Day 3 Cont – Border …

Day 3 Cont

I left Rzeszow and headed for Kroczowa where the Poland Ukraine border was.  It only took me a couple of hours to get there and it was about 9pm by now.  Exiting Poland I don’t even remember, but I parked up at a queue of about 50 cars ready to enter Ukraine.  It was raining still and I was worried about turning the bike off in case it didn’t start again.  i did not want to break down here!

The car in front of me was a UK reg car so I tried to strike up conversation with the driver, but he was Ukrainian and didn’t speak English.  However he told me just to ride through the cars and go to the front, at least there I would be under some shelter where the actual passport control and customs are.   I didn’t need convincing and after checking with a mean looking border guard that it was ok, I squeezed through the cars and parked up under the roof.

I was now at the front, they had about 10 cars to deal with so I thought it’d be quick.  How wrong I was … long story, but rude, impolite and useless would be too polite to describe the Ukraine border officials.  2 hours later though thankfully and I was on my way.  It was about 11now and I thought I would try make it to L’viv and grab a hotel as it’s only an hour away.  That plan didn’t work, I tried about 5 places and they were all fully booked, so at about midnight I thought I’d just head for Kiev and find a hotel on the way.  L’viv was a nightmare in the rain and dark.  It’s full of cobbled streets and tram tracks, on a motorbike that is a lethal combination in the wet and when I was tired.  I almost came off a couple of times.  I figured I would be safer on the main roads.

Between L’viv and Kiev I was pulled over by a policeman who insisted I was speeding, even though he didn’t have a speed gun with him , but apparently he could just tell.  Wanker.  I had no local currency on me but he relieved me of US$60.  Eventually at about 3am I found a hotel on the main road and it was great!  Massive room, nice shower etc, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to sleep, the bike had been running non-stop since 6pm’ish as I was worried about turning it off.  As I unloaded the bike at the hotel at 3am and turned the key off, the bike kept on running … nice!  Not.  Wiggling the key off/on about 10 times turned it off, but then, even with the key removed the dash would just spring back into life about 10 seconds later.  This is what flattened my battery yesterday as I’d left the heated grips on too.  After plenty of faffing it stayed off and I headed to bed but was quite worried it would just fire up again in the middle of the night …

I fell asleep within seconds!

 


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