Day Five. Reconnaissance.

We are traveling tomorrow, the first leg of our train journey to Kiev takes us to Suceave.  This is comparatively short, some 6 hours and about 322km or 200miles (which still is my longest rail journey,at least in time), as opposed to the Suceave to Kiev leg which is 21 hours and 585km or 364 miles. This certainly will be a unique journey!

So, this morning, we needed to pack light and I also wanted to walk to the train station, to avoid any directional challenges tomorrow.

We decided to divide and conquer, Carolyn would pack, and I would do the walk.

Having checked the map, I could see the railway station was on the opposite side of the hill, Google navigation told me to walk right from the hotel, I thought if I turned left that would take me a more direct diagonal route.

Once I turned the second corner I saw the hill I had to climb, WOW, by the time I was nearly to the top it felt like it was nearly vertical!  I turned right and then it was down hill all the way.  That hill is going to be a challenge with all the luggage!

I wandered around the station, I read the information boards and watched a train leave, it all looks quite straight forward. I filmed a train leaving, the video is here: CLICKY

I decided to try a different route back, this involved a foot subway, these are now rare in the UK, having been filled in, in favour of pelican crossings.  This Romanian one was made even more special by the fact it has a bar, I've included a picture. Other than that they are the same dark affairs we used to have in England.

I saw other things such as a tidy classic Mini, which must be a rare sight in Romania, some interesting graffiti, and lots of people queuing to get into to church.

The walk was nice, and the thought that the packing would be done when I got back made it even nicer.

Typically the return journey was completely flat, with no hill climbing, Google was right all along!