7th and 8th of August, 2021.
After buying some food and asking for information in a pharmacy, I make my sign to Chernivtsi and start to walk. It is a long way until where I can hitchhike. It does not take long though to Serj pick me up. He is going only to Ivano Frankivsk but it is at least half of the way, so I am happy!
He drops me out of town, in a busy road near to gas stations. I am holding my sing, and I am very confident that I will arrive today in Chernivtsi, and with enough time to visit the city. For some reason, the universe had another plans for me.
When Rulan stops in one of the gas stations and makes a sign for me to come, for some reason I don’t show him my sign, just to make sure where he is going. Why would I do not do something so important? That could have changed everything.
We start to drive and time goes by. There is a huge traffic jam and we are not moving for something like fifteen minutes. The roads are in terrible condition because they are trying to fix them and that is the reason why we are not moving. Rulan decides to do something and when an ambulance pass by, in the opposite line, from where no cars are coming at all, he start to follow them. It is insane! I have my camera in my hand but I am frozen by fear and I cannot move. It is exited, yes, and I feel like I am in the movie World War Z, when Brad Pitt’s character is following a rubbish truck which is opening the way among the traffic jam, but is is also scaring. I mean, the only thing I can think of it is that if there is a police car he will be in trouble and then I will also be in trouble. After something like 10 minutes, we finally reach the end of the line and are free to go. It worked, yeah, and we avoided what would be easily over one hour of waiting, but how risky!
Rulan go to visit a friend and then the mother of a friend. Time is passing and I start to wonder when we will arrive in Chernivtsi. By my calculations we should be there already. When we were leaving Ivano, he tried to tell me something about visiting his brother in Lviv, and I understood that he was doing that before and now was taking his way to Chernivtsi. Nope. At some point in the road, after paying attention in the highway signs, I realize that he is actually going to Lviv. What? Oh my Loki! How someone could be so stupid? I cannot believe on this! All of this time I wasted on going back to Lviv? Are you fucking kidding me?
He call his son, who can speak some English, and we try to understand what the hell have happened. I cannot help myself on showing my frustration. What the hell I am going to do? Understanding what a huge mistake he has done and how that compromised my day, Rulan offers to pay me a hotel for the night and next morning put me in a bus or a train to Chernivtsi. I am reluctant to accept but what else can I do? It is not my fault after all. So we agree on that.
After visiting his brother in Lviv, we drive back to Ivano, where he actually lives. We find a nice small hotel (I am the only guest), he asks the receptionist to bring me some dinner (which she does but it is only some potatoes Vareniki, the Ukrainian version of the Polish Pierogi), and we agree he will pick me up tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock.
After a shower and eating my dinner, I decide to check my emails and to take a better look around Chernivtsi, checking where is the bus / train station and this kind of things. What a big surprise I have when I see an email from D., all lovely and kind, saying some wonderful things and telling me how much he loves me. What? Oh no, not again! Have I done it again? I didn’t mean tot get this far. I didn’t want for him to love me! I mean, does he really? I am happy for receiving the email, and I like him a lot, but I know deep inside me that we are not meant to be together. I am not meant to be together with anyone, anyway.
I am ready when Rulan arrives and soon enough we leave. I have searched last night and found some Bla Bla Car lifts, very cheap and leaving at a good timing. But Rulan does not have the app so he cannot contact the drivers. But I also think he does not want to that much. He is certain about the bus. He believes it is safer. Actually, all day long yesterday, he and his son, kept repeating to me how dangerous Ukraine is and that I would be much lost and in trouble in here because I cannot speak their language. I have tried to explain to both of them that I have been to more dangerous countries, I mean, at least considered more dangerous countries, and I was just fine. But they don’t believe (accept) and keep repeating how bad Ukraine can be.
Anyway, we find one bus (actually one van) leaving around 10 o’clock and arriving about 1 p.m. Because I searched about Chernivtsi last night, I ask the driver where he will drop me, and he says on the central bus station. I know how to get from there to the tourist info but it is quite far. Rulan tells him that someone will meet me at the station. A lie that he prefer to tell to make sure that the driver will drop me there. How paranoid can someone be?
Before we leave, Rulan insist to buy me some food for the trip. Even though he want to buy a lot of stuff, I tell him I have bread, chocolate and some veggies. So I get only some cheese, an ice tea and some pastries which we both have with our coffees. He tries to give me some money but I refuse. When I tell him a bit about my travels, he says that he is impressed and the reason why he is so afraid about security issues is because he was in the army during the war, so he has seen a lot of bad stuff. I kind of understand him a little more after he tells me that.
The travel is alright and we arrive in time. When we are crossing Chernvsti though, I see the old town and I notice when we pass the tourist info. I grab my backpack and ask to the driver to stop. Many people have left already, in other stops, so I don’t understand when he refuses to stop for me to get out. I believe it is because what he “promised” to Rulan, of driving me to the bus station. But to hell with that! I don’t want to walk more just because Rulan is afraid for me. So I keep insisting to the driver to stop until he finally does. I take The Hulk from the back of the van and walk back towards the tourist info.