Lublin, Poland

After my night out in Lviv it was a fairly slow start to get back on the road. My breakfast turned into a brunch as I wasn’t the fastest this morning. I had parked my motorbike somewhere on the side of the road, and as I was eating I could see some parking guards approaching. They had a look at my bike and I was luckily just finished with eating so that I could run back to my motorbike and get going again. The lady shook her head in a ‘no’ fashion. I shook my head in an aknowledging ‘yes, i know’ fashion and I left the scene.

Today I would be heading back to the European union. There were a few options where I could cross the border. Would I be going towards Slovakia or stick to Poland? Slovakia would mean a bit of a ‘detour’ as I originally did not plan to visit this country. On the other hand, the region was mountainous, which would mean nice scenery. This would be a welcome change from the boring straight roads that I had been on the last few days. I could also opt for Poland and head for Krakow. Many people had said good things about this city. But again it was a bit out of the way according to my itinerary that I had plotted out while still in Belgium.

In the end I opted to stick to my original itinerary and went to Poland, skipping Slovakia, and also skipping Krakow in Poland. One can’t see everything. This is unfortunately true a lot of the time.

My destination of the day would be Lublin. But first another border crossing. I was expecting a bit of a crowd, and my expectations were confirmed by a very long queue of people. It was also extremely hot, so I did what motorbikes always do at border crossing, the skip the queue and try to make it as far as possible before reaching the gates. This worked fine and I quickly reached the Ukrainian control post. Now things got a bit interesting. When I presented my bike and my papers, the officer instructed me to get a stamp from customs first. Great, now where is customs. Turns out customs was another little shack that I had passed in the queue earlier on. So I had to leave the bike and walk back to the customs officer. There were many people just waiting in line to get some stamps and I did the same. Soon it was my turn and I could now get my papers and my stamp inspected by the border officer. He gave me another stamp on a little piece of paper and I could start making my way to the Polish checkpoint. There were two rows of cars, and like always, I wanted to go in between and cut in front of the line of cars. As I was maneuvering through I heard somebody whistle and as I looked back it turned out to be a Ukrainian guard. He wanted to collect the little paper with the stamp that I got from the border guard. Great. I could not make it all the way to the front of the queue so I had to wait in the sun, like everyone else. It took about 30mins before it was my turn to have everything inspected. I was starting to sweat as a pig. As I was waiting I could spot some of the people I went partying with the night before. They were on foot as they were hitchhiking towards Poland. The Polish official just asked if I had anything to declare and what kind of bike I was riding and if I had any problems with it. Pretty standard stuff. No inspection of my bags. He just gave my papers back and then I could go my way. After a few 100 meters in Poland I caught up with the partygang to say a final goodbye. They had no trouble hitchhiking and would try to find a new ride towards Krakow.

You can immediately tell that you are in the European union again. The landscape is dotted with ads and billboards everywhere. It is a little bit more lively. The roads were also in a better condition. Quite a difference from Ukraine.

I was hoping to get a bit of offroad action and my plotted gps track soon led me to a small forest. But it was not easy to find my way out of it. The tracks soon disappeared and I gave up finding my way out as it became to dense to ride through it. So I went back the way I came and stuck to the main road. The scenery did change a bit from Ukraine as well. There were more forests and a lot more villages that I passed. But maybe the highway in Ukraine just avoided a lot of small villages.

I had no idea where to stay in Lublin upon my arrival there. So the first tactic was to get wifi access and to find a hostel on one of the big hostel websites. This proved a bit harder than usual. I just could not seem to grab wifi access. After driving around for a bit I noticed a big field where a lot of jugglers and slack rope walkers were training. There were also lots of tents pitched on the field they were practicing on. And since I have a tent myself I thought I could give it a try and ask them if I could pitch my tent on their field. The whole area was fenced of and a security guard told me I had to go through the other entrance and not the one I had approached. Once I got to the official entrance I noticed that it was a circus and I didn’t bother to ask if I could camp there. I know I am a clown but this was not my circus.

So my quest for wifi had to continue. I must have lost at least an hour and a half just looking for free wifi. But the person that perseveres finally wins. And finally I had my precious wifi and could look for a hostel. I noted the address and typed it into my gps and I was on my way to my accommodation for the night. It was a bit out of town but I was glad that the place was open, and upon ringing the doorbell and entering they told me they still had a bed available. Great. I started unpacking my motorbike and was soon approached by another guest of the hostel. It was a french man that was doing a big european trip on his bicycle. He asked if I would join him into town. I accepted the invitation but told him that I first wanted to get a shower. No problem, he said… ‘I will wait outside for you’. But of course when I wanted to take my shower it was already occupied so I had to wait. After a while it was my time to take the shower and I tried my best to hurry up as fast as I could so that my frenchie outside would not have to wait too long. But he did have a book when he spoke to me outside, so I guess he could kill the time by reading.
However, when I went outside to meet him, he was already gone. I must have taken too much time then. No problem. I went back to the room and noticed a peculiar smell. Well, a smell is a friendly way of saying that the room just reeked foul. I was trying to find out where the stench came from. Most of the 8 beds in the room were taken and I could see all the bags of the french cyclist. As I hovered my nose over one of the plastic bags of our cyclist I had found the culprit. He had a fleece shirt inside that smelled so bad that it filled the entire room. The plastic bag in which it was put was half open hence why I discovered it. So I decided to close the bag and leave the window open as much as possible, hoping to clear the stench.

It was now time to head towards town on my own. There were loads of people there. The circus that was in town was performing a few nights in the city.

The city has a few streets that compose the ‘old city’ centre which are nice.

There were flame throwers, some comedy acts etc all over town.

It was a pretty cool place. All the bars and restaurants were also crowded.

I just walked around, grabbed some dinner, took some pictures and headed back to the hostel before midnight.

And when you can’t find a toilet and are too drunk, just pee in a corner, but don’t be surprised if someone takes your picture.

When entering the room I found the frenchman already in his bed, but what also had returned was the incredible stench. He had left his plastic bag wide open again. Now, I am usually pretty flexible and don’t complain too much when something is not to my liking but this was just not acceptable for me. So I went to reception and explained my situation. Luckily the girl was reasonable and gave me another bed in another room. There were only 2 people in this room and at least no smell! I was happy again and could look forward to a normal night of sleep.