12 - Ivano-Frankivsk, my new home

28/04/2014

It's time to leave Lviv. As I met Ilya there I have a plan for the next days, we're going to take a deep breathe of nature in the Carpathes together. But first I still have to visit this couple in Ivano-Frankivsk that I contacted on couchsurfing. Good, because that's exactly on the way !

The roads look good... from here

First experience on ukrainian roads

Today I'm hitchhiking alone to Ivano-Frankivsk, Ilya will join me there tomorrow. My very first car was hard to get, it's an old taxi driver who for sure knows the road and what he does... Well I hope so because he's driving at 130 km/h on country roads where in France we drive 90 km/h, overcoming cars in tops of hills, or when there is another extra fast car arriving in front, and of course without safety belt on... I'll find out later that these belts are more decorative than safety here. 

We leave this main road to go on minor roads in the deeper countryside. Here I experience for the very first time the real ukrainian roads, or "jumping roads"... It is a regular road but totally fucked up, half destroyed and full of holes. It's simple, this road was so jumpy that I wasn't able to take any good picture of it from inside the car ! And the drivers permanently try to avoid the biggest holes, so they are like slaloming all the way, left, right, left, suddenly slow down to pass a very bad part, staying a while on the left side of the road because it's in better condition, returning right at the very last moment when a car arrives in front... Believe me it's the most sportive kind of hitchhiking I ever made ! 

You'd better be prepared

I also have a little problem with my index finger... as I played a lot in Lviv my nail starts to break apart, it's kind separating in 2 layers and that's not good, I have to take care of it. But how?

Introducing myself to my new town

8 PM, I reach the city. It's quite late ! Juliette and Vitalik my hosts set a meeting in a central square. Here I am but I don't know how long I will wait them as they don't answer to my texts. It will get dark soon and it's Monday night, there are not so many people passing by. Actually it looks quite empty. Boarf, I can try anyway, I have nothing best to do ! So I put down my backpack, get out the guitar and start to play. And believe it or not but the people walking by start to stop, first few of them then the crowd becomes bigger, bigger, bigger... I didn't expect that ! 
 

I'm just getting started ! (picture from another day)

About 150 people are now standing in front of me to attend my "concert", and I have to keep the good mood on, keep on entertaining them... The show must go on ! I don't know how it came to my mind, I take this opportunity to introduce myself. I'm Robin from France, visiting the city, I already love Ukraine and so on... I didn't use to do that before but I felt like I had to do it. And from now I'll talk more betwen the songs in that kind of situation, it's always a good idea to interact with the crowd. And at least they will know who I am :)

After the concert people come to me to discuss, what I am doing here, how long will I stay ("oooooh why only 2 days? You should stay more" especially from girls ;) another guy invites me to join an English conversation table in 2 days but I will probably be gone. And here comes a couple. Juliette and Vitalik ! Oh you were here, I'm glad you could enjoy the show and find me but I guess it was not so difficult. 
 
Finally I meet them ! I was supposed to arrive 1 week earlier but Lviv caught me. Sorry for been a bit late ;) I absolutely wanted to meet them because their profile on couchsurfing was very interesting. And I was absolutely right ! The contact is very easy and we instantly become friends. They are nice, funny, passionate aaaaaand great cooks ! I'm in paradise, I feel like I could stay here for a while. Ukrainian hospitality is at the highest level but sometimes I feel like it's too much... When they don't want me to wash the dishes I wait their sleep to secretly do it, hihihi I'm machiavellian ! 
 

Welcome home, hot apple stuffed with nuts, chocolate and I don't remember what. Yummmmm

Enjoying the city

Second day, it's time to visit the city. Vitalik as a little time to show me around, but actually it's enough because it's not that big :) I take for the very first time local buses. They are everywhere so if you know how to read ukrainian it's very convenient. But don't expect to be comfortably seated especially if you're a guy, you should leave seats to girls ! There is also no ticket, you just enter and give 2 Grivnas (12 cents) to the driver. And hold strongly because they are driving crazy oO 

Especially when you have a backpack and a guitar it's hard to find space in these

Now, let me introduce to you Ivano-Frankivsk :

They have crazy metal sculptures from their yearly iron masters festival

This city is very enjoyable, calm, relaxed and now it's spring the weather is just perfect to walk around, sit at the lake or in the city center, drink kompote...

Once I have visited enough, what to do? Yeah you guess right :) Go play again ! It's middle afternoon so I don't create a big event like yesterday, but this time as I play a girl comes to me : 
"You are Robin !" 
- Yes?... 
"You are from France !" 
- Eeeeem yes?... 
"My name is Natalia, my friends told me about you. I'm part of an organisation who provides English lessons to young people and help them to create small business. I'd be honoured to have you to our English lesson tomorrow, to discuss with our students. It would be very interesting for them to speak with you." 
 
I planned to leave the city tomorrow but this might be another interesting experience and I always suppory any kind of educational project. I believe that education is the first key to unlock the gates of freedom, and you know how important this word is to me. So let's stay 1 more day, and oh this way I can go to this English conversation table too !

We were singing songs at the end. The teacher was even more interested in me than her students ;)

But for now it's time to find my new friend Ilya who arrived in town ! We meet him with J&V at a concert then we all come back home to celebrate the birthday of Juliette's friend Ostap.

Everyone is reunited ! And what better than polish vodka to celebrate that?

Now Ilya is here we can decide our plans for the Carpathes. Juliette knows a nice village we can go first, Yaremche, Vitalik tells us about a folk music festival, Cheremosh festival this week end in another village and I've been told about a 3rd nice town at the border with Romania, Tiatchiv. Nice program, we'll see how we will manage that. 

I'm the king of bills ! Ready to hit the road

Comments

[RAJ KASAUDHAN]

MBBS in Ivanofrankivsk National Medical University :https://www.prologueabroad.com/ivanofrankivsk-national-medical-university

[Marko]

Hi Robin,
I been following you blog for some time.
You are having some great adventures it seems. I'm very glad for you!
It really seems that everything works out when you just go and do it.
Hopefully we'll meet up again some day and discuss your travels and other stuff!

Take care friend!
Marko, Rijeka.

[François]

Just one request: when you write about your (unbelievable) adventure, can you tell us which day it happened? Because we don't know where you are when we read your posts, and so we don't know when all this happened.
Bonne continuation, la route est encore (heureusement!) longue...

[François]

Thanks for all of us!

[Robin]

Right François, I'll add the day on every post. Soon will be other long, but interesting ones :)