Day 34
Once I had finished with my coaching I resumed my travels and I headed North to Warsaw. I stayed in a small hotel on the edge of Warsaw for under 30 Euros and I was able to take the metro in to the city centre which I walked about in for a while, I also found that the old town was somewhat touristy but nonetheless quite interesting.
Day 35
The next morning I set off to do another favour for another friend. I had been told by my fiend that her father had escaped Poland as a boy in the aftermath of WW2 and had then settled in the USA. She had asked me to swing by the village that her father had been born in near to Byzgoszcz and take some photographs for her. Once this mission had been accomplished I headed North to Gdansk where I spent the night in a cheery hostel full of odd characters for under 20 Euros.
Gdansk is another city that I liked and which I wished that I had spent more time exploring but as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were next on my list as places to visit, I had to be economical with my time.
Day 36
So brimming with anticipation I left Gdansk and headed for Lithuania. An early start meant possibly getting to Vilnius before it got dark so a quick blast on the motorway to Olszlyn and on the 16 from there to Augustow near the border was the plan. The road from Augustow to the Lithuanian border is quite something as almost the whole way it runs through pine forests with only the occasional break where some of the forests have be felled. However, once near the Lithuanian border the forests disappear from the roadside and the verges were now filled with fruit trees. I got in to Vilnius just before it got dark and once the bike was put away for the evening, I headed out to explore the city. It took me a while to find the old town and when I did it was closed. Yes, the madness had reached here and it was in full swing so all I could do was walk around the mainly empty streets and look at all the illuminated buildings that were closed.
I even managed to photograph a couple of them so with nothing else to do but wander the streets and look at closed bars and restaurants, as everyone else was doing, I headed back to the room that I had booked and did a little bit of research as to my possible direction the following day. Imagine my surprise, Latvia and Estonia had just announced that their borders were closed to anyone other than one of their own citizens returning to the country. Time for Plan B so I decided to sleep on it and re-evaluate my situation in the morning.
Day 37
The following morning it did not take long for me to decide what to do next. The weather forecast was predicting storms and 10 degree temperatures in Lithuania for the next week or so therefore one U turn later and I was back in Poland. My plan B was to head South and get in to Ukraine near the Polish city of Lublin so I set off from Vilnius back in the direction that I had come from the previous day but after I crossed back in to Poland I turned South and headed for the city of Lublin. I arrived in Lublin at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and I found a nice room on the edge of the city within an easy walk of the old town for 12 Euros, a real bargain. The old town in Lublin sits at the top of a hill and is much nicer than the industrial city that surrounds it and at least the bars and coffee shops were open, so I spent the evening indulging in my favourite pastime, people watching from a cafe whilst smoking a cigar and drinking lot of coffee.
Day 38
The next morning I was up bright and early and I set off East to the Ukrainian border.
I arrived at the border in sparking sunshine and I waited in a queue of traffic waiting for the border to open. I cleared the Polish side and I waited in line and get to the Ukrainian side of the border. At the Ukranian side I am told that my passport and vehicle documents are in order but then they tell me that unfortunately due to the madness Ukraine is closed to tourists until 29th of September. So once I get a bit of paper from them telling me that i was refused entry, I do a U turn and head back to the Polish side.
Now this is where the madness strikes again. First of all I sit in a queue of Ukrainian cars for about an hour until I get pissed off watching each one get, searched, turned around, and sent back to Ukraine. So I decide to ride to the front of the queue much to the consternation of the waiting Ukrainians. I spoke to the Polish border guard and explain that I left Poland an hour ago but got turned around at the Ukrainian side of the border, guess what he says?
“Ah you have just come from Ukraine so you will need to quarantine in Poland for 14 days!”
You couldn’t make this shit up even if you tried to!
Eventually another border guard comes over to see what I am agitated about, he tells me that he has a Suzuki GSX750, a fellow biker. I explain the situation to him and guess what? Yes, no need to quarantine as I have not actually been in Ukraine and five minutes later and I am heading back towards Lublin and as I ride back there I decide that I need yet another plan B. As I approached Lublin from my U turn at the border I had already decided to head through Slovakia towards Hungary, so by lunchtime I had just passed through city of Rzeszow and as I was approaching the Slovakian border I saw some aircraft parked in a field at the side of the road.
About 30 minutes later I am in Slovakia and then I see two tanks parked at the side of the road.
So, the Russian T34 and the German Tiger Tank are apparently a monument to the Battle of Dukla Pass which was a massive tank battle between the Soviets and the Germans in 1944. Now this is a really cool monument! I continued riding on and I eventually decided to stop for the night in a small village called Kompachy where I found a fantastic room in a small hotel for 12 Euros. That evening I sat on the balcony drinking coffee and wondering why the world was still gripped with the Covid madness.