Lviv

The city of Lviv was a mixture of slavic, european and middle eastern influences. There was a stark contrast between the very poor backstreets and the lavish wealthy areas. This was the first city where we saw a significant drop in “western” tourists.

Getting to Lviv was an adventure in and of itself. The bus had 32 very uncomfortable seats, Mirjam’s seat was actually falling off. We were the only english speakers on the bus and we could not sit together. After sitting on the bus we were both apprehensive about the following 7 hour journey. The journey ended up taking a lot longer than usual. 10 hours in total. Crossing the Ukrainian border took 4 hours. 2 hours waiting in the queue and 2 hours moving through border control. The proceeding 40km took another 2 hours due to the bad Ukrainian roads and a few inexplicable stops by the bus driver.

Arriving in Lviv was somewhat of a shock. We were on the verge of collapse after our herculean bus drive and the area around the bus station was bustling with loud smokey traffic and poor locals pawning whatever they could to the new arrivals.

We made our way further into the city to find an ATM and WiFi, both a requirement to book a hostel. Eventually we found both, and made our way to a cheap but very comfortable hostel called Leosphere.

Lviv is often described as the most european city in Ukraine and this is certainly true. However, we began to see a more eastern influence for the first time. The most obvious of which being slavic characters in their language. It was time to learn this new alphabet!

We went to another couch surfing event in Lviv and met an interesting array of Nationalities. Many beers were had and a few new friends were made. I exchanged 10 CHF for 1000 Japanese Yen with the promise that this money would be spent in the most entertaining way possible. Yuki, I promise I will deliver!

While in Lviv we were lucky to witness a folklore festival called “Etnovyr”. Here we witnessed many traditional dances from around Europe and a few from around the globe.

Hans’ Farm

After Lviv we decided to take the opportunity to visit Mirjams uncle Hans. He part owns a farm near a city called Vinnytsia. Luckily he was working when we were passing through Ukraine. Hans took great care of us for the weekend. We reloaded on beer, food and good sleep. Getting a chance to see the Ukrainian countryside was a special treat.

Hans arranged our bus to Kiev where we would begin the final leg of our trip to Moscow. On Monday the 26th we would take a 4 hour bus from Vinnytsia at 07:00 to Kiev, spend the day in Kiev and then take the night train to Moscow.

Kiev to Moscow

We arrived in Kiev and spent the day sightseeing and eating with what little hryvnia (Ukranian currency) we had left. We arrived at the train station a few hours early to make sure our affairs were in order for the 14 hour trip from Kiev to Moscow at 00:59.

Mirjam had been on many night trains before so knew what to expect, however, I was quite nervous. The prospect of not being able to sleep for 14 hours was a scary one.

When the train arrived we hauled our bags to our home for the night, carriage 18. At the door a man asked for our tickets and said something in Ukranian. We looked at him dumbfoundedly and said “Only English”. Two helpful passengers beside us said “Where are you from”. We answered and the man returned our tickets and we boarded. The train had come from Lviv so there were already people asleep when we were trying to get into our beds. The train was dark and very hot. I was sweating profusely and confused. At this point I had convinced myself that sleep was not a possibility. An element of panic had begun to set in. However, Once we had laid out our bed rolls and layed down I fell asleep within minutes

The next time I would wake up would be Ukrainian passport control. Our cabin doors rattled as the carriage coordinator banged and shouted “dokumenty”. He was soon followed by a soldier and a sniffer dog, who was then followed by an officer who checked our documents. The same process was repeated 3 hours later but with the Russian authorities, this however, carried more weight as we feared that they would not allow us into Russia. They did, of course, stamp our passports and we went back to sleep.

After one 14 hour trip and about 900km, we arrived in Moscow!