The first time I am able to hop on the internet.
Brandon and I left the morning of September 1st. We had hoped to catch an earlier flight out of Pittsburgh to Newark to assure ourselves that we would not miss our flight to London. We were unable to catch an earlier flight, but it didn't matter since all flights were on time and we connected to our international flight in the same terminal. The flight to London was long, but the air time was only about 5 1/2 hours which was pretty short. We had personal TV screens and we each watched a bag movie before attempting to sleep. Key word: attempt, we were pretty unsuccessful such that, when we arrived in London at 7am, we were pretty tired. We were in London long enough to take a bus to another terminal and figure out that they really do drive on the other side of the road, go through security again, and take in just enough British accents.
Our flight to Kiev was delayed by an hour or so; the only flight in the British Airways terminal to be delayed. I did not think this was a good omen. Our flight was smooth, but not in the literal sense since we experienced quite a bit of turbulence. We flew with a pretty rowdy group too and I think most of the people on the plane got up to use the bathroom at least once, maybe 2 or 3 times. Since we sat in the back by the bathroom, we noticed this and if we had not, the stewardesses yelling at people to sit down would have drawn our attention.
Since our flight was late, we arrived with 2 other international flights into Kiev. Passport control took about 45 minutes. I still don't have a stamp in my new passport either, but I must hold onto a slip of paper saying that I'm legal to be in the country.
Once we arrived at Sarah and Alister's apartment, we freshened up and repacked for our bags for an overnight train to Lviv. Our train left at 10:15pm and arrived at 6:30am. We had a new sleeper car. Although Sarah said a new car wasn't quite the experience of an old one, it was still a good experience. Brandon and I both slept well, probably because we were so exhausted.
Lviv is a pretty city near the Polish border. Being so close to Poland means that it has more European influence than Russian/Soviet. People mostly speak Ukranian in Lviv, opposed to Russian in Kiev. It didn't matter much as Brandon and I don't speak either, which has already gotten frustrating. Thank goodness for Sarah and her friend Olga! We stayed in a nice apartment at the City Center; close to all the action and food!
We took 2 buses to visit a castle out of town. Don't get any ideas of Sleeping Beauty's castle, it was much smaller and much less grand. It was recently restored and still being worked on. The ride out of the city took about 1 1/2 hours in a stuffy bus. It was worth it though! We saw plenty of countryside, part of the reason we toured this particular castle.
The next day we criss-crossed the city center, probably 6 times or so. We climbed over 400 stairs to the top of the court house clock tower to take in the entire city of Lviv, just less than 1 million people. We visited quite a few churches of many denominations, the armory and just before dinner climbed to the top of the nearest hill to have another overview of the city. Just about then the fog rolled in, obscuring our view. Did I mention that Lviv gets a lot of rain? We were lucky the first day, sunny with 80 degree temps, but not so lucky the second day.
We spent the rest of the evening in a cafe. We had our bags and our train didn't leave until 10:45pm. So we had dinner (Ukrainian food-drunken pork for me and meat/bread/veggies for Brandon), tried a bit of honey vodka (yum!), and local desserts (huckleberry strudel and baked apples...yeah, not so local, but tasty). We then took a very Soviet-era tram to the train station and settled in for the night. We unfortunately didn't sleep to much, not because it of the train necessarily, but probably because it was 5pm Eastern time and we still aren't quite adjusted. Ahh well, will probably get a cat nap sometime today.
Speaking of cats, Sarah's cat was definitely thrilled we were back home, safe and sound.
