Monday, May 9, 2016

Kosice, Slovakia to Uzhhorod, Ukraine

Kosice, Slovakia May 4, 2016 7AM


It was the middle of the night. It woke me up. Someone walking around downstairs in my rented (for just one night) loft apartment in Kosice, Slovakia, a far and distant corner of this Eastern European country.

I had carefully locked the door and checked it at least 3 times before climbing up the stairs to the loft where in bed I now lay awakened.

Impossible. Yet the sounds of someone moving around downstairs were unmistakable.


My first reaction was being glad that I had brought my money, credit cards, passport, computer and cell phone upstairs fearing the improbable - that someone would sneak in downstairs and take them while I was asleep.

What I should have been concerned about was my safety not my possessions. Why wasn't I? Was I not fully awake?

Or was this a traveler's preternatural calm when the mind takes over as it must when the danger is greatest.

It also occurs to me that I am hearing noises from an adjacent apartment. A hope I grasp tenaciously. This may account for my relative calm.

But then the sounds get louder as I hear him come up the stairs and he’s right here in my loft bedroom with me.

Yet I don’t see him.  Even though my view is unobstructed.

I can see all of this small room sitting up in bed. And I don’t see him.

Well as my rational mind hoped, he (or she) must indeed be in the next apartment. The reconstruction of the apartments in this ancient building allows for transmission of sound in an eerie and unsettling manner. 

I went back to sleep, but the next morning as I lay in bed I heard a very faint distant but familiar tune. My phone alarm tone. Yet not my phone. One next door or farther down the corridor.

It rang endlessly over and over. Until it finally stopped.

I hope he, (or she) not answering the alarm is OK.

Later, in the day, as I’m walking around it suddenly dawns on me. My daughter and son reading this post will immediately recognize the strange sounds in the night. They will think “Dad is clueless”.

It is so obvious what was making the sounds. Of course. It was a ghost. That didn’t even occur to me til now. But, does that not make more sense than what I thought?

Here in Kosice, Slovakia, near the border, we are in the neighborhood of four other countries, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Romania. Yes, Romania the country of Dracula. A place riven with ghosts.

And in fact after writing these words but before publishing this post I got an email from my daughter regarding my previous post where she says "I can't wait to here what happened in the middle of the night. I hope it involves at least a ghost if not a werewolf or vampire.."

So there.

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In Kosice I had a very brief stay. Just the evening of my arrival and the morning of the next day. Here are some pictures of this old medieval city where I could have happily stayed longer.




The most prominent feature is the magnificent iconic gothic St. Elisabeth Cathedral, the largest church in Slovakia.

And right across from the cathedral is the Cathedral Cafe - elegant, comfortable and a great place to catch up with email and this Blog.

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Uzhhorad, Ukraine May 6, 2016 5 AM

I had decided to take the bus from Kosice, Slovakia to Uzhhorod, Ukraine. You can get there by train but it takes a lot longer as the route is not as direct and they have to change the train’s wheel system to accommodate the different gauges of the railroad tracks in the two countries.

At the hotel in Kosice, the receptionist told me it would take a half hour for the cab she was ordering and when I said I didn’t want to wait she said it’s only a 10 minute walk and gave me directions. The bus station is right next to the train station making this ancient city readily accessible from all directions.

The sign showing the arrivals and departures in Slovak was quite bewildering to me, but I was able to get the gate number from the friendly woman in the ticket office. She asked me where I was from and when I told her said “wow”. One of the pleasures of taking the path “the one less traveled by” is feeling special.

Only 6 of us were on the bus with ten times as many seats so there was room to spread out and move back and forth across the aisle to take pictures.

The countryside was filled with farms. The most enduring sight was the dazzling brilliant color of the yellow flowers in the sunlight.

It occurred to me that if I ever start a country I’ll make the flag ½ green and ½ yellow since Ukraine has already taken the blue sky and yellow fields for its flag.  

The strangest thing about this bus trip was its duration. My ticket said it would be 3 ½ hours while signs on the bus indicated 2 ¾ hours and as turns out it actually took about 2 ½ hours.

When we arrived at the border I was happy to see there was no long line only a few cars. Not like the lines of vehicles last fall when I came over the border from Hungary. My offline Google map running my GPS indicated we were only a few miles from our Uzhhorod destination.

So, I thought we’ll be there in just minutes. Not so

The big variable is the time at the border. It took us 45 minutes to get through. I heard the word “computer” in our drivers explanation to another passenger for the delay.

Interestingly, there was a very long line coming from Ukraine. And the line didn’t appear to be moving at all. Don’t know why the big difference.

Was there something the people leaving Ukraine knew that I didn’t and should?



As we crossed the border we saw this sign in the picture below.  The word in yellow can be deciphered once you know Cyrillic. For those who don't try this ---

y = "u" pronounced "ooh",  K="K".  P is pronounced "R". A="A"  i (with 2 dots} = "Yee"  H = "N".  A="A".

So go ahead and sound it out.



Did you say "ooh kra yee na".  If so you've said Ukraine like Ukrainians do and you know we are now in Ukraine.

Shortly after passing this sign at the border we arrived in Uzhhorod, around 5pm, 1 hour ahead of the ticket indicated schedule. I couldn’t have been happier.

The taxi driver told me it would be 50 Hryvnia about (2 Dollars). I asked him how much in Euros, he indicated 3 euros and smiled an OK when I corrected his translation to 2 Euros.

When we got to the hotel I handed him a 5 euro bill. He looked at me enquiringly and feeling generous and happy to be in Ukraine and knowing they need the money I waved my hand indicating he should keep the change. It was worth it to see his big sincere smile and his appreciation as he shook my hand.

At the hotel the desk clerk reading my passport asked me who was going to win the U.S election. I said Hillary. He asked if this is who I want to win. I said no. Nobody wants either one of them to win.

He then asked if this was an indication of a bad system.

Indeed!


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