A journey best forgotten...

So, to carry on from last time; Kiev was lovely, absolutely scorching though! I had a lovely time wandering around and I visited all the churches, went to see The Defender of the Motherland museum and the big statue of ‘tin tits’ as she is known. I also went to some caves which are a pilgrimage site where there are loads of monks buried. It was pretty creepy, as the monks are just in glass coffins with a blanket over their bodies, and loads of women and men were rushing from side to side kissing all the coffins! But I have decided that I am going to go back to Kiev before my exams next year, so I can brush up on some Russian. It is such a lovely city; it had bits of Moscow, an almost Parisian feel to it and had a really friendly vibe. So Kiev I liked a lot! Anyway, so managed to get to Lviv no problem and Tom and I met at the Lviv national opera house, all very romantic!! We upgraded our accommodation and managed to get our own apartment for 35 Euros a night, so not bad! Unfortunately the warm weather didn’t follow me to Lviv, which was pretty cold to be honest! But Lviv was also lovely. The old town was gorgeous, cobbled streets, lovely buildings, outdoor cafes all over the place, markets galore and again just a lovely little place. Our first night we wandered about in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to the train station to buy our train tickets for Budapest. A simple enough task you would have thought... oh no! We were there for probably about 2 hours. We kept waiting in queues only to find that when we got to the front it was the wrong queue. We went to the opera house and then ended up buying tickets to see the opera for that evening. Well well, Ukrainian opera leaves a lot to be desired! It was pretty panto-esque, but it was fun! I enjoyed it, Tom thought it was crap though. We had a great dinner in this underground brewery of sausages and heaps of cabbage.

The following day was spent sat in a park planning our future plans, strolling around a market, drinking cherry vodka (only the one with lunch!!) and then sitting in a big square watching the football. As we couldn’t leave Ukraine without eating vareniki, we went to a restaurant which specialised in these culinary treats! They were nice, but I still rate Bapcha’s as superior.

So, then it was time for our overnight train to Budapest. For what I am about to write, please don’t think badly of me and Tom. We had no choice!! So there were 3 of us in the cabin, tom myself and Misha, a middle aged Ukrainian man. As the train departed, Misha was talking to me a bit, but then went off for a bit. When he returned, he had a friend with him, a younger guy about our age and with them they produced out of a hold all a 1.5 litre bottle of what he claimed to be 99% proof home made vodka. He asked us if we wanted a bit, and we couldn’t really refuse without being rude, so we had one drink. It was like drinking meths, pretty rough stuff. So we were chatting away and I was translating for tom. They kept saying to him that after three drinks, they would be able to understand each other. So we had one more drink and then said no more. But of course they wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I think we had about 4 shots. The rest of the evening I don’t really remember, but lets just say there was a lot of vomit. Oh and tom ended up wrestling the younger guy, Misha kept saying to me that he felt like I was his daughter and well it was a pretty accurate Slavic train journey experience!! So, we got to Budapest feeling pretty rough and got a taxi straight to our couch-surfers house. His girlfriend let us in and we crashed for a couple of hours. The flat is lovely, really high ceilings and a balcony and a lovely kitchen. It is also really close to the centre which is great. He popped round last night and said that he was basically leaving us the flat for the next three nights. So, we have just got this great flat to ourselves, which is amazing!! Budapest is . glorious. Everywhere you look there is something lovely to see. A beautiful building, cobbled old street, river... Absolutely lovely, we are both big fans. So far, it is our favourite place, despite the awful start. The weather at the moment is pretty crap, but were being positive!! x

The begining of my (and soon to be Tom's also) travels

So my journey Kiev, one that should have been so simple, was anything but! So, got on my train, all was swell, made friends with my neighbours, had my dinner, read my book, etc... and then at about 8 in the morning, when the train guy came handing out migration forms for Ukraine, he was asked everyone where they were from. I answered "from England." He gave me a pretty unfriendly look and then asked me whether I had a belorussian transit visa. Dumbfounded, i answered, no! What an idiot, I hadn't checked to see if the train went through Belarus. And we need a visa for Belarus. So he then told me to get all my stuff together and that i had to get off the train! It was awful, it even started moving and i had to run off!! I had a heavy rucsac and a big laudry bag full of stuff, so not what you would call lightweight, easy to handle luggage!! So yeah, then I was at some station and went up to the desk to ask how to get top kiev without a belorussian visa. The lady looked at me with shock and just said "i have no idea!" She then took me downstairs to the administrator lady to whom i explained my palava to! She then told me that i would have to go back to Petersburg. I asked about getting a visa somewhere and she said it was Sunday and wouldn't be open till Monday. I asked if there was anyway of getting to Kiev without a visa, she said no! Only then did I ask where i was, "Am i still in Russia?" "No, you are in Belarus". Oh my! So i was illegally in Belarus with pretty limited options! I then had a little think about what to do. I went back to her with my map and she showed me where we were, I had gone pretty much the whole length of Belarus!! Anyway, she then told me that if i got out of Belarus, i could get a train from a place called Bryansk to Kiev. So i went back to the first lady and she told me that if i hurried, i could catch a bus. So, me with all those bags, trying to hurry to the bus station, not the most appealing idea, though had to be done. That walk very nearly killed me, my poor muscles have never felt so much pain! So made it onto the bus. My next obstacle was crossing the border. I was really nervous that the militia would tell me off/arrest me for not having a belorussian visa!! Anyway, didn't even have to show my passport at the border, so all was swell. 6 and a half hours later, i arrived in Bryansk where i bought a ticket to Kiev and then another 6 hours later, i arrived in Kiev!! But I wasn't the only person to be chucked of a train that day... on the second train to Kiev, i was sat with an Armenian family, and they were all really nervous when they were filling in their migration forms. The Ukrainien soldiars came on and I didn't really understand all of what he said, but basically their address wasn't valid, so they had to get off. There was no fight or argument at all, they just got their stuff together and got off the train. It was as though they knew that they weren't going to be aloud into Ukraine. Anyway, I was so happy when we crossed the border, and many of the people on the train had Ukranien accents and I just felt great! I also felt like i had acheived a grat deal to be honest! I didn't break down into tears, i calmy sorted it all out (in russian no less!) and managed to get to Kiev on the day I was planning to in the first place. I got to see a bit of Belarus and some beautifull Russian countryside on the bus! At one of the bus stops, there was a guy whose engine was on fire... everyone was shouting and running about, i was pretty worried, it was really close and if it had blown up, it would not have been good! So yeah, I was hoping to write on the blog, "train was pretty uneventfull".... oh no!! First impressios of Kiev though... absolutely lovely!! It has some traits of Moscow that I love (like the metro) and some bits are very Parisien (i found a lovely little Montmartre esk area today and it just has this happy, much friendlier vibe to it than Russia. So basically, I like it a lot! Will report back soon!! x x x