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