Odessa to Lviv

The Western part of Ukraine can be reached from the South by a nighly sleeper train which runs between Odessa on the Black Sea and Chop in the Northwest. Book in advance because it sells out, I learned this the hard way. On my second night in Odessa I took a trip to the train station to buy a ticket for the following night to be safe and was told (after working my way through about 5 different ticket agents who didn't speak English and refused to even try to understand my pronounciation of Lviv) that the only options were a first class ticket that night - in about 90 minutes - or August 7th - next week. With no other option to stay on schedule and get to Hungary this prompted an immediate audible to take that night's train and eat the night of hotel. 

After several confused conversations I found a taxi driver to take me round-trip to my hotel to quickly pack and return to the train station - Google Maps providing the directions which would have been otherwise impossible with the language barier. Taxis in Odessa are an experience Most of the aging Soviet-manuafatured cars are beat up to the point that it is impressive that they still drive. None have meters. The drivers tend to be old guys who are friendly enough but look like their cars in the same way that people look like their dogs, speak no English, and may or may not have had a shower in the past year. The requested round-trip rate of 150 UAH was expectedly high, the going rate seems to be no more than 50UAH anywhere in downtown, so I probably could have bargained him down to 100, but under the circumstances I wasn't all that concerned with getting $12 down to $8. 

The train departs Odessa at 6:26pm, and I made it with 15 minutes to spare. For someone who speaks English and no Ukrainian or Russian Ukraine is a tricky place to travel. Not only is finding an English speaker a rarity, even at train station information booths, but rather than to even attempt to understand a mispronounced city name, the common response by Ukranian ticket clerks is to send you to another window or simply to shrug and turn away. The only response to this is I found was to stand there and make clear that you're not leaving until you accomplish your transaction at which point, with people behind you irritatedly waiting they will be forced to try. Often someone in line will speak enough English to step in and help. 

A first class ticket from Odessa to Lviv costs 600 UAH (~$50). First class is worth it for the AC and a two person (rather than a 4 person) compartment. The conductor also offers tea, snacks and water which are paid for at the end of the trip - A bottle of water, a package of wafers and two glasses of tea were 20UAH. Around midnight the train stops in a town where locals sell baked goods and smoked fish - good place for a snack, and then proceeds onward overnight. Toward the end of the 13 hour trip the train is divided in two, some cars going to Uzhhorod, on the Slovakian border, the rest continuing to Chop on the Hungarian border passing through Lviv. The train is fast considering the distance it covers and there are relatively few stops.