TripTracker.net - Heading East, Train to Lviv

Lewisham, United Kingdom Departure from the UK Bremen, Germany Schuelp Back to Bremen Christmas in the Harz Driving in the Harz Around Bad Harzburg and Christmas Market in Goslar Winter Tourism im Harz And home again Vienna New Year's Sightseeing in Vienna Day 2 More sightseeing in Vienna and some plans Arrival in Budapest Tickets Booked!Bath House Train to Lviv We made it to Ukraine!Leaving Lviv Odessa, Ukraine Eventful arrival in Kiev Morning in Kiev On the train to Moscow Brief stop in Moscow Our first trip east of the Known On the train to Kazan - a lot to catch up on kazan - at an ungodly hour of the morning On the train to Yekaterinburg One night until Siberia Siberia!!!!! Tobolsk - it's not on Google Maps! It's 4 hours north of Tyumen Day trains 5 Hours from Irkutsk Safe arrival in Irkutsk Lake Baikal Back to Irkutsk Goodbye to Baikal An Experience in Ulan-Ude Crossing the Border - Happy New Year and Australia Day Plans changing in Harbin Enchanted with Beijing Beijing Wanderings Crashing More Crashing Sam's almost better again Second last day in Beijing Last day in Beijing Tianjin, China Incheon Arrival Seoul!!!Exhausting full day of enjoying Seoul I still love Seoul Rainy and grey in Busan Unvalentine's Day Infinite turtles Dry land again A Perfect End Coolangatta International Airport, or lack thereof Brisbane, Australia Mum and Dad's

samandleonie

Heading East

Train to Lviv

Not enough votes to display rating.

Jan 5 2009, 08:04 PM

1 photo

Embed trip View in Google Earth Rss news about this trip GPX Track

Traveler

samandleonie

Journal

Location

Záhony, Hungary

Click to view large map

I love this train. We've been moving for under an hour and I already have so much to write about. Firstly, the train itself. I have never seen a train like this. Not that Sam and I are experts on night trains, but all of the ones we've taken in the past have been fairly similar – even the one between St. Petersburg and Moscow. But this train is something else. It sleeps three in a cabin, on top of each other, facing a wall where you can hang your coat and a little breakfast table and a cabinet with a mirror in it. There are plastic flowers on the little table. The curtains and tablecloth are a pink satiny material with floral decorations. The curtains outside in the hall have the Ukrainian railway logo crocheted into them. The hall has a red oriental-style runner along it and there's a matching piece of carpet on the floor in our cabin. The loo is old and flushes straight down onto the track, but it's decorated with more plastic plants. We were given individual bars of soap by the conductor. The conductors don't speak any English. Unfortunately, I can't tell if they're speaking Ukrainian or Russian (see below for complications).
Sam and I had to buy tickets for separate compartments because it's divided by gender. As soon as we got on the train, though, a girl asked to swap with Sam so she could be with her boyfriend. It left us in a compartment with an older woman called Tania (but she's since swapped to the next cabin where there was only one person). I think all the passengers are pretty much evenly distributed, now, and the conductors don't seem fazed at all. We've already chatted to Gregory (or possibly Grigorii), from Kiev and a north American man in the next cabin who's done this trip numerous times. He told all of us how the border crossing will work. Apparently, they schedule four hours for the border crossing. That actually didn't surprise me overmuch, as it is a night train, after all, and the golden rule is that no night train is ever in a hurry, usually the opposite. If we went straight across the border, we'd arrive in Lviv at 6:30 in the morning, so it makes sense to drag out the journey. Apparently we'll stop (I assume at Zahony, the last stop in Hungary) and go through exit customs and immigration with Hungarian guards. At some stage, the train will be separated (the back carriages are only going as far as Zahony, while the rest of the train is continuing to Moscow) and our carriage will somehow be lifted up and placed on a new undercarriage, as the rail gauges differ. We then continue into Ukraine and I assume at Chop (the first stop inside Ukraine) we go through entry customs and immigration. The customs and immigration checks are two separate checks by two sets of guards who come in one at a time, so we'll be checked a total of four times. The Ukrainian Gregory and the north American in the next carriage assured us it wouldn't be a big deal as our passports “aren't interesting”. The north American said the last time he took this trip (although the checks are more stringent in the opposite direction – i.e. into the EU) a man was kicked off the train and at one stage shouted out that he was a terrorist and his name was Osama Bin Laden. I imagine that doesn't happen all the time. But it seems that regardless of how smoothly our border crossing goes, we'll be in for a little excitement in the middle of the night.
It was quite comfortably social when we got on the train. Tania didn't speak much English and I was wondering whether to practise some Russian, but it's complicated. A young man (the boyfriend) in the next cabin, Yuri, cautioned Sam about using the Russian word for thank you. We unfortunately know practically nothing in Ukrainian, so it was pure utility that made us grasp for Russian. Gregory assured us that all Ukrainians understand Russian and there was no need for Ukrainian, but particularly in western Ukraine, we might give some offense by grasping for Russian in order to communicate. Especially with the current diplomatic difficulties between the two countries, it will be all too easy to give offense. But Gregory and Yuri both spoke excellent English and Gregory quickly realised we were the interesting people in this carriage and chatted to us for a while. Hopefully on our other train trips we'll find people who speak some English. The novelty of being Australians will also be something I won't worry about exploiting, as I do in western Europe. I can fairly safely assume that the Russian and Ukrainian people we meet probably won't have met many Australians. It's also nice to know that our passports aren't interesting.
There's snow on the ground outside and it was a very cold day in Budapest today. We could be in the minus double-digits already tomorrow in Lviv.

Photos

01/06/2009
09:11 AM

Show all (153 photos)

Comments

No comments

	60. Mum and Dad's Feb 25 2009, 12:43 PMHerberton, Australia

	59. Brisbane, Australia Feb 21 2009, 12:42 PMBrisbane, Australia

	58. Coolangatta International Airport, or lack thereof Feb 21 2009, 07:00 AMCoolangatta, Australia

Username:
Password:
Remember me