Have you ever crossed a border with a non-EU country by foot?

Most of the cities we are talking about as a destination are easy to reach by bus, train, plane or even boat, but this is not the case for Lviv which is a very interesting place when it comes to means of communication in order to arrive to destination choosing the cheapest way.  

First of all, I do not know how many people know where is Lviv so I will try to draw a picture in your mind. Close to the border of Poland, about 80 km away, is a city that once belonged to Poland, but nowadays is part of Ukraine. This city, called Lviv, is small, but it produces a lot of mixed emotions and I totally recommend visiting it.

Now that we know where we go, we will imagine that we go there from Wroclaw or Krakow (it is the same train, but it just costs less).  If we would buy the tickets from Wroclaw the train would cost 30 zl which is about 7 Euro, but only if you are a student in Poland, the price is double if not. The destination of our trip is Przemysl and the trip will last for about 7 hours. 

In the train you have sockets so the time will pass faster with a laptop or a mobile close to you. Once you get to Przemysl  Glowny, which is also the last stop usually, you will cross a passage in the opposite way from the building of railway station towards a bus station. After you go up you will see many small busses with destination Medyka. The price of the ticket is 2 zl which is about 0,5 Euro, but I suggest you to speak in Polish to them. The sentence in a very basic way should be `prosze bilet na medyka` (which you would read it proshe bilet na medyka). This trip is very short comparing to the one before, about 15-20 minutes, but necessary in order to cross the border with Ukraine.

The bus will leave you really close to the checking point of the Polish border. On the left side you will see the border while on the right side will be people trying to sell you cigarettes and alcohol, soon you will understand why...

There is an alley right on the left side, where is also a pizza place. In that direction you will have to walk in order to reach the first checking point, the one on Poland side. The personal is nice and speaks English. If you want, they can put a stamp on your passport. Further away is the Ukrainian border. You just have to follow the alley and you will find it, no chance to miss it. It will be the same routine and it will be quite fast.

Now that you are officially in Ukraine you have to find the last bus for getting to Lviv. You have to walk straight forward and after 2 minutes of walking you should turn left and see a bus station. You have to pass on your way supermarket and turn after you see a place that looks like a bakery.

Here you are, you just have to take the last bus and now the alphabet does not look anything like the one you are used to. You should see a bus on which is written Львів. Once you get inside you repeat the sentence you practiced in Poland `prosze bilet na Lviv` and show how many tickets using your fingers. The price of one ticket is about 35 UAH which can be transformed into 1,5 Euro.

I will not lie to you, the bus is not the most comfortable place on Earth and you will be shaken and the trip will take 2 hours because of many stops that it has to do. The last stop, in the main train station is the closest to the center.

You should know that you have to exchange money in Przemysl or after you cross the border, because for the bus you will need the money in cash since they do not accept credit card. Same with Poland, in the bus for Medyka you will need 2 zl so it is good to keep in mind that those money in cash will be necessary.

We choose this route because it takes also less time in the border comparing with crossing the border by bus. You save about 6 hours if you go by foot both ways. Also, the price of the tickets is really good if you are a student, being half of the price of a normal bus that can have a lot of delays.

Enjoy your trip!