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We visited the Salt mines in Wieliczka, check out www.kopalnia.pl and this is just amazing. Christine has caught a cold and is kind of cranky, but the air in the salt mines is supposedly very good for allergies and colds, so she just had to breathe much down there. There is actually a rehabilitation center something down there too.

We head east in Poland, and Pär posts the question about going to Ukraine or not. We’ve been talking about it. With three children talking at the same time, and Christine just snoring and coughing in the back, he hears a united “yes” and drives toward the border. We enter Ukraine without problems and end up having some of the most interesting days on this whole journey. We saw such beautiful nature, and all is so clean. There are horses and carriages on the streets everywhere, and people working on the fields. The roads are not really made for our car, but we say: Right roads, wrong car. Driving on asphalt with 2 feet deep potholes is not easy. Vida loves it! The second night, a man passes us on his moped and tries to talk with us, but our Russian knowledge is limited… We understand that he wonders if we’re really going to sleep here? Yes. A few hours later, Christine is putting the kids to sleep, he comes back with a big bucket of strawberries. We try to talk, I e communicate with body language and Christines small travel dictionary (which is rather useless), Vida and Christine hanging out of the tent, Pär is down there, and it’s so much fun. Then he asks if we want milk, and shows us what he means, he will go milking his cow. So, off he goes and comes back a short while later, with fresh, still warm, milk. He asks us what time we are leaving tomorrow, and then if we want more milk then? The next morning, he comes back with his son and a big bag full of things, some meat, flesh, home made strawberry jam, a huge bottle of milk, and 10 eggs.

When we leave the spot, we decide to go through the village where he lives, instead of out on the main road, because we really would like to give something back, and Christine found a nice pocket knife that we could give to his son. So, we stop at the little shop to buy bread and ask. Christine takes out the little note with his address and shows the lady in the shop. Now, she is the one who wrote it, she is his wife! Christine calls Pär and the kids to come, all the old ladies in the shop are interested and this is so much fun. Someone goes to get the son and we can give him the gift. When we’re finally leaving, we see him on a field with his friend, honk and wave. One minute later, he drives past us with his bike (the road is so bad that he can bike faster than we can drive), and then shows us where they live. So we stop again and visit them. We end up leaving the place with even more gifts… We had so much fun, and getting to meet this family, and see their life was great. Ukraine ended up being one of the best parts of this whole journey.

Back in Poland, more rain.