also because I understood the sentence without problem) but then I said to myself: ok, why not? And we bought the other bottle too. But I was surprised to encounter such a reflection of ethnic tensions.

I liked Ukraine very much, it reminds me of Romania as it was 25 years ago. It is affordable even for us, I liked the landscape, the people, the food and I'm already making plans to go back to visit Lviv and its surroundings, and to look for the grave of a family member of mine who died here during the 1st World War and is buried around Stryj somewhere. Traveling by car is not a wise option but we don't have a car anyway. Buses and trains are very old but I don't mind. So I hope to see you soon, Ukraine.

Euro, złoty, hryvnia - 2.

Poland is the only country where people nod and smile at you instantly if you say you're Hungarian and they won't make jokes about Dracula if you mention that you're from Transylvania. Not only because we've had many connections throughout history but also because one of their most respected queen saints (Jadwiga) and one of their great kings, István Báthory (1533-1586) were Hungarian, the latter one Transylvanian. He managed to keep Poland in one piece by fighting Prussia, Russia and the Hanseatic League.

We arrived to Krakow late in the afternoon. Our accommodation was a bit out of the ordinary: a boat anchored on the Vistula, with a beautiful view over the royal castle on one side and a church on the other.

The other rooms were occupied mostly by loud and ill mannered hockey supporters from Hungary. We went out for a walk and a beer in the evening and ended up in a small theatre running a cosy and cheap bar.

Auschwitz. The place can be visited free of charge only in the afternoon and the entrance fee was high, so we first went to take a look at the town of Oswieczim. We were the only travelers, we surprised the owner of the local kebab place by ordering a meal in Turkish language.

I had doubts about taking my son to Auschwitz but after explaining him what the place was "famous" for, he said he would like to come. I am not sure whether he understood everything he saw but he certainly got the essential message. I cannot say anything about Auschwitz which has not been said already. One thing is sure: I am glad we visited it on a warm and bright sunny day.

I was, however, not glad at all about what Auschwitz has become. In my opinion entrance should be free of charge for everyone all day, not only in the afternoon, and audio guides should be available for everyone, not only for organised groups. I was wondering how willing I would be to pay an entrance fee if one of my family members had been killed there.

We returned to Krakow in the evening, bought a few things for dinner and a bit of beer. The following day was sunny and warm and we headed to the Wawel, the royal castle. In the past the capital of Poland was not Warsaw but Krakow, so the city is full of beautiful historical buildings. Most visitors rush to the castle and miss the church of St. Bernard, which has a wonderful, lavish baroque interior and a pretty Rubens painting.

The royal castle is one of the most beautiful renaissance buildings I have ever seen. There were not too many visitors so we had time to see everything in our own rhytm.

The royal chambers and state rooms host a fine collection of paintings but no doubt, the highlight was Leonardo da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine. For the royal chambers we were assigned a guide who spoke quite bad English, seemed a bit bored with us and made jokes about my son who didn't pay much attention to her because he didn't understand anything. Prussia and Russia were mentioned as "our enemies" by this lady which sounded a bit out of time, to say the least. After the royal chambers we were allowed to walk around the state rooms and the treasury by ourselves. I loved the royal clock collection containing many stunning pieces, some of which were still working and gave us a little concert at 2 o'clock.

The Wawel Cathedral was the coronation site of Polish kings and it is the most important national sanctuary. The interior seemed a bit chaotic to me: there are 18 chapels filled with royal tombs, marble sarcophagi and different relics. As I said, Polish and Hungarians share a good deal of history, so beside the sarcophagus and the 14th century cross of St. Jadwiga, the daughter of Louis I of Hungary the cathedral serves as a final resting place to István Báthory too. Taking pictures is forbidden but I just could not resist to break the rules here. 

Wandering around the chapels and crypts we came across many familiar names: kings, queens, bishops, artists (Adam Mickiewicz) and presidents of Poland (including Kaczynski who died in a plane crash a few years ago).

Museums make me tired so we decided to walk to the old city and have some food. We decided to get some Polish pirogi at a place recommended by friends. Vincent's pirogi place is a wonderful option for a tasty, filling and inexpensive meal. They serve a few dozens of different kinds of dumpling, from salty to sweet. A portion consists of 10 pieces but you can choose two different kinds withing the same portion. We had a few beers, a bit of rest and walked to the old town.

We visited the baroque church of St. Peter and Paul which has been designed as a new national pantheon of Poles (Slawomir Mrozek was the first to be buried in its crypt).

A bit later we reached the big, impressive St. Mary's in the main square, with its marvelous golden winged altar made by the famous German sculptor, Veit Stoss.

We walked a bit in the market square and were seriously tempted by the loads of amber jewelry on sale. 

But Polish beer has an amber shade too, so we bought some stuff for dinner and had a few beers on the terrace of the boat.

Next morning we started to the Ukrainian border. We usually avoid motorways because we don't necessarily want to get quickly to our destination but prefer to enjoy the way instead. The journey itself is sometimes just as important as the final destination. I loved rural Poland: villages are situated far from each other, there is always a generous space between houses, the land is worked, in front of the houses are neat flowerbeds and ornamental plants while in the back they breed chicken or other animals. It was a pleasant combination of traditional and modern. The lanscape around Przemysl became spotted with war cemeteries and even the former eastern frontline was marked by a sign.

We chose a small border crossing with no traffic at all. We didn't know why Polish people were not interested in Ukraine but we were going to find out the reason soon.