Day 69: Made it into the Ukraine

After a short night, a quick breakfast and an hour bus ride, I arrived in Snina, where it just started to rain. I found my way to the red cross and one of the girls working there spoke English! It was a quick thing to do the Corona test. All my worrying and internet research was unnecessary. 

As the next bus going back would leave nearly 3 h later, I went food shopping (Mhhhhmm... ice-cream, cherries and an apple!) and shoe shopping. The life of my Altras is going to end soon. they don't have any grip left and are open on the sides. But I'll still wear them until they basically fall apart. Now I have a backup pair when this happens. I could wear them directly, but of course they are not half as comfy as my old ones :)

I took the bus back and walked over the border. While the guys on the Slovakian side were pretty nice and spoke English, the guys in the Ukraine were rather grumpy and didn't speak English. But I didn't care, was just happy when they didn't complain about my health insurance and didn't wanted to open up my backpack. 

Not long after the border, a marked trail started, shortcutting the road. Well, there was a sign for that trail but no trail. So I bushwhaked my way through forests and lots of blackberries, before I reached a little road. I walked through meadows into town. The first ATM I tried didn't give me money, the second was being repaired but I found a third one, which asked for a large fee, but at least gave me money! I bought a SIM card (so I'm actually able to blog if I should have internet), some bug spray (the mosquitos are really annoying!!!) and headed out of town. There was still a bit of rain, but nothing too bad. I was happily surprised when the trail I was following existed and was relatively well marked!!! Great, since I can save some battery this way. I guess that's going to be a big limiting factor the next days for my 'wilderness walk' through the Carpathians. The weather will stay wet, so I can't use my solar module and if I have lots of trailless parts, my batteries is dead within a few hours!

After some dirt road walking along a big river and some nice forests, I walked up a slightly overgrown and bushy path, where I got a full carwash. Once I was back in the forest again, I set up my tent. Wet but happy and excited about the next few days.

This little fellow was hidden under some blackberry bushes 

Found a trail after the border

Little overgrown but it's a trail:)