I am sitting in the garden in Pomáz, Hungary, writing this blog. It was 5 days ago when i arrived, but i have been working, there was no time for writing blog, so now i write about the way home.

 

Last Sunday I departed home, after Julia's birthday party. My train was at 5am, of course there is no transport at that time, so taxi was used. The train was Habarovsk-Moskva, seemingly a lot of people came from far with it, i was just thinking that this guy gets on the train for this last small section (31 hours). I slept very well, right after getting on i slept, and got up late morning, and even during the day slept 2-3 hours, and then at night 11 hours, so all together i spent almost 20 out of the 31 hours by sleeping :). I had upper place (what i don't like), that was also a reason why i slept a lot, there is not so much else to do up there, and coming down always makes me think that i disturb the people under me.

 

In Moscow I had 4 hours for the change, with the metro ride from Komsomolskaya to Kievskaya 1 hour was already spent, as there was reconstruction at Komsomolskaya, and it resulted in huge queue waiting for ticket or entrance to the station. At Kievskaya (where Kievsky train station is), there is a huge shopping center called "Evropeysky", 30 minutes wifi is free there, and if you change language on the login screen, 30mins start over (of course you can also change MAC but pressing a link is easier). Also, i bought some newspapers.

 

The train was not full, but after 2 hours there was a station where it became quite full. I had lower, which is cool. There was one strange thing: a few hours before the Russian-Ukrainian border, an Azeri (or Tajik maybe) couple got on, without any luggage. They filled the Ukrainian migration cards, they even asked for my help (although i either had no idea how to, but i "improvised" fast). On the Russian side of the border, a funny thing was that just before the border guard reached our section, the guy got a call, and his ringtone was something like "Allah, aaa" :) I thought this guy really doesn't want to cross the border :) Also, the guy next to me told him that he should turn it off immediately. But maybe it was too late, or it didn't matter, they were removed by the border guards and the train continued without them coming back. I had such feeling that they are experienced "border-non-crossers", that's also why they didn't have luggage.

 

The way to Lviv was peaceful, the landscape near Lviv is beautiful in the last 1-2 hours. I again slept a lot. Still on the train, i checked on my netbook the timetables (huge pdf-s downloaded before), every day at 16:28 there is a train from Lviv to Uzhgorod via Chop, Chop is the UA side of the Hungarian border.

 

When i arrived, i bought some UA money (hrivnya), and went to the cassa saying "Chop". The girl said: to the 16:28? I said yes. She said it doesn't stop at Chop (i let u dear reader think about how did she found this 16:28 if it doesn't stop at Chop ... there are plenty of trains not going to Chop i guess :) ). I didn't understand how can it be that it doesn't stop at Chop, as it is on the way. I bought ticket to Batevo, which is the last before Chop, and the guy standing behind me said "Yest elektrichka" (There is elektrichka). I asked the cashier about the elektrichka, she said she only knows elektrichkas leaving or arriving to Lviv.

 

The train was very crowded with seats (120 seats in one wagon, and it was sold out). I asked the conductor about the elektrichka, she said of course she has no idea. When i asked again, she started to shout in the train asking who knows anything abt the elektrichka from Batevo to Chop. There were some motivated babushkas making me sure that the elektrichka exists, but of course they don't know departure time. In Munkachevo (Munkács in Hungarian) the conductor ran to me shouting that my elektrichka is here, in the other platform, and i should go. I explained her that if the elektrichka is here, here i can miss, but our train is much faster so in Batevo i cannot miss. She didn't understand, but few minutes after leaving munkachevo she found out the same and started to explain me. In Batevo i went to the cassa, said "Chop", and they reacted like if i said "There is no God", or something like that, and they started to quarrel with each other in Ukrainian, i just walked away. The elektrichka arrived, dear reader you won't believe: it was Lviv - Chop elektrichka. But the lady in Lviv doesn't know abt it because it doesn't leave from Lviv :)

 

The elektrichka was quite empty, it cost 30 euro cents, had wooden benches and was quite dark and slow. But it reached Chop, i could take the last border crossing pendolin-train. In Záhony, on the Hungarian side the security let me on the 4am train already at midnight, i had a good sleep there on 3 seats. I just woke up for the motion of the train. In the morning i arrived at Budapest and went immediately to work, and in the evening, home.

 

To summaryze, the first 60 hours of the trip was good, the last 12 was quite horrible. Next time i just take the Budapest-Moscow direct train.