Da - Di Mosca

Howdi all ...
... from snowy Lviv, on my second last day in the Ukraine. Got a rtain to Krakow Poland tomorrow morning. I'm feeling refreshed after a night in a hotel and a midday shower, so will sleep in the 'waiting hall'  of train station tonight. You can do anything there: undress, snore, whatever ... except lie down. That would put the ladies runnnig the rest rooms (with beds) upstairs outa business.

But where were we: Ivano-Frankirsk. Yeah, eventaully the bus arrived and I left that joint behind, begging kids, mothers, and amputees all. I headed to Yaremcha on a small bus/glorified marshrutka. Intersting trip, terrible roads, saw more than one horse-drawn cart (that being one of my ambitions in coming to eastern europe).

But Yaremcha was cool: the LP painted it as a gateway to the Ukrainian Carpathians, and it is. One-horse town, but on the railroad (didn't know that, else would have got the train). It was 16:30 or something when I got there, twilight approaching, and x-mas lights were shinning in the trees along the main (and only) strip, and the looming conifer-clad slopes were cloaked in silence...

Failed to negotiate a decent fare with the cabs at the Abtobokzal (bus station) - the second guy I asked actaully leaned out of the window to shout to the first guy how much eh had said, and then gave that amount, too. Ha ha. What would the Ukrainian Competition Commission think of that? SO, pissed off, I got directions and wakled to...

... the office of the Carpathian National Natural Park, or CNNP. They were great. I asked about hiking trails in the area, and was shown upstairs to the office 2 twnty-somethings, a guy and a girl, who had heaps of marked maps, and explained which coloured signs meant what. They said no-one was hiking that late in the year, but didn't see any problems.

Bonus: they offered me a FREE bed in one of their dorm-rooms upstairs, which I had to myself (the room, that is). But no shower. Still, I slept dounsly, and woke up, and opened the shutters, to find ...

Yaremcha covered in snow, with coin-sized flakes still falling. I had not seen falling snow before, by the way. Absolutely beautiful. So I said ym goodbyes and, not phased, set out on a 10 km trail to a nearby peak. I had been told the trail started next to a zoological park, and there I found a) no people, and b: a 7-point stag, and several other deer, eartnig hay near the mesh fence barrier. There was a hole in the fence, through which I let the stag lick my hand, which he between taking swings at the fence with his antlers.

So much stoked, off I went, up the trail, which for the most part ran along 4WD roads. I walked for maybe 3 hours through the snow, which was maybe 15 cm on the ground and swirling in the air, admiring scenes that I had always imagined but never seen from the Wild Wood in Wind in the Willows to teh Black Forrest in LOTR: Gnarled snow piled on the branches, like the encrusted hands of coral skeletons.

Oh yeah, did I mention that all the while I'm listening to the russian-language 'lord of the rings' mp3 CD of the books I also picked up in
Kiev? What a geek...

2 shirts, black jumper, trench coat, beannie (but no gloves, dammit)...The gators came in handy here, keeping my pants (trendy black pin-stripes from Kiev) dry, though my sneakers let the team down. As you will learn.

So I found a likely place to throw up the tent (flat hollow beneath conifers, and magical-looking, naked deciduous of smoe sort) and did that while losing all feeling in the fingers, enjoying the notion that without tent and sleeping bag, I was dead, and frozen, meat; made a half-arsed and unsuccessful attempt to light a fire, mainly for moral purposes, pissed off I hadn't picked up a new gas cylinder for the mini-stove, and then, fearing hypothermia, cralwed into the sleeping-bag that has been, warmth wise, serious overkill thus far. Had been: not so now. For once I did all teh zipers up and pulled all the draw-strings taught....

As always, for me there was an element of fear campign by myself. The first time snow slid down the sides fo the tent I pulled out the 'phones (russian LOTR still going strong) and thoguht what-the-fuck-was-that kinda thoughts, in a way I had not since an apple dropped on the tent at the edge of an orchard near Krasnaya Plolyana, Russia.... But all was well: no bears or wolves or other fell-beasts came to terrorise me, with only the sliding snow to break the moonlit silence. he he.

Morning: the part of the camel-back water-bladder not under the sleeping bag was frozen solid, and my sneakers (the laces took ages to untie). I sat on teh sneakers long enough to get my feet into them and, erady to go, decided to head back, in case my feet didn't win out aganist the sneakers, but they soon did from walking. Less than an hour later I was within sight of Yaremcha, being barked at by the german-shepherds in their backyard enclosures.

I got back to the CNNP office, spent another night there, then caught the 4:20 am train to Lviv. This was my first city in Ukraine, and its good to be back. This time, I've got photocopies of the relevent section of the LP (last time, no, as I'd lost them on the St Petersberg merto like a rtue schmuck). Thanks to Christianne for that ...

Its snowing here too, as stated earlier, but only a few cm on the ground.
Since I'm not spendnig anything on accomodation tongiht, I may do the dine-in thing.

We shall see. Oh yes, we'll see ...

Sorry, too much LOTR .... but hey, its Russian, and thus educational, even if the vioces are all done by three people, and the elves' voices are done by the woman.

Adieu,

Liam, mardi 22 novembre 2005 13:55.