L’viv, Ukraine

Monday October 4 – L’VIV

After overnight train, passports, bunks and bags, we felt a little sketchy coming off the train.

early morning state of mind

Natasza and her mother, Ella were waiting for us on the platform. Baggage people came to help and Lord knows we needed it; the station is a bit on the crumbly side and there were stairs to negotiate. Outside, we decided on a big taxi for Ella, Carol and me the luggage. Brian and Natasza followed in a second, smaller taxi.

Rumbledebump down rough cobblestone streets, many with trolley tracks poking above the eroded street surface. I was in the front seat and could see that our driver knew the location of the biggest potholes and steered to avoid them. He was also opposed to stopping for red lights when he saw no other traffic around.

We turned off the big street to a smaller street and the driver made a right turn and pulled over mid-block. In the dark I saw only shadows of big buildings with dark windows. The space between curb and building was very wide and haphazardly paved with asphalt, concrete or nothing.

Here’s what it looks like in the daylight:

find this building

go through this brown door

through a passageway to this courtyard

walk up stairs three floors to an oversize wood door and into this room

The contrast was shocking, and welcome. Continue reading →

San Francisco to Krakow, Poland

Ordered a Limo to the airport. Guy based in Pacific Heights. Got 5 stars on Yelp.
Made eatsforone business cards.
Put Chronicle and NY Times on vacation hold.
Cleaned my desk!
Emptied shredder, took all recycles and compost to bins.
Made Rector Football Picks for weeks 4 and 5.
Got Breathe Right.
Posted “eats goes on the road.”
Printed some Lancaster, Ohio pictures for Carol to take to Kyiv.
Oh… I learned that Kiev is Russian. Kyiv is Ukrainian. Good to know.
Got cash to pay for apartment in Kyiv.
Called AMEX and Visa to say we’d be traveling.
All progress. Brian coming this evening (Wednesday). We’ll eat an “Escape from NY” pizza tonight and fly tomorrow.

October 1, Frankfurt Airport
10:30am. It’s gray and overcast. Travel is exciting and educational, full of new sights and sounds and peoples. An experience we’ll talk about for years.

But we haven’t got to that part yet. We’re in gray, wet Frankfurt for 3 hours on our way to Warsaw, Poland where we’ll take a train to Krakow for sightseeing. We got here by racing from mid-afternoon (2pm) through an abbreviated night and landing at 9:30 the next morning — all in 10 measly hours. The torture part involved getting 400 people (or what ever large number a Boeing 747 holds) onto the plane and fitting them in. Long lines at security inspection, I’m pretty sure there were 5 switchbacks, and we’re wearing coats for Krakow where it’s about 50°F and carrying bags. Somewhere in the middle of the line it begins to feel a tad claustrophobic and overheated by all those people breathing dead air.

At security, there are new machines, so remove everything from every pocket plus shoes and belt and hat and coat and put them in plastic baskets, then go stand in this glass enclosure, feet apart, arms over head.

On the plane, the seats are pretty narrow, but legroom isn’t too bad. Carol and I have aisle seats, which seem less confining… Brian has a window seat two rows behind us.

OK, 10 hours in a narrow seat that’s hard to get in and out of is not your birthday wish — but maybe traveling to places you’ve never been before, is. So there’s your torture and your travel.

The United flight attendants were good, breaking the flight into segments with drinks and a meal, more drinks, chocolate, coffee, and finally, breakfast.

Meal: curried chicken with rice, romaine salad and a brownie. Pretty good.
Drinks. I have Scotch and Soda (mud in your eye). That way, I can drink the Scotch on the rocks, and have the soda to sip on for quite a while.
Chocolate, a nice dark bar, with coffee.
Breakfast: Very lame breakfast sandwich of paper thin turkey and white cheese on a roll soggy from thawing. Strawberry Yogurt.

The thing about Frankfurt airport is, it’s really really long and one is made to walk very very far. Walk down steps and across the tarmac to a bus to the terminal. Ahhh, a brief encounter with fresh air. Walk to passport control… walk to security, then through lots of duty free shops and finally to gate A28.

Brian at Gate A28

Whew… we sat for a minute before it was announced that our flight to Warsaw was changed to gate A42, the last gate in the terminal. How far is that? The gates are in pairs, 27-28, 29-30 and so on. It is about 100 meters between each pair of gates… 2,400 meters to gate A42… a bit over a mile. Far. Continue reading →