She didn’t bring a suitcase, only a toiletry bag and her two cats. Olena (37) decided to leave Kiev yesterday morning and arrived in Przemysl tonight, she tells NOS editor Christiaan Paauwe in Poland:
“I was up all night again. My intuition told me to leave with my cats. Many people have stayed, I don’t understand that. Some have their son or husband in the army and want to stay with them, but it is too dangerous. When I closed the door to my house, I understood that I might never come back.”
“I paid a crazy amount of money for a taxi to drive me to the station. Normally I walk in a few minutes, but that was difficult with the two cats in their travel bag. At the station it was not clear when a train would come. When one arrived on another platform, I ran to it. A couple had to help me get to the cats on time.”
“I was so relieved when it turned out that the train was going to Lviv. The wagons were packed with women and children. There was no place to sit. No one could go to the toilet, children were crying and it took 12 hours to get to Lviv. The cats also hated being in a bag for so long. Then we had to catch another train to Przemysl. Normally that takes a few hours, now we were in a full train for twelve hours. It was a hell of a ride , but it saved me. Friends from Krakow are coming to pick me up now.”
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