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My throat is OK this morning and I only have a small cough, sure it was just the awful ride yesterday
I set off this morning at about 7 am to get a good early border crossing. How wrong was I, I didn't get to the boarder until about noon. The roads twix Krakow and Medyka (the border crossing to the Ukraine) were awful. The first part of the trip outside Krakow was OK, some dual lane highway and some wide roads for easy overtaking. Moving further, the roads became bumpier and narrower passing through small towns, that were as usual gridlocked.
All day today my bike kept cutting out, it was as if I had turned the key, then 3 seconds later it would spring back to life. I was so close to turning back, but thought I had come this far and would make a decision at the border.
Reaching the boarder, with no more breakdowns, I joined the back of the queue of some awful looking cars and vans, some of which I have only ever seen in historic publications. As I took off my helmet and let some air into my jacket, I hears a whistling sound. As I spun around there was some guy gesturing at me to go to the front of the queue, needless to say I was not hanging around to get a 2nd opinion.
At the front of the queue, there was 2 young lads on a moped, a well used moped at that, and goodness only knows when it last saw any rubber on it's tyre, all I could see was canvas. Within no time, we were let in, and with VERY broken English/Polish/Ukrainian, we ascertained that I was going to heading to a town called Khmel'nts'kyi, not but my magical linguistic skills, but my awesome powers of pointing at a map.
As I was on a bike I was waved through most of the queues, which caused some aggravation with other drivers who got into an argument with a bunch of about 20 Goldwing riders from Finland and Sweden, who looked like Vikings, and gave more than they got, I just stayed out of the way and offered my services, should anyone want their coat holding.
As we moved through the guards were taking great delight in talking (gesturing) about my bike. One said (i think) he liked mine and not the Goldwings. Then asked how fast, so I utilised my amazing pointing skills once more and pointed at 120 mph (200 KPH). He then said too slow and said Tri Sto Kilometre (300 KPH like my other bike) but thought I could not try and explain that, so smiled and went on my way.
Through the gate there were many places to buy currency so I stopped and was immediately harassed by a small boy obviously wanting money. Try as I may, stopping short of picking him up and drop kicking him, I could not get him to leave me alone. Due to this annoyance I decided to press on and see if there was any other location offering money exchange further into the Ukraine
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