Almost makes a great difference

Something weird happened to me yesterday.

I was on the train from Warsaw to Toruń, in one compartment with a couple, their 5-years old daughter (they were going back home from Rome) and one guy in his thirties (going back home from Crimea, where his parents-in-law live). As always, I had headphones in my ears, listening to music. But from time to time,  some pieces of conversation my fellow passengers had were coming to my ears. What did I hear? "Ukraine", "train", "Wrocław to Lviv". Great! I tried to find some information about this train (mainly about the price), but there's nothing about it on the webpage of Intercity ("za beznadziejną stronę internetową, przepraszaaaaamy!"), so I decided to take part in this conversation.

I'm sorry for interrupting you, sir, but maybe you know how much does a ticket for this train cost? That's how it started. After explaining me the price system Rome guy and Crimea guy started talking about standard of Ukrainian trains. After one minute I knew they don't travel by train very often. Maybe they saw Ukrainian train from inside ones in their lifetime, but long time ago. So I decided to defend the honour of my beloved Ukrainian trains. After my short lecture about differences between platzkart and coupe, ordering tea, using a toilet, etc., they asked me about the longest distance I travelled in Ukraine.


Ola: Donetsk- Lviv, Lviv - Donetsk. 22 hours one way.
Rome guy: Why did you go to Donetsk?
Ola: I live there.
Rome guy: Oh! So you're Ukrainian! You speak Polish very well, almost without accent! How the preparations for EURO are going?

30 seconds of silence, I was totally shocked.

Ola: But I'm Polish...

30 seconds of silence, my new friends were shocked.

Rome guy: So why do you live in Ukraine???

Explaining them what do I do in Ukraine and why Ukraine, not Germany or France or Italy took me almost two hours and I'm not sure if they understood everything.

But how is it possible they thought I'm Ukrainian? How? Ok, I was waiting for a train with Ukrainian boy and Ukrainian speaking girl from Poland (but for me she will always be Gosia ze Lwowa), but we were using Polish only. We were talking about Ukraine, so maybe they heard something from our conversation. But talking about Ukraine doesn't make me Ukrainian.

But there's one thing which worries me the most: what does it mean ALMOST without accent?