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Ukraine trip August 2011 Kiev-Lviv-Chernivtsi-Odessa

Ukraine trip August 2011 Kiev-Lviv-Chernivtsi-Odessa

Old Jan 29th, 2012, 11:40 AM
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Ukraine trip August 2011 Kiev-Lviv-Chernivtsi-Odessa

I blogged every day in Ukraine, so the full details with photos start here …blogspot.com/2011/…day-1-paris-to-kiev.html and go on for the next 15 days if anyone's really interested! So I'll try to keep this reasonably brief.

Firstly, I am a woman in my 20s, travelling alone, and I had no problems. I am pretty adventurous and have travelled alone quite a bit before, but while you need to keep your wits about you anywhere, I didn't feel any less safe in Ukraine than anywhere else. This included taking overnight sleeper trains with men in the same carriage as me. I do speak some Russian and can read Cyrillic and I made an effort to learn some basic Ukrainian too (although it was quite hard to remember to say Ukrainian words rather than Russian - I only really tried to in Lviv and Chernivtsi). I would recommend you do as well if you're travelling without a guide. No-one ever spoke English to me except I think in the George Hotel, Lviv, but I didn't ask them to. Look after yourself, of course, but don't be scared!

Itinerary/Transport:

Kiev (4 nights, overnight train to Lviv)

Lviv (2 nights, overnight train to Chernivtsi)

Chernivtsi (1 night, overnight train to Odessa)

Odessa (4 nights, overnight train to Kiev)

Mostly my itinerary was okay. I flew in and out of Kiev to keep costs down and decided it was too much hassle to get to the Crimea as well. The train from Chernivtsi to Odessa was really long (NINETEEN hours!) and it went back to Lviv! If I'd realised that, I might have planned things differently, like flying in to Romania or Poland or something, or breaking the journey up with a night in Moldova, as someone suggested (too late). It wasn't all that bad though. I got first class from Kiev-Lviv and Chernivtsi-Odessa, and second class on the other two trips. First class was definitely nicer, especially on the Kiev-Lviv train, when I actually had the two-bed carriage to myself. Second class is bearable though. I bought my tickets in the train station at Kiev - I wrote down all the details, which I found online, and gave it to the woman at the foreigners window (anyone at other windows will just tell you to go to her anyway). I had to go first class Kiev-Lviv because there were no second class tickets left (a few days before the trip) and there were no bottom bunks left on the second class legs, but otherwise I had no problems getting tickets at the last minute even in August.

Highlights:

I loved climbing up inside the Rodina Mat war memorial in Kiev. It was a beautiful day and I have some great photos of the city. Anywhere else in the world, you wouldn't be allowed to pop up out of a statue 91 metres up without any guard rail and with a hole under your feet (we did have a safety rope to be fair) because of health and safety, I'm sure! It was a great experience!

I had a great stay at the TIU Chernivtsi hostel - everyone was very friendly, I had a lovely private room and the bathroom was gorgeous. Marcus the owner took a group of about 6 of us on a day trip in his jeep to visit the fortress of Khotyn and the town of Kamyanets-Podilsky. Khotyn is very unusual, it's down in a dip instead of up on a hill, so you can hardly see it until you're almost on top of it. Really nice setting next to the Dnister. At K-P we walked around the town and then hiked a little way along the river to a waterfall with views of the castle - gorgeous - and then had a barbecue by the river prepared by Marcus which was very delicious! And he was great at telling us stories about life in Ukraine and about the historical sights. I wished I had more time to see Chernivtsi itself as well - it's a small place but packed full of interesting sights, and as I said, I had a great time with the people at the hostel.

Saint Sophia in Kiev was also very historic and beautiful. The Caves Monastery (Kievo-Pecherska Lavra) was interesting as well. I really enjoyed the Museum of Historical Treasures, which you have to pay for separately. There was some really nice ancient jewellery and other precious objects from prehistory to the 20th century.

Lviv and Odessa - I didn't do so much sightseeing in these places. Lviv is very picturesque and great for just wandering about taking in the atmosphere. It's also quite cheap for eating out. Definitely don't miss the Boim Chapel, it's small but amazing! I spent most of my time in Odessa on the beach. It is a bit dirty with cigarette butts and so on, but if you can put a towel down or clear a bit of a space, it's not too bad. It was nice just to relax and enjoy the sunshine and the sea! I didn't go swimming, because I've heard the water is not great. I heard it would be very crowded, but it was fine.

Lowlights:

With the good comes the bad... Some of the things I didn't like about Ukraine included the public toilets! The one by the St Michael Monastery was the WORST. I soon learned not to leave my hotel or a cafe or restaurant without taking a trip to the bathroom. Also noteworthy were the toilets on the beachfront at Odessa which had no doors on the stalls! Some of them you could even see into from the path outside!

Getting around Kiev was also a bit of a pain. Using the metro was fine, but I kept getting lost on foot, especially any time I had to cross under the road, or coming out of the metro at a different exit than I had before. There didn't seem to be many street signs and it was really confusing. I got lost for over an hour trying to find my hotel, about 5 minutes from the metro! And I couldn't find the Museum of Communism at all. It also took me a super long time to find the "Kiev Central bus station" - tip, it's just what looks like white vans in a car park, there are no signs! I was trying to go to Chernihiv for a day trip, but when I finally found the buses, the driver said I should go to another bus station, so I just gave up.

One other thing I found a little bit disappointing was how "new" a lot of things were especially in Kiev, such as the St Michael's Monastery or lots of stuff around Maiden Nezalezhnosti. I know that's not Ukraine's fault - a lot of stuff was damaged in WWII or under Communism, but it was a bit of a letdown at times. On the other hand, there is a lot of genuine old stuff, like the cave monasteries or St Sophia's or the Boim Chapel etc. etc., so I suppose just focus on what is there instead of getting upset about what's been lost. Also I thought the Potemkin Steps were kind of ugly, sorry!

I don't want to end on a bad note, though, because all in all I really enjoyed my time in Ukraine. I did meet some of the sort of grumpy customer service people you will be used to if you've been to former Communist countries before, but I also met people who were really nice and friendly and went out of their way to try and help me and talk to me. I had some yummy meals, saw some lovely places, and had a great balance of historical sight-seeing and just relaxing. I would love to go back and see the Crimea next time!

Thanks again to the people who helped me plan! I also used the Bradt guide, which was pretty useful especially for planning practical matters and deciding on an itinerary before I went.
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Old Jan 29th, 2012, 11:43 AM
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Oops, link went a bit wrong I think. http://gwannelsandiego.blogspot.com/...s-to-kiev.html
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Old Jan 29th, 2012, 01:04 PM
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gwan:
Enjoyed your detailed blog and pix..mighty brave to go up into Mother Russia...I had opted not to, at the urging of my wife...maybe she was concerned that my insurance wasn't paid up! Sorry to see that you seem to have missed perhaps the most emotionally striking WW II memorial in the city...Babi Yar....(look it up in Wikipedia)...I know we had family in Kiev as late as 40's, so I have no idea of how many were lost during that infamous massacre of nearly 40,000 Kiev Jews in September 1941.

Here are my pics of Kiev. I have not split off the Kiev part, so you'll have to wade through pics of Belarus where we visited my wife's mother's birth village before going on to Kiev, my family's city before emigrating to USA in 1912-1914.
Stu(L.A.)

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...raineKiev2008#
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Old Jan 29th, 2012, 03:19 PM
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Thanks for the report -- I am going to visit an old friend in October in Kiev, where she is posted with the State Department. She likes Kiev but tells me people are a bit rude; no one queues up and everyone pushes. Also, she suggests I trade in US dollars for Ukrainian currency at Frankfurt, from where we are flying to Kiev. She says the exchange rate is extortionate in Ukraine, and she also says it's not safe to use credit cards there. This will be my first visit to a former Communist country; do you feel as though her comments are accurate?
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Old Jan 29th, 2012, 04:38 PM
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Thanks for posting this. I'm interested in going to Ukraine at some point. I'm OK not knowing the language, but the Cyrillic alphabet scares me a bit!
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Old Jan 29th, 2012, 10:28 PM
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Tower - thanks I'll have a look. I'm sorry about Babi Yar as well, I was aware of it but decided not to because it seemed hard to get to. Maybe if I go back? (Still wanting to go to the Crimea).

Azzure - between Prague and Moscow, I've lived in former Communist countries for about 5 months, so I'm used to the occasional rudeness and subpar customer service, queuing etc. I don't remember Ukraine being especially bad. I don't know about the exchange rate - I wish I'd gotten that tip first, since I flew through Frankfurt too! I mostly drew cash out from machines, I had no problems on the Ukrainian end, but I was stuck in Lviv for a few days with very little money, because my bank blocked my card for going over my weekly withdrawal limit! That was a bit of a nightmare, but luckily it was so cheap to eat in Lviv and a lot of the attractions were cheap or free, so I survived!

Andrew - do try to practice the Cyrillic alphabet if you're thinking seriously of going. It is very helpful and I don't think that hard to learn, although I've had years of practice by this point.
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Old Jan 30th, 2012, 05:49 AM
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Thanks for posting this. I'm looking at travelling Krakow-Lviv then Lviv-Budapest in May and The Man in Seat 61 seems to think Ukranian trains are in a state of confusion, some only running on alternate dates, some not running at all. Did you have any problems finding trains and booking tickets? I will be on a fairly tight schedule and won't have much time for delays. Want to get out of the area before the European Football kicks off.
Specifically how far ahead is it advisable to book? I usually turn up at the station and get a ticket that way. Can I manage without Russian? Are there long lines for buying tickets? Are the trains more or less on time? Are there major hassles at the border in the middle of the night? And any other little things I need to know!
Thanks
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Old Jan 30th, 2012, 09:29 AM
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I didn't go across any borders by train, so I don't know how much I can help you.

I didn't observe any particular confusion, although contrary to the Man in Seat 61 I would call running on alternate dates a "schedule" (albeit perhaps an inconvenient schedule) rather than a "state of confusion".

I researched train times on bahn.de and I think poezda.net and on the official Ukrainian train website http://www.uz.gov.ua/?lng=uk which is partially (emphasis on partially) translated into English. I remember a lot of back and forth with Google Translate and copying and pasting Cyrillic letters and all the rest of it.

I then wrote down all the trains I wanted in Cyrillic and went to the foreigners ticket window in Kiev and the woman sorted out my tickets with no problem. The people in line in front of me seemed to get by with less Russian than I have.

I saw a lot of advice online saying that you shouldn't wait till the last minute, but I didn't really want to buy through the official website because of possible difficulties getting the tickets, ordering the wrong thing etc. and a lot of the websites giving this advice seem to be in the business of charging quadruple the ticket price plus expensive shipping to book tickets on your behalf. I don't know about coming up to Euro 2012 though. But anyway, you will presumably be booking at least the first leg from Poland or through a Polish website, right?

All the trains I caught were on time, except the last one which was a bit late when I was coming back to Kiev to go to the airport (typical). My experience in Eastern Europe is they are usually very slow and have a lot of time built into the schedule so if all goes well they spend long periods sitting on the tracks to avoid being early.

One more thing - I went from Prague-Krakow once and my friend and I got robbed in the middle of the night. Luckily they only took about 20 pounds out of my wallet (and put it back into my handbag, which I was sleeping on top of!) but it was a creepy thought that they were in the carriage rifling through stuff while we slept. Since then, I've heard stories from a few people about that train. I don't know about Krakow-Lviv, but if you have the option I've heard about people fastening the door to their compartment with a belt or luggage tie or something to lock it (in the absence of proper locks).
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Old Sep 3rd, 2012, 04:16 AM
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Thanks for the good and so "spaceous" trip review, I've got to know a lot of new information concerning Ukraine!
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