Mukachevo to Lviv

Lviv, Ukraine, May 22, 2015, 5 AM

Yesterday is my last day in Mukachevo and I want to get some pictures of two of the churches in town. When I get near them I hear singing.  Both are holding services, and as happens here, they are being attended both inside and outside of the churches.  I take some great videos except I have pushed the wrong button on my new camera so that they don't actually take.  Fortunately, I get some nice stills.

As it is Thursday, I think this must be a special event and determine later that it is, a national celebration of Ukraine's independence with Ukrainians wearing traditional clothes demonstrating they are unique and not part of Russia as the latter's propaganda tries to imply.

The two churches are less than a block from each other and by standing  midway between them you can actually attend both, hearing the music and prayers from each played over loudspeakers for the attendees outside. A great way for those of us to catch up that don't attend services often.  I assume one of the churches is Catholic and the other Orthodox the two competing religions here.

While killing time back at the Inn, before heading to the train station, I have a nice chat, out on the balcony/patio overlooking the garden, with the couple who have been so helpful to me in communicating with the Inn manager   They are from Eastern Ukraine, but not near the conflict and it is safe where they live.

I tell then where I am going, Lviv and Kiev, and ask where else I should go in Ukraine.  He says Crimea is very nice. Since Crimea has been annexed by Russia, tourism there is way down.  I would not want to go there, although he says it is safe.

He says he likes all people, Russians, Ukrainians (which they are), Polish, Slovakians etc.  He does not want to talk about politics.  He just wants peace.  Like the taxi driver's friend said of Ukrainians, he is "not political".

I take a taxi to the train station and arrive over an hour ahead of time.  Less stress that way. I read the train status sign {only in Ukrainian) and am able to decipher which train is mine and that it's apparently on time. Then I decipher my boarding pass using Google Translator on my smartphone to identify the train car and boarding seat I'm to be on.

Out on the platform, I face the most challenging part of this journey.  Getting the right train and getting on the right car.  Another train pulls into the station while I am waiting on a different platform at the same time as my train is due which causes me some alarm. However, it has only a few cars on it and, I am able to get assurance from two ladies nearby that it's not my train.

The long distance train I am about to take (hopefully) is very long 50 to 100 cars (I think, no time to count them).  Much to my personal satisfaction, I am able to communicate with the two women all in Ukrainian.  They are getting on car "decit" (10) and I on car "deviat" (9). So I stick close to them.  As the train pulls in, I try to read the car numbers and never do see them, looking at the two women they are shaking their heads not having seen their car either.  Then they do and I show my boarding pass to the conductor at the next car who gives no answer to my question, Lviv?,  but takes it and seems to indicate I should get on which I do.

I find my way to my seat (23) and there a young guy assists me in lifting up the bunk bed seat and storing my suitcase under it. He then quickly buries his head in a book he is reading and is hoping, I assume, he will not have to make conversation with this stranger.

Certainly one of life's trials is to be seated next to someone, usually on a plane, who wants to talk when you just want to be left alone, So I am sympathetic even relieved to encounter this.

I take pictures of the countryside, "the last wilderness in Europe". Very green, with small mountains, lots of streams and brooks. It is the "Transcarpathian" district in Western Ukraine with mild temperatures in Winter and Summer as well as Spring and Fall.  A great place to wind down and "get away". For the price of my 4 1/2 hour train ride (about $7), I get to "drive" through it in the most pleasant way.

Unexpectedly, I find myself chatting easily with my compartment companion.  He is a student at the University in Lviv and part of a group growing some kind of crystal used in controlling temperature and gasses.  Another group in Russia is working on the same thing, but his group has grown a much bigger crystal, for which his quite proud.

The student shows me, on his computer, a presentation he is going to be making to try to explain what it's all about, but this doesn't work too well for us as it is all in Ukrainian.  His English is quite good, although, like all Ukrainians I have met that speak some English, he apologizes for his lack of fluency. As with the others, I tell him with more exposure, he would be quite fluent in no time.  But, they get little practice here, especially now with tourism being down.

I ask him if he will have to serve in the military.  He says not for 2 years when he will no longer be a student. I say, hopefully, that by then there will not be a need, although my reading of history indicates that wars always continue longer than anyone expects. As for job prospects, they are good for him given his training in technology, but not in Ukraine.  And he doesn't want to leave Ukraine.  Like all Ukrainians I have met, he loves his country.

We talk about the corruption here and he thinks that maybe in 100 years things will be better.  Not encouraging.  Such an intractable problem, I think.  Such a shame.  This country has so much potential for growth starting from a low base.  Even poorer than when the Soviet Union broke up.  It has great natural resources, being "the bread basket of Europe" and most importantly its people, educated with literacy in the high 90s percentile, beautiful cities and countryside, and quite safe except in the Eastern war zone.. A tourist's paradise at unparalleled low cost.

At the station, I am approached by a taxi driver.  I counter his price of 70 hryvnias with 50 and with a resigned but pleasant smile, he counters with 60 which I accept.

I note how busy this city feels after my stay in the country town of Mukachevo.  Normally, I take public transportation into a city, but it is now night and dark, and I am not looking for more challenges and eager to bed down in my hotel.

I sit in the front seat with the taxi driver and as we talk, all in Ukrainian (much to my self-satisfaction), I learn that he has relatives in America, the description of one of which I recognize, "sister".

I decide to give him the price he had asked as it is less the $4 and certainly worth it to me and I'm sure he can use it.

At the hotel, I am pleased to see the pleasant young woman desk clerk who recognizes me from my visit last spring,

My hotel room appears to me to be the quintessence of luxury compared to my more modest dwellings to this point, yet at a fraction of the price I would pay in a comparable city in America or Europe.

I am very happy to be "back home" in Lviv.