My Trip to the Ukraine

So in preparation of coming to Slovakia, I had to do some paperwork and background checks to apply for my yearlong temporary residence permit in Slovakia. For foreigners visiting Slovakia for longer than 90 days, this is required. It is referred to as a "permit" rather than a "visa" because it is issued within the foreign country when a person has already arrived there. Anyways, so we prepared the necessary documents for our permit, and all of us volunteers individually visited the police stations in our separate areas to solidify our permits. Well, the police in my area, for reasons nobody understands (I guess sometimes it just depends on the specific city's department), did not like my information and documents and didn't give me a residence permit (luckily, the other volunteers didn't have problems with this). After 5 trips to the station my program decided to cancel my permit, and I was then declared a "tourist" for the rest of my year here in Slovakia.

In March I made a trip to the Ukraine to meet with Daniela, my program coordinator, so we could cross the Slovak/Ukraine border, in order to get a passport stamp to prove that I had left Slovakia and wasn't here for longer then 90 days. It was an interesting experience! I felt sort of strange about the situation, like I was a questionable foreigner sneaking around, fleeing from country to country to avoid getting in trouble with the law. HA, dramatic, but a funny thought. I guess this situation happens sometimes, and our program has had to deal with the situation before, so it’s really not a big deal. At first it was a bit irritating, because of the time and money spent this summer trying to obtain documents and background checks, but it has actually been a pretty entertaining experience and funny story to tell, so I’m glad it worked out this way!

I met up with Daniela and fellow volunteer Mary (near her placement’s village) so that we could cross the border together. Mary didn’t need a stamp and was just along for the experience, and it was fun to have her with us! We traveled by car to the borderline, next to this small desolate village in Eastern Slovakia, parked her brother’s car in a nearby lot, and joined the long line trailing up to the border’s checkpoint. We took a few pictures from a distance of the checkpoint, and then stood around for almost an hour. Then Daniela came up to us and informed us that she had noticed a sign that stated U.S. citizens would NOT be able to cross at this point. She double-checked with a guard at the line, and sure enough, we weren’t able to cross. Confused and irritated, we got back in the car and came up with another plan to drive to another border crossing, about an hour’s drive away.

We went to the small village of Ubl’a and made a second attempt, and we were successful! It was sort of a long and quiet process with Mary and I standing there quietly not really understanding what was going on. This border checkpoint wasn’t in or near a village, but out in the middle of nowhere, so the whole borderline area was eerily quiet. We again parked the car in a side lot and joined the line to walk over the border instead. While I waited for them to check my forms and passport, and I glanced around and quietly gawked at the welcoming signs for the Ukraine. And I thought Slovak was difficult…I’m quite happy that I wasn’t a volunteer in the Ukraine, due to the fact that the language looks horribly scary (their letters are more symbol-like, and nothing like the English language, or Slovak). When we were finally let through, we went “shopping,” which was walking about a mile down this deserted ditch area towards the gas station and square of 4 small shops. We stopped at each shop and bought a few things, and asked if we could get Ukrainian Hryvna (their currency) in change as a souvenir for our trip. The woman at the first shop was really sweet and gave us some coins. I purchased some strawberry ice cream, which was really tasty, and Mary and I both bought a bottle of vodka for our host families. Her host dad and my host mom had a birthday in the same coming week, so we bought them a small bottle as a gift from our trip. (My host mom thought the gift was HILARIOUS because she’d been joking for almost two weeks prior to my trip that I should buy a nice bottle of Russian vodka when I crossed the border, pointing out this commercial on TV over and over. So I actually bought a bottle to be funny. I knew she was kidding and that she would think I was crazy, and that I didn’t understand her encouragement to buy Russian booze was only a joke. And I was right; it’s exactly how she reacted. Too funny!)

We were in Velykyj Bereznyj, Ukraine for a grand total of about 45 minutes, and then we crossed back into Slovakia and went home. So now I can tell people about how I went to the Ukraine for the afternoon to buy strawberry ice cream and vodka! The first picture posted is of Mary and I standing in the ditch, about halfway between the checkpoint and gas station/shop area, holding our gifts of vodka. The second picture is of us walking back into Slovakia. As we were walking back to the borderline, we saw a lineup of about 20 cars waiting to cross over, so we were really glad that we decided to cross the border by foot instead. As we walked by, one guy (who was just hanging out beside his car, eating part of a sandwich) asked us if we were hungry and offered us part of his sandwich! Haha! That’s a typical Slovak for you, always hospitable and offering food, even to strangers, on the side of a road and practically in a ditch.