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| End of the line. Rakhiv, Ukraine |
Oh now I get it, just as I type the date above. I have the answer to today's mystery.
As I walked into town this morning I noticed the river boiling with brown water flowing from the surrounding mountain streams rushing in a frenzy to get wherever it seems so eager to go.
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| The heavy rains fill the mountain streams filling the river flowing under the main bridge. |
Unlike the river, the town is mysteriously quiet. I see the restaurant is closed. A big disappointment. I anticipated my first coffee in two days,
Yesterday I had tea. That's what they serve on the train. One of nicest rides I've experiened. The 7 hour train ride from Lviv, the cultural capital of Ukraine, to Rakhiv the remote last stop on the line deep in the Carpathian mountains. Other than missing my coffee it was a total delight.
It couldn't have been nicer. From the moment the nice young woman attendant walked me to my compartment - different from the number on my
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| My two person train compartment |
I had the whole first class, two person, compartment to myself. Such a luxury compared to being crammed in my seat on my flight from Dulles to Istanbul.
Beautiful views presented themselves through the picture window, undaunted by the gray misty day which only added to the charm.
And all this for 350 hryvnia. A lot of money for train travel in Ukraine but only 14 in dollars. It's great to travel first class especially when it's such a bargain!
So I arrived reasonably well rested but not prepared for the locked gate to the guest house where I had my reservation. I looked for a door bell but saw none.
I did see a series of numbers on the front door of the building inside the gate. Not in the phone number pattern with which I'm familiar, but i dialed them anyway.
Someone answered in Ukrainian. I spoke in English. She spoke again and so did I and neither of us had a clue what the other was saying. Then she hung up.
I started imagining various outcomes. None desirable. So I called again. Same result.
Then the shade went up in the window in the adjacent building and a woman gesticulated to me. Then the shade went down. Was this progress?
A few minutes later a woman came up the street and spoke to me in Ukrainian. I can't say there was a meeting of minds or language but she did let me into the guest house where we spoke some more without comprehesion.
Then I showed her my online reservation which fortunately I had printed o .. in English of course. We talked and gesticulated some more. She sure didn't seem to have been expectiing me. But eventually we had a meeting of minds and I had a room at last!
Oh, and the mystery? Have you guessed the answer. Why so quiet. Everything shut down?
It's May Day. A big day in this former part of the Soviet world.
So here I am in Rahkiv an alpine village with cystal clear air. A delight with every breath.
Thanks for reading!
2 comments:
So nice for me not to have to travel...I can just hear about your adventures and those of my brother & sisinlaw. Love the story about getting into the guest house. Wonder if you've already paid or ...? With the reservation of the woman to let you in where you had a reservation. Ha ha, play on words. You. might think about starting an Instagram account...it's lots of fun, esp. for trivia! ... I have to add my complaint: I had to play that @#$%$#@ing Not a robot picture. captcha thing 9 times. To pictures are so complicated and so small, there's no way you can see teensy cars or bikes or whatever in some of them. DID NOT LIKE THAT. I've never had trouble with CAPTCHA before...maybe do it two times, never nine. Linda Campbell Franklin.
Hi linda
Google has changed their program so when you indicate the size of the pics it ignores it But if you indicate "original size" it makes if full screen so that's what I juust did. Is this better?
As for the CAPTCHA thing that's Google's doing. Not much I can oo about that.
Thanks for the comment and for perservering!
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