It all started yesterday, after we saw a 300 year old local
brewery and a 225 year old cemetery of not just Ukrainians, but Poles as well -
one of many nations/regimes that have laid claim on Ukraine over the past 15
centuries. You see we’ve learned a lot
about this country, not just from our Lonely Planet guide and Wikipedia
searches (sad sources for genuine history), but also from our friend, Marian,
who waited on us at our fave coffee shop. I’ll come back to that later – it’s a
story in itself.
So, we exit the cemetery looking for an electric tram to
take us to the train station to buy tickets for our next destination – a girl
at the brewery museum said that you could indeed take a train. Confused, I
tapped a middle-aged woman on the shoulder and politely said, “Excuse me?” in
Ukrainian. After pointing at the tram stop sign and then back at the map
several times, I managed to relay where we needed to go. She then walked up to
a stranger and they had a 5 minute discussion on how to get there. In unison,
they counted on their fingers all the different trams and finally agreed on a
route.
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| Lvivske Museum |
 |
| Lychakiv Cemetery |
Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite sure if I understood what they
were desperately trying to tell me. Despite their efforts, I walked away with a
question mark. “Was it THIS tram, STOP 6, or should we take TRAM 6?” As I
weighed the options with Matt, little did I know that another woman came to
wait at the tram stop and the woman I initially approached asked this stranger
to help me out. She waved at me and gestured to herself. “I think she wants us
to follow her.” And that’s what we did. During the tram ride, she made sure to
keep an eye on us and eventually motioned for us to get off at the next stop
and cross the street. She put up her fingers - SIX.
After arriving at the train station, we weren’t getting very
far with the cash desk attendant, except to say that there were NO TRAINS to Kamyanets-Podilski.
Whah? “TAKE BUS,” she says. We wanted to make absolutely sure, so Matt walked
up to a police officer and asked if he knew English. Two seconds later, this
bright-eyed, curly-haired girl pops out from behind the glass. “Can I help
you?” Before you know it, we were behind the partition, with a myriad of
helpers checking trains and possible bus routes to KP. There WERE trains, but
none direct. She wrote down the bus station name and departure times in Ukrainian,
so we could hand the paper to the clerk. Shortly thereafter, we had a bus
ticket in one hand - and a Shawarma in the other.
It didn’t end there. On the way home, someone told us that
we were on the wrong bus and should take 3A instead. Then this morning, we were
at the wrong bus stop and this man directed us where to go. Incredible. Дякую
L’Viv.
