Twenty-two days of one journey. The first day
I always knew and believed that I would come to Italy someday. Confidence was strengthened when meeting charming Italians from Milan to Cirali at Cesur Pansiyon in 2012. By that time, I already knew a hundred Italian words, half of which were numerals, and pronounce them at every opportunity, ask questions, afraid to get answers - Italian was not perceived by ear. However, they exchanged addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, invited each other to visit. In September, an invitation came to visit Milan and at the same time, on October 8, Celentano's concert in Verona. Neither I nor my wife could go… Years passed.
And so, on the evening of February 6 this year, turning on the computer, I immediately received an informational blow to all my nerves - the Italians called to Milan in July, the Venice Carnival begins in ten days, and in addition, today is Adriano's birthday. I told this news to my wife and, looking into her eyes, I understood everything without words: I must go! "When? " - "In August, in the early days. " Before midnight, almost all hotels and apartments were booked, since eight route options have been “concocted” over the years.
Booking did a great job with all the bookings (it will be given a few lines with gratitude - it deserves it), although Expedia. it, subito. it (apartments, villas, apartments, houses directly from the owners) and ViaMichelin were at hand and persistently offered their services. For car travelers, especially beginners, I recommend ViaMichelin. The route was compiled, as always, based on the fact that the rest should begin approximately thirty minutes after departure - this is easy, because for almost the whole day we will drive through my native Ukraine, along an excellent highway to the very border, past beautiful landscapes, cities and medieval castles Zhytomyr, Rivne and Lviv regions. And so it happened.
It took a long time to determine the place of crossing the border with the EU - from Rava Ruska to Vilki, it did not matter where to enter - Poland, Slovakia or Hungary, because the first stop was in the Alps in Austrian Carinthia. The choice fell on the Smilnica checkpoint on the border with Poland, and then, “cutting off a piece” of Poland in the southeast, go to Slovakia and, possibly, with one overnight stay, get to Kremsbrü cke.
Let's call it all a preface, then I will try to tell as informatively as possible about each day, and there were 22 of them, about Slovaks, Austrians and Italians, French, Dutch, English, whom I met and talked with (for me they are the main thing on the trip). The DVR filmed all 6060 km of the way there and back, about a hundred hours - in time I will make something out of all this. I will share the experience of cheap accommodation, a little about a beach holiday, about the life of Ukrainians and Italians in Italy, about what I happened to see along with tens of millions of tourists.
So, the departure was scheduled for 5 am on August 1, although the first booking was in Austria (Carinthia, Kremsbrü cke Hotel Gasthof Post) on August 3 for one night - they gave a reserve of one day in case of a long stay at the border.
The alarm clock of the smartphone was set for 4 hours, we hardly slept, at 3.45 I turned off the alarm and fell asleep, but an inner voice screamed with my wife in half an hour, we left at 5.30.
Everything was prepared in advance, I just made coffee for the road.
The preparation included the following:
diagnostics and replacement of some components and parts of the car, because the car is already 11 years old and 310 thousand kilometers - you don’t need to go anywhere without it, I took a couple of liters of oil into the engine (in Italy, the price of 1 liter of synthetic 5W30 is from 18 to 25 euro/liter).
auto insurance (green card) and two medical insurances - about 1900 UAH. for everything.
two reflective vests, a tow rope, two warning triangles, a fire extinguisher, a first aid kit (I always buy medicines and supplies at the pharmacy - three times cheaper and better).
two folding chairs and an umbrella.
thermal bag, where they put breakfast in the form of sandwiches and a couple of bottles of yogurt. I don’t take a car refrigerator in the summer when traveling over very long distances - a large load on the battery, fuel consumption increases. Meat and dairy products cannot be imported into the EU, everything must be eaten here. They also put several Roshen chocolates, a couple of boxes of sweets, six two-hundred-gram jars of Poltava honey (linden, milk thistle, acacia and herbs), in a travel bag among travel items, three very nice half-liter vodka and two boxes of Tavria cognac ” and “Uzhgorod” - exclusively for gifts to good people.
The banknotes were distributed among three credit cards and about 1.000 euros in cash. I will announce the budget by name at the end of the story.
A smartphone with Google maps, a Garmin navigator with "updated" maps, and a DVR stuck to the windshield.
an album with photos and stories about Kyiv in English, a couple of small "yellow-black" flags.
laptop, three flash drives with a total capacity of 90 GB.
an old phone just in case (not useful).
a suitcase with things and probably something else that I don't remember.
biometric passports and their photocopies (mine is absolutely clean), vehicle registration certificate, driver's license (plain plastic), booking printout.
The engine warmed up, the belts snapped on, at 5.30, after 15 minutes we left Kyiv and began to rotate the Earth in the right direction along the Zhytomyr highway. By tradition, Chris Rea's song "Looking for the Summer" sounded and after it, finally sticking to the track, his own "The Road to Hell". The road to the Polish border is 5. I can’t convey all the emotions in words, it’s like the first date with your beloved - high hopes, complete uncertainty and anticipation of high costs. Moreover, such feelings have never been manifested either on the train or on the bus, only while driving a car.
The turn to Radomyshl flashed by - I recommend everyone to visit there, we stretched a little along the unfinished district of Zhytomyr, one of the oldest cities of Kievan Rus (the ninth century), where world cosmonautics was literally born in the person of S. P. Korolev, drove along Novograd- Volynsky, where in 1871 Larisa Petrovna Kosach-Kvitka was born, who is increasingly known as Lesya Ukrainka, unfortunately, many from the image on the 200-hryvnia banknote. The house where she was born has been preserved - there is a museum. And then it’s even more interesting: turn to Kremenets in Dubno, right along the highway, the wonderful city of Radivilov, from which you can and should get to Pochaev in half an hour. Podgortsy, Olesko. . .
Olesko Castle
. . . handsome Busk, Zolochev. Lviv was bypassed, otherwise they would not have got abroad - to be in this city and not pay attention to it at least a couple of days is a crime. Further, Sambir and Stary Sambir, worthy of attention and respect, in particular for the fact that from the latter there is a normal road to Poland and only 30 km, there are many gas stations, one of which filled the tank "under the throat".
At 15.00, they were twenty-seventh in line at the Smilnitsa checkpoint, an hour later the clock showed the same 15.00 (the time zone had changed). The border crossing is neat, calm, in the same building both our and Polish border guards. In 2006, they were 52 in Shegini, they stood for twelve hours. Ours were released, after examining quickly but carefully, they found a mistake in the six-year-old record of the body number on the Ukrainian-Moldovan border, and corrected it. The Poles let us in a little faster than ours let us out. The spelling of the name Igor in the driver's license and Ihor in the passport did not bother anyone. They asked about the purpose of the trip, the route, they showed no interest in money and the date of return. He confessed to the Polish customs officer that he had 1 bottle of yogurt, to which he heard “witamy w Polsce”.
17.00 Polish time, drive to the border of Slovakia about 100 km. In Poland, we didn’t manage to buy anything to eat or drink, we need zloty cash, they didn’t accept cards (very small roadside cafes). By 19.00 we reached the old checkpoint on the border with Slovakia in the area of the Dukel Pass, where I bought a monthly Slovak vignette and a ten-day Austrian one. By 21.00 we reached the city of Presov, decided to spend the night. I asked Garmin to find the nearest hotel, five minutes later we were standing in the parking lot of a nine-story building in the style of underdeveloped socialism "Hotel Sharish".
Screen from Google Maps– hotel in Presov
35 euros per night, I won’t say anything else good, I can say a lot of bad things, but I won’t, I even deleted all the photos. Then I found out that the hotel has rooms for 50 euros, where a person will remain a person after spending the night. They just washed themselves (towels, soap they brought from the car, this was not in the room), their conscience did not allow them to take a shower, they gave 4 euros to the parking meter and rushed away.
But I liked the city of Presov (from the car window), there were quite a few small nice hotels, beautiful architecture in the Old Town.
So the first day ended, we drove 850 km, a variety of emotions and impressions formed into positive memories.
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