Hey guys, since I last talked to you, I spent two more days in Slovakia and crossed the border into Ukraine, visiting Uzhhorord and Lviv.

On Monday morning in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, I got up and took a walk over to the military museum in town. Unfortunately, I found out that all museums in Slovakia are closed on Mondays, but I did at least get to see some cool military vehicles and airplanes that were on display outside.

After checking out the museum, I got on the road to my destination for the evening of Kosice – the second biggest city in Slovakia. The 3 hour drive was full of nice mountain and farmland scenery.

After arriving to the city, I found my Airbnb and realized it couldn’t have been in a better location. Just a few steps from all the main sights in the old town. Since it was fairly warm and the sun was still out, I set out right away to walk around and look at some things I’d read about and then do some busking. It was my first time playing on the street in almost 2 weeks, and I was happy to pull in 38 euros in two hours and sell a CD as well. Here are some shots from the Kosice old town.

I pretty much took it easy on Monday night after the busking, and on Tuesday I got on the road to Ukraine. There was more nice scenery along the way, but the Ukrainian border was by far the most intense of any that I’ve done so far. They had dogs, soldiers with AK-47’s, and they searched my car twice before finally letting me go through. But get through I did!

After getting through the border, I was directly in the city of Uzhhorord. I had booked a hostel, but when I arrived there I saw that there was a curfew – meaning that I couldn’t be out after 11pm without getting locked out of the building. I quickly left that place and found some WiFi to cancel it and book something different. I settled on the Egen hostel, which turned out to be a fateful decision later that evening. But in the meantime, I went there and checked in and then headed out to look around the city.

The reason that changing hostels to the Egen was a fateful decision was because the hostel is actually just a few beds in a room above the Egen Pub. In the evening, I went down to the pub and wound up meeting a guy named Yurii and we decided to go to another pub close by after the Egen closed at 11. While at the other pub, a guy came up to us because he heard me speaking English. He, Anton, asked what I was doing in Ukraine and I told him that I was traveling around and playing music. He then told me that he was a radio host and that he’d like me to be on his show the next day at noon. Of course, I agreed to that right away. One day in Ukraine and I was already going to be on regional radio – and all because I decided to switch my hostel at the last minute!

In the morning on Wednesday, I woke up with a couple hours to spare and was lazing around in bed when Anton messaged me asking if we could move up the interview to 11. Looking at the clock and seeing that it was 9, I said no problem. I continued laying around and taking my time until I got a message from Anton at 10 asking me where I was. I told him I was about to get in the shower and he told me that it was 11 now and they were waiting for me. All the sudden I realized that the time must have changed when I crossed the border from Slovakia (my phone didn’t update since it is in airplane mode) and that I was gonna be late! I hurried up and just threw on my clothes, grabbed the guitar, and sprinted across town to the station. I got there at 11:20 and literally went straight on the air!! It all worked out in the end, but that was pretty stressful and it would have been a huge bummer to miss the opportunity over something like that.

The interview was awesome and I answered questions about my travels and my music and also got to play 3 songs live on the air. Really a neat experience, especially since everything was being translated for me from Ukrainian in real time!!

Below is a link to the entire interview if you didn’t catch it on Facebook and have about 20 minutes to kill 😀

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2619534191415631&id=168013869901021

After the voiceovers, Anton and I walked over to the Egen Pub to see if they would be interested in me playing there on Wednesday evening. They agreed right away, especially after I said I’d do it for drinks and a free place to stay but no money. I figured it wouldn’t be right to ask for money on a same day show when they might not be able to really promote it properly.

After that, we walked back to the station and one of Anton’s coworkers, Gabriella, set about using her photoshop skills to make a flyer for them to share about my event that night. I was really blown away by how helpful and generous with their time that everyone was in Uzhhorord.

After all of that was taken care of, I went back to the hostel to rest up for the 7pm show. When I went downstairs to the pub to set up, I was surprised at how many more people were there than had been the night before. And by the time I started playing, the place was almost full. By the end of the show it was standing room only in the bar. I guess word travels fast in a place like Uzhhorord! The people genuinely seemed to love my music, and that show was probably my favorite one of the entire trip so far.

On Thursday, I got moving in the afternoon and started on the journey to my next destination, Lviv. Lviv is the cultural capital of Western Ukraine and everyone in Uzhhorord said that it was a must for me to go! I’d also, heard back from a bar there on Wednesday called Music Lab that they would like me to play Thursday night. So I had a gig scheduled on the day I arrived as well.

There was more nice scenery along the way, including a few Orthodox churches and Soviet monuments.

The Music Lab was a cool little bar right in the heart of Lviv. The show started out pretty good, but when I took a break everyone left! There was a time in the second set where I was literally playing to no one – which sucked – but then a group of about 20 people just showed up out of the blue and they were very enthusiastic about my music. So in the end it was good and I got paid enough there to cover my room and food twice over – so all in all it was worth it!

The next day, Friday, I set out to find some varenyky, which is like a pirogi. Anton had recommended that I try it while I was in Lviv. They were very good!!

After lunch, I walked around the old town for a couple hours to check out the city. Here are some scenes from Lviv:

In the evening, I popped back over to the Music Lab to say hi and ran into a group of Turkish people that had been there the night before at my show. Apparently the girl is a famous singer and is a celebrity in Turkey!

In addition to that, I met the actual owner of the bar and he told me he’d heard good things about my performance on Thursday and offered me to play again at his other bar, 4 Friends Whiskey Pub, on Saturday. I obviously jumped all over that!

On Saturday, I basically vegged out all day in my room in preparation for the show that night, along with researching some for my next destinations. In the evening I went to 4 friends and set up in the small room in the basement they had chosen for me. The place was pretty small, but it was full while I was playing and the people really seemed to enjoy the show. I even sold a couple of CDs!

Today, Sunday, I left Lviv for my next destination of Kiev – the capital of Ukraine. Lviv to Kiev is a 6 hour drive, so I stopped off halfway in a city called Rivne. I have been relaxing all evening and working on my laundry since this place has a washing machine. I needed a night off of socialising after the last several nights!

Tomorrow I’m going to make the rest of the drive to Kiev and I plan to stay there until at least Friday. Looking forward to checking some stuff out there!

Talk to you guys soon!!