Sep 19, 2007

I'm NEVER Getting Off This Bus!!


We boarded a bus at 7:30pm in Lviv to begin our journey to Krakow, Poland. Our initial arrival time to Krakow was approximately 5 or 6:00am. This is normal. Overall we planned for about a 10-hour trip, that is with travel and time at the Ukraine-Poland border (which usually is a 2 to 4 hour wait). We got out a little late from the bus station, but all was well. We arrived at the border around 9:30pm, right on time. We waited....and waited...slept...waited...had our passports checked....waited...slept...and waited some more. Finally we realize that this is taking WAY longer than usual. We tried to figure out what the hold up was, what was making us sit there and not move. Finally we realized the answer: NOTHING! There was nothing going on. This is Ukraine. We just got in a line that wasn't all about moving quickly. We sat at the border from 9:30pm to about 6:00am. I am not joking. 10 hours. 10 freakin hours!!! Finally we went through the Ukrainian border station and then the Polish border station, which also took longer because they were obviously also in no hurry and they found someone on our bus trying to smuggle cigarettes across the border...super. We were back on the road. We arrive in Krakow about 12:00pm. We were on that stinkin bus for 17 hours! 17 hours!! No one should have to go through that...talk about understanding how people get bed sores!


We were in Krakow for about 2 hours, long enough to get some lunch at a mall near by. We then decided to get back on a bus to Katowice, PL where we would meet Jay. That bus then took two hours. Yay, two more hours on a bus. We got to Katowice, and finally met Jay, who then drove us 3.5 hours to Hotel Malenovice in Czech Republic (where we are attending our JV Fall Leadership Conference). We arrived at Malenovice at 8:00pm. Yep. We were dead on our butts, but we had to hurry and check in, eat dinner, then attend our first seminar. We were in transit a total of 24 hours. You can imagine how chipper I was. I will never forget my first trip to my first JV Fall Conference.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

geez, that's a long time traveling! Enjoy Malenovice.. I miss that food, actually - especially breakfast :)

can't wait to see you! I am praying for you!

lp said...

um...can i remind you of the time our two teams had a plan to meet and caravan out of ukraine. but....NO...your team left us and we got lost. continually. or...just once really good like. i think our trip probably took at least 17 hours. yes...at least. so, i have no sympathy for you. none. ...and then there was that one time our van broke down on the side of the road for a good 8 hours or so. that was fun trying to find an alternator belt... sigh. good times.

Z said...

I like the use of the phrase "dead on our butts." Very poetic and characteristic of the Brit-boat blog-thingy experience.

BritBoat said...

Sheryl, I'm sorry...that's all I can say...I'm sorry.

lp said...

forgiven. i suppose. i just like to rub it in a bit. and how you left the little slip of paper w/ some lady on the side of the road near the border! that's craziness. hilarious now. not so when i wondered if i would get out of the country w/o a bottle of wine to give the guys in the pretty suits.