Post 6 of 100 for 2013
This is one of those blogs you start and then get sidetracked from. I am going to try to pick-up where the last God Sightings Part 1 left off.
Context - we were on a trip to Poland (Warsaw) to get new visas. We went by bus and marshrutka not knowing exactly how this was going to work out.
So... after we grabbed a taxi and it took us to the required bank we went in to make a deposit in the Ukrainian Embassy's account. But it turned out we didn't have enough cash with us. Their was a bank fee that we hadn't accounted for. I thought no big deal I'll just saunter over to the nearest ATM and get some more money. Well, there was no ATM at this bank and so they told me to go to the ATM around the corner - 20 minutes later I found the ATM. Of course, whole time I was looking for this silly ATM, my wife was waiting for me wondering where I was. I got enough money in PLZs (Polish Zloties) to make sure we could pay the bank fee, a taxi back to the embassy and pay for our bus trip home. I found out later I was fortunate that put the wrong debit card into the ATM, as it would have resulted in an overdraft.
Finally, I got back to my wife with the money, paid the fee and made the deposit to pay for our visa's. We had released the taxi and so now we had to figure out how to get back to the embassy. We had a pass for use on all public transportation but I really had no idea where we were in respect to the embassy. My phone didn't work in Poland, so I couldn't use my Google maps function. But the Lord had someone waiting for us. A Ukrainian gentleman recognized us from the embassy and offered us a ride while we were trying to figure out which public transportation we would take. When we got back to the embassy they had our visa's ready for us. We were out the door before 11:00 am local time. We walked back toward the central train station, stopping for lunch along the way at a KFC :). Ordering was an interesting experience. The girl at the register didn't speak English or Russian and I don't speak Polish, but it turned out the manager spoke English. We took our time enjoying lunch. Strangely the Polish KFC's had no breast meat, only legs and wings.
After lunch I took a few photos, then we took a trolley back to the central train station. I couldn't figure out were to buy tickets for a bus back to Kyiv. I looked around and finally found someone I could talk to. I found out that we needed to go to the International Central Bus Station. I'm pretty sure now, that that would have been the final destination of our bus from Lutsk'. Well, being the guy that I am and hating to ask for directions, we started checking out all the bus stops around the train station. Finally I saw something in Polish that seemed like it might be where we wanted to go. Polish is a Slavic language that uses the Latin alphabet. I saw something that looked like the anglicized version of the Russian word for international (Mezhnarodni). After a short wait our bus came along.
One of the nice things about Polish buses (and Hungarian for that matter) is that they have a display which shows your location among all the stops which lights up for each of the stops. We managed to make it to the International Bus Station without too much trouble (we did get out one stop too soon), at some time after 1:00 in the afternoon. It turns out we had just missed the bus to Kyiv (Kiev spelled Kijow in Polish) and the bus to Lutsk', but there was a bus to L'viv (another major city in western Ukraine). So I bought our tickets and we waited for our bus. We didn't know what to expect as far as the quality of buses went. AnnMarie was praying that we could get in one of those huge deluxe doubledecker buses that we had seen on the road instead of the rough-riding bus we rode from Lutsk' to Poland.
Well AnnMarie got her wish we got this big, gold colored doubledecker bus. It looked beautiful, the seats were comfortable, but the a/c didn't work. It turned out that our bus was a huge solar oven. But as tired as we were, it didn't really matter. I am reminded of the saying, "Be careful of what you wish for - you may get it." In addition to being hot, the bus kept breaking down; I think it was the heat. It appeared that the engine kept suffering from vapor lock. Things at the border (which once again was late at night) went smoothly this time with our new visa's. And eventually we arrived in Lviv - pronounced Lveev in Russian or Lvove in Ukrainian.
We arrived at one of Lviv's 7 train stations. When I asked around where we could find a marshroutka (minibus) back to Kyiv, we were told there were none. I was dumb struck. I suppose I could have tried to get a train ticket back, but for some reason I had my heart set on something with rubber wheels to get us back to Kyiv. A taxi driver told me that we needed to go to the central bus station and he would be glad to take us there for a mere 80 Hrn (about $10). That may not sound like much to your westerners, but to someone use to paying 2 Hrn (about 25 cents) for most transportation with in a city, it was very extravagant. I think he was trying to take advantage of our lostness and our obvious American accent. So I did something very uncharacteristic, I followed a hunch and a group of people I saw moving towards what appeared to be a bus stop where lots of different marshroutekas were stopping.
I was concerned about asking people, because I have encountered some western Ukrainians whose attitude when it comes to language is "I am Ukrainian, I am not Russian, why would I speak Russian?" But since my limited language skills where in Russian, I didn't have much recourse but to ask and inquire in Russian or English. So I boldly walked to the nearest line of people and inquired in Russian if they knew which marshrouteka went to the Central Bus Station. Someone told me the number and gestured off to his right. I saw people moving in that direction and we followed. This led to a parking lot where there were a couple of marshroutekas waiting but none of them were the one we needed. So we waited.
After some time of not seeing our marshrouteka come along I moved towards the road to see what was going on there. Shortly I saw our marshrouteka on the opposite side of the road. For some reason I had in in my head that the marshrouteka would be on our side of the road headed the other way. So we waited some more. After seeing three marshroutekas headed the other way with none coming our way, I concluded I had been wrong. We crossed the street and waited for the next one while trying to avoid being run over by the trolleys that were running on that side of the street.
We got on the next marshrouteka and squeezed in to the aisle. I thought it would be easy to spot the bus station and we would be able to get out without problem. It was hot, most of the windows were closed - a normal ride on Ukrainian public transportation. The driver was not announcing stops but I was still confident I would know when to get off the marshrouteka.
Lviv reminded me of San Francisco will the hills and winding roads. I really had no idea where we were. The Spirit must have attuned my ears because I heard someone say "Centralni avtovokzal" so I cried out we need to get off and we pressed our way to the rear exit. When we got out, I looked around and there was no bus station to be seen. I said a quick prayer under my breath, spotted an alley way and said, "It must be through there." My impression was right. In short order I purchased our tickets and we proceeded to wait. It was maybe 9:00 am and our bus didn't leave until after noon. All the bus stands were clearly marked as to which city they went to. So we station ourselves in front of the one marked Kyiv. I left AnnMarie there and when and foraged for a bite to eat.
Finally the time of our departure approached, but the bus parked by the sign marked Kyiv was clearly marked for some other city. Finally, a bit nervous about missing our bus I when back to the ticket office to inquire where we were to meet our bus. The woman said something unintelligible waved her hand indicating somewhere outside.
So then I walked up and asked a driver of one of the buses waiting in front of us if the bus to Kyiv departed from there. I am not sure what he said but he motioned for us to follow him. He took us out into the middle of the parking lot. He then went over inquired of a woman in a booth near the entrance to the parking lot, came back to us and said in English, that our bus hadn't come yet but we should wait for it right there in the middle of the parking lot. It came along about 5 minutes later.
I was expecting an express bus to Kyiv, but this was the milk run. It was going to stop at ever little town between Lviv and Kyiv. The a/c didn't work on this bus either so it was going to be a long hot trip but God's grace was with us. All the stops allowed me to get out stretch my legs and get something to drink to keep us hydrated in the heat. We finally arrived in Kyiv in evening sometime near 7:00. The bus driver announced that we were stopping at Zhetomer metro stop. We decided to get off, as I expected it to be quicker than waiting until we got off at either the central train station or wherever the bus's final stop was. We were home within an hour.
It had been a long trip. We had managed to sleep two nights on buses and had been places we had never been to before and it was great. Through all the trials and difficulties I could not escape the sense that God's hand was on us the whole trip. Even when we face difficulties at the boarder and sweltering temperatures on our bus rides, we had God's peace and we knew that we would make it through. This was truly a remarkable trip for me, because I have never been the adventurer. I usually prefer to go with someone who knows the lay of the land and the pitfalls to be avoided. I truly believe God taught me just how faithful He is on that trip. He showed me that there was nothing I could not face with him. The unknown no longer holds me at bay. I am now more willing to follow wherever the Spirit leads.
Photo's of our Trip to Poland
Post Script:
Its 2016 and I have gone back and read this again. I cannot but wonder what some of you think. Maybe it doesn't seem remarkable to you, but to me, it was amazing. I was never and adventurous soul. When I was in the Navy I always let other people lead me to the cool spots for liberty. May be you will just see it as me finally growing up. But I saw it as me allow Jesus on the throne of my heart and letting him handle things the occurred.
I was a worrier, the son of a worrier. Sometimes it wasn't obvious, but it was ever present in my life. This makes me think maybe I should retell the story of our first trip to Hungary, because I was completely freaked out about going to somewhere I had never been to, where the people spoke a language unlike anything I had heard and about which I know absolutely nothing.
For me the "God Sightings" were in those moments when I over came my fears and let God show me the way.
Thanks for reading
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