Mukachevo to Lviv by Train

Mukachevo, May 15, 2016 1:46 PM

I’m on the train which is scheduled to depart in 10 minutes. It took some effort to get to this point as yesterday I came to the station to get a good seat and the attendant spoke no English.

I ended up on the right train - headed the right way - to Lviv and at the right time but in second class.

Now I'm no snob but this is a 4 hour trip and I’ve got my carry on and back pack and don’t want to be jammed in with my stuff and I’m looking for comfort since it’s quite affordable, about $12, plus I want to be able to move around and take pictures, so I decided to go online and get the ticket myself.


I then went to the computer store in town and in spite of the young guy speaking no English, was able to get the boarding pass printed out. How? Well a combination of very limited Ukrainian on my part, sign language but most importantly Google Translate.
Google of course is taking over the world and here is a very cool thing if you don’t already know. Using your smart phone you can type in or speak in one language and have it display (and for some languages but not Ukrainian – yet )- also speak the target language.

Ultimately this may practically eliminate the need to learn another language which like the replacement of paper books with digital and a lot of other things would not be wholly without its drawbacks.

Like the invention of the calculator removed the need to learn arithmetic.  Not good for the brain to have it being replaced by electronics. 

Inevitably, we will be replaced by robots and maybe they will decide we are too stupid and wasteful of resources to b:e allowed to continue to exist.

Whoops we’re now moving .. right on time.

Well I did a good job picking a good seat except it’s facing backwards but no problem I’ll just jump into the seat across from me which is empty. In fact I have the whole compartment to myself.

Now I wouldn’t mind sharing but this way I have my choice of seats and the use of the table which goes to the first person in the down berths in this 4 berth coupe compartment.


This train is really nice. It’s in good condition and looks new which is hard to believe.

The engine pulling the train into the station here came all the way from Eastern Ukraine to this its final destination in Western Ukraine.It looked really tired.

But they replaced the engine with another one.

My compartment has 4 bunk beds.  The key is to get a lower bunk bed. This is an afternoon trip for me. I got on the train at 1:55PM in Mukachevo and will get off in Lviv at 5:44 PM and I don’t plan to sleep. But the train goes on after Lviv and on to Kyiv and ultimately Kharkiv where it will arrive at 9:42 AM tomorrow morning.

So it’s designed for sitting or sleeping on the lower bunk and if you have an upper bunk and the person who has the lower bunk wants to sleep you have to climb up into your upper bunk. If you have the lower bunk you can decide whether you sit or lie down.

I had to figure out online which bunk was upper and lower. For those who are planning a trip, here is how to figure that out.  The online chart shows four positions for the 4 berths and the ones next to the side of the car are uppers and the ones shown as next to the corridor are lowers. (The grayed out ones are the ones already selected and you can see they are all ones next to the corridor except where a group of 3 or 4 - probably a family - have been selected in a compartment).

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Of course in real life the bunks are all next to both the side of the car and the aisle.  But that’s how they show them online when you’re selecting your seat.

Here’s a neat video IMHO of what the train looks like inside as we are moving along

This region is Transcarpathia “the last wilderness in Europe” with beautiful rolling hills, through with white puffy clouds with sparkling gushing streams coursing through the narrow valleys. In a few weeks I plan to “head for the hills” and experience it all first hand.


The pictures aren't the best as they are through the train window and it's not the sunniest of days, but I think you can get the idea of how nice this countryside is. 

There appears to be no WIFI connection on this train. But with my smartphone I’m connected. I have a 30 day prepaid plan with LIFE, one of  the three cellular companies here. Whoops I
I just tried to connect and couldn’t. I think this company doesn’t have the best coverage but is fine in the cities and is really cheap.

Like the plan for 30 days costs only $1.50 with plenty of data for emailing and enough phone time for the few calls I get or make here with my own Ukrainian phone number which I keep for my next visit if I come here twice a year which I’ve been doing they hold the number for me.

The train is pursuing a winding route following the streams as they gush through the deep valleys midst the rolling hills.








And as the train winds around the valleys you can see the front of the train through your window like in the right side of the picture here.








Later the terrain flattens and becomes industrialized.

And suddenly, or so it seems, we've arrived in Lviv.

I take a taxi to my hotel and am greeted by the receptionist standing there holding my key with a big smile.  No need to tell her who I am and check in. This is my fourth visit to Lviv and this hotel.

But how she knew I was going to arrive at this moment is a mystery to me.
And another mystery is that my hotel room number is the same as my seat number on the train.  Traveling seems to produce the most improbable coincidences.

After I got to my room there was a knock on the door and I thought “now who could this be?”. 

It was a young woman who delivered some nice rolls and tea. How nice.

The next morning when I went outside from the hotel I was immediately struck by how busy this city is compared to the small “country town” city I just left. 




It must be a real culture shock for students who leave home in the country to go to University in "the big city".

The pace is so much faster here. 

How exciting it must be for them. 

As it is for me now to be back in Lviv !