Rakhiv to Khust

Khust, June 3, 2017, 6 PM

Today I took the 3-hour bus from Rakhiv to Khust. You "can't get there from here" by Train.

Yesterday I spent some time trying to figure out the bus schedule.  There is a nice website russticket.info where I was delighted to find all the information you need and nicely laid out.

Except it's not correct as I found out at the bus station after about an hour of trying to read the timetable board and talking with the ticket clerk. The clerk, of course, did not speak any English.

She was very patient and careful to make sure I was going not the same but the next day.  Sometimes in the big cities, they can be a bit gruff but in the country, they take the time to see that you get things right.  And she had a nice smile as we finally completed our difficult transaction to the great satisfaction of us both.

I got to the bus station about 15 minutes before boarding, so nice compared to 3 hours for an International plane and a couple hours I usually allow for city train stations which are not usually a 10 minute walk from my hotel and where there isn't another train soon if you miss the one you're to take as there is with the buses here.

As we pulled out of the bus station I was pleased to see there were few passengers and plenty of room for my backpack on the next seat as the overhead rack was too narrow to hold it.  But then a bunch of Ukrainian hikers showed up and the bus became totally overloaded and one of the hikers asked me to move my backpack which I did onto the floor and he sat down next to me.

We got talking. His English was not great but a lot better than my Ukrainian.  I noticed the hikers and other passengers around us were listening in and as we struggled for a word they would volunteer a word to keep going what became kind of a group discussion.

The hiker who was really a mountain climber told me they were going to the Romanian border to climb a mountain up to the snow where they would pitch their tents and spend the night.

He said he goes to work and comes home and goes to work and comes home and repeats that endlessly but on the weekends he goes climbing with his friends.

And his work?  He said something about a gym and train so I thought he might be a fitness trainer, but that made little sense to me even although he is plenty fit. I didn't think there would be many opportunities in that field here in this economically poor country.

With the help of the woman across the aisle we figured out the right words and I found out he's a train engineer as he demonstrated with his hands like on a steering wheel.

These nice young people asked me all the usual questions as to where I was from, traveling alone, age etc. and found me of interest and novelty as an American. We all had great fun talking and laughing.

After about an hour as they left the bus one of the young guys with a big smile gave me a belaying hook as a parting gift.  Needless to say, I was quite touched by this gesture.

It turned out the woman across the aisle who had been so helpful in the discussion was with her husband, daughter and two granddaughters so we continued the discussion after the mountain climbers left.

She is a school teacher and they were on holiday. Sunday (tomorrow) will be the Eastern Orthodox Pentecost Sunday and the following day, Monday is a national holiday.

They are going to a town about halfway from where we had gotten to, by then, and my destination Khust and she told me we were driving right along the Romanian border and where they were going would be people speaking Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, and Hungarian.

As we drove by she pointed out a monument (but too fast to photo) which marks the geographical center of Europe.  This is, I later find out, arguable as I see that other countries, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and Hungary make similar claims.  I guess it all depends on how you measure and want to believe.

During a rest stop the father got out with one of the granddaughters to get ice cream and when he got back, he handed me an ice cream bar which I declined, but he insisted so I quickly succumbed.

I was happy that I know the Ukrainian word for delicious and could put it to good use in thanking him.

With about an hour still left on the trip for me, they reached their destination and we waved goodbye.

Using my GPS and Google maps to chart my progress I was able to avoid having to worry about missing my stop. This worked visually, even though I couldn't connect wirelessly as I must have been in an area not covered by the Turkish company I use in Ukraine which has the best data plan, but maybe not so good here.

The bus station for Khust turned out to be too far from the center to walk with no buses going into town so I took a Taxi for $2.00 not bad but 4 times the 50 cent train fare for the 3-hour train ride from Vorokhta to Rakhiv and 2/3 of the $3.00, 3 hour bus ride I just completed.  Train travel here is a jaw-dropping bargain here.

I planned to stay in this town, Khust, a couple of days and then go to the town of Berehove on the Romanian border for a couple of days.  But last night when I checked I found the bus doesn't make the trip on the day I planned so I quickly canceled the booking for the next town and extended this one with time to cancel the extension up til midnight tonight and perhaps book a two-day visit to another town nearby subject to how I found this town to be.

A quick walk around Khust, however, convinced me that I'll be happy to spend 4 days here so I can totally relax, chill out and maybe do a little work on my Ukrainian plus I see I have another climb to do up to castle perched high on a hill overlooking the town.

In the brief time I've been here I've already attended (briefly just wandering in for a just a few minutes each) two church services and see there are other churches, buildings and interesting alleys to explore. The green vestments of the Orthodox priests were impressive and I later read that Green is the color for this holiday celebrating nature and its provenance in this land.

One final thought.  The woman on the bus said to me your President Trump is an "Interesting" man. It was obvious to me she was being diplomatic in wanting to know my thoughts.  I used a circular motion pointing to my head and said the word "crazy".  That was the extent of our political discussion and all that was necessary to indicate we were on the same page.

Earlier in talking to the mountain climber, he expressed his liking for the United States by saying he would like Ukraine to be one of the United States of America.

America is still regarded well here, liked and respected and the people I've met couldn't have been nicer.