Hello! Our first attempt to cross the border with Poland started on February 26 from Lviv. We were 5 women and a 2 year old baby. We decided to go on foot so as not to stand in a car in line for a week. But when we found out that the distance to be covered was 32 km, we immediately changed our plans. My niece and daughter returned to Odessa, and we went.
So, we started our journey! We managed to walk 17km to the ATB supermarket. The people of the local villages were very helpful. We were fed, given hot tea and moral support. There was still about 15 km to the border with Poland, the control point is Shegini-Medyk. And then, as if by magic, a minibus with volunteers stopped near us and offered a ride to the border. Thus began our 9-hour wait for customs control at -3 degrees with sleet from time to time, without food, water and the presence of a toilet. But everyone around us was positive, in an atmosphere of mutual assistance and understanding. All mothers with children were let through without a queue. As soon as we crossed the border, we immediately felt the kindness and hospitality of the Polish people. Hot food, drinks, warm blankets, transportation wherever you want, free accommodation for the first time. In total, our journey took 22 hours. And this is not the most difficult option, as it turned out!
For our children, we chose, as it seemed to us then, an easier path than the one that I did with my sister and her 14-year-old daughter.
My daughter with her cousin and a 2.6-year-old girl were traveling in a hot, 3 times overcrowded train from Odessa to Lviv. The train station in Lviv is so crowded with people that the exit to the city took an hour and a half instead of 5 minutes. Around crying children, tired mothers, a lot of animals that the owners took with them.
When we arrived at the customs point of Krakivtsi, it turned out that there was a queue of 57 buses in front of us, and this is about 2 days of waiting. And then our girls decided to walk, which turned out to be a big mistake. People who have stood in the cold for about 15 hours are already beginning to lose sympathy not only for each other, but even for small children. After standing for 4 hours with a 2-year-old child, at the risk of their lives, our children got out of the tired and already aggressive crowd back to the bus.
So, they started their journey on March 6, and we met in Krakow on March 8. Our little girl slept for almost a day. Now we hope that within a maximum of a month it will be resolved and we will be able to return home, to Odessa.
