Today we awoke from our apartment in the university dorms and had our coffee from a vending machine which was situated just down the hall. It wasn’t the best but it’s nice to know that vending machines all across the world suck.

The day started fine as I made my usual time on a perfectly bike-friendly road which for the first time had a shoulder large enough to bike on. Every ten kms there was a strategically placed sign telling me to thank the European Union for the road. Anyway I met Emmanuelle in Chelm which was just 20 km form the border of Ukraine. She had planned to take the train to the border but the guys that sold the tickets failed to mention that there was no train.

So we biked together to the border where it became really weird really quick. We first stood in the line of cars for about an hour watching cars pull in front of us. I'm not sure if they had some diplomatic status or special privileges or what ever. Anyway when it was our turn the border guard said that we could not enter Ukraine because we didn’t have a motor vehicles but jus as he finished his sentence he was quickly corrected by his superior and let us through reluctantly. The next obstacle was a long bridge that was backed up with cars for about a km. We weaved in and out to push to the front of the line. Kind of rude but I’m sure it saved us about a month of time. We arrived at the next gate where a mild mannered man was pretending to ignore us for about 2 minutes. We watched as people were getting out of their cars to bug him.

Anyway he gave us a number and pointed towards another gate which separated us from the road. We waited another thirty minutes and a man in a blue hat came and pulled us out to the side to check us in. There was another man who joked with us the whole time about Emmanuelle’s broken arm and the bikes.

We finally crossed the border and took a break of the heat some 10 km down the road. We were exhausted and needed to get out of the sun. We had drunk almost all of our supply of water and headed towards the gas station to refill but we hadn’t thought about changing our money before crossing the border. We also hadn’t realized that no one in the area took MasterCard, traveler’s checks, euros or Polish money.

We headed into the nearest town to find a bank machine but the machine didn’t work and we were lost. On our way out of town we had seen the cab driver who gave us directions to the bank machine. He informed us that there were three machines in town and made a motion to tell me to get into the cab and then he left for some reason. 10 minutes passed and he came back and took me to the machine that worked. Happily Emm and I ate a small supper and left for the road. We wanted to get as far down the road as possible.

About 10-15 km later we turned right on a seemingly harmless path which should have only been for a minute or two. this is one of the most contrasting situations of the whole day and it certainly would be impossible to describe... Imagine being in some of the flattest territory you have ever seen in your life, and then turn left into a little green forest with a little dusty road... Now imagine everything that you would expect not to be there and I assure you they were there right in front of us.

The road opened up unto a little utopian community with brightly lit log cabins a heavily stocked fish pond, deer walking freely among the people and a chief of security that looked like he was just fresh out of a Vietnam book from the early 70s in his military outfit. The people walked slow and wore traditional Ukrainian clothing and I’m not sure but I think there was soft music that seemed to come from the lake.

Everything seemed too perfect and this made me a little uneasy. We were greeted by a man with a huge smile that seemed to bend his whole face upward and he gave us a pricelist. It was only later when I checked the daily exchanges on yahoo when I realized how cheap it was. ... too perfect...

It was 6am when we woke up this morning. I am slowly starting to get used to getting up that early.

After a warm coffee, we slowly hit the road towards the station. The plan was to take the train to the closest town from the Ukrainian border. With drawings, gestures and sign language I managed to get a ticket to Dorohusk. Then I asked the lady when the train was. She looked on her old paper schedule, asked a colleague, and from her face and lots of "nie, nie" I understood there was no train! And I had to go to information booth to get more details. Once again, I had to stand in line while an old lady kept waving a piece of paper with what it seemed to be a phone number, to finally pass in front of me to wave it at the lady at the counter. I finally got to the counter to hear about the bad news, realizing that the next train was on Thursday, I hopped in the next train in the general direction of Ukraine.

I met Chris in Chelm which about 20 km from the border.

Crossing the border was a 3 hour adventure with 4 gates to pass, the first telling us we were not allowed to bike on Ukrainian roads because we had no motor to our bikes. Fortunately, it was not the opinion of all guards and after a few jokes and sweat drops we were free to go!

For the next 3 hours, people that we passed at the border were honking to us after finally being released by the border even though they had motors.

It was getting late, we were tired and hungry, we stopped at a gas station, all eager to replenish our stock on food and water to find out they were not accepting master card although there was a sign on their door neither euros, nor polskies!

I was getting cranky and ready to eat my coffee powder when we finally hit a small town Lubjomi where a taxi driver helped us find a bank machine that worked. We had dinner finally: ice cream and bread! It was better than my coffee powder!

We proceeded to continue biking but it was getting dark and we were ready to sleep in a bush, on the side of the road when suddenly, a miracle just arose! A picture of a bed and an arrow!

So we followed the sign which took us to this amazing lala land camp resort with bungalows and artificial lake, even a fawn playing with what looked like "Dirty Dancing" movie staff all dressed prime and proper except for the Vietnam costume of the guard who grinned a huge welcome in Ukrainian.

It was too perfect to be true; I kept pinching myself to check if I was already sleeping! Apparently I was not.

We were treated for a nice Ukrainian meal in a calm restaurant which gathered the whole Ukraine in a small room of napkins and knickknacks and went to bed early that night.