In fact, it all started on September 30. It was 5:40 in the morning, still completely dark. We were running to catch the train to Przemyśl.
The train exceeded all expectations. We actually bought tickets in first class because all the second-class tickets were sold out (second class isn’t as cool, but it’s good too). Very comfortable seats, a proper toilet, lots of legroom, and there’s even Wi-Fi.
It takes 9 hours by train to Przemyśl. We arrived almost on time. We crossed the border quickly and without any problems.
In Przemyśl, we bought a ticket at the station to Kraków. We had 2 hours, so we decided to go for a walk around the city. As soon as we stepped out of the station building, it was so beautiful there. Usually, areas around train stations are rarely nice. But here there were pretty houses and a quiet little street. And дальше it got even better. It’s hard to describe in words. But for some reason, Przemyśl really impressed me. I walked along as if enchanted, looking around, and everywhere I looked it was beautiful. Volchiy says, “It’s like you’ve come to Europe for the first time.”
And yes, exactly, that was the impression — as if I had been overwhelmed by the beauty of this small town. For some reason, I thought it would be a shabby little place — what can you expect from a border town. But no.
And then we came out onto the city’s main square. It was crowded here. A fair, all kinds of crafts, cheese, honey for sale. We bought very tasty ice cream. Cheaper than our Ukrainian Lasunka made out of who-knows-what, and a hundred times tastier… Surprisingly, it tasted almost like Italian ice cream.
Only now did I realize that there isn’t a single photo from Przemyśl. When something is especially good, you really don’t feel like taking pictures.
We got to Kraków in 3 hours on a local commuter train. Here, the commuter trains have “compartments” with 6 seats. In our compartment, there was a woman from Stryi and a guy from Sambir — both heading to work abroad. In general, there are a lot of Ukrainians in Poland right now — you can hear our language everywhere.
We arrived in Kraków at 10 p.m. We bought a ticket for the commuter train to the airport. We wandered around the station for an hour. Kraków’s main station is great — there’s a big shopping center here, but by that time everything was already closed.
It takes 20 minutes to get to the airport by commuter train. Very fast and comfortable. For some reason, there’s nobody at the airport at this time. Only a few people waiting like us. It feels like planes don’t fly here at night. The first flight was around 5 a.m. We found a soft little couch and tried to sleep.
We flew to Marrakech with Ryanair. We departed on time. The plane was fine, just very, very basic, and the seats don’t even recline.
We arrived in Marrakech at 11 a.m. The whole trip took just over a day.
Upon arrival, we rented a car. We had booked it in advance in Kyiv. Everything went well. They gave us a gray Fiat Panda. A small, cute car. Inside, it’s more comfortable than our Logan.
It’s hot outside. It’s impossible to drive without air conditioning. Our destination, the town of Essaouira, is 200 km away. I’m terribly sleepy. We’ve barely slept for a day. My eyes are just closing. I keep telling Volchiy all sorts of nonsense so I won’t fall asleep myself and won’t let him fall asleep either. About 30 km later, we find a supermarket. A great big store. We bought water (what could be better than water after a flight!), and lots of other things — tea, coffee, fruit, a baguette. At that time there were almost no people in the store, and we were the only ones walking between the aisles. There are lots of products from Europe. We bought German shampoo.
A lot of canned tuna from local producers (prices are about 2 times lower than ours). We bought 4 cans; I love it so much I’m ready to eat it plain, without anything.
And olives are very cheap here too — a kilogram of delicious olives costs around 80 UAH.
