As the train pulls into the platform, my first thought is that it was not the right one, not like the streamlined bullet train like pictures on the website, it is pulled by the same type of Romanian locomotive that bought us over the mountains. But once it stops at the platform it becomes obvious that it is our train.
The train staff speak only Russian and our tickets come under great scrutiny. Once aboard, the train guard points to her ring finger and then us. "Yes, we are married" we reply. We are ushered in to a cabin with two men on the bottom bunks, Carolyn seems happy that we are together rather than separate cabins as we were expecting.
We get fresh crisp bedding and set our beds up. Once we are comfortable we can take in our surroundings.
If I had to date our carriage, I would say somewhere in the 80's, about thirty years old, everything is very soviet looking, functional and built to last, it looks like it will last at least another thirty years at least.
At the end of the carriage is a coal burning stove, there's ash in the grate, and loose bits of coal about, it appears that it is still in use during winter.
The doors between the carriages look and feel like they are made from 2cm thick solid steel, they are painted battleship gray this coupled with the heat and closeness, makes it feel like I've walked into the set of Hunt For Red October.
It's not long before we reach the border, a
border officer comes and takes our passports. A short while later they are returned. Through the window I can see that the Romanian electric locomotive has been replaced with a noisy diesel one. When we set off it's at a steady pace. A watch tower and sign marks the border, that was much easier than I expected.
We stop again, this time a Ukrainian border guard gets on. He is wearing full military uniform, and barks at me to sit down. He inspects our passports and asks "tourist?" we reply "Da" He looks at us suspiciously and walks off with the passports. For the next 30 minutes to a hour, many differently dressed Ukrainian officials stomp up and down the carriage. Some of them start taking the train apart.
We eventually start moving, but without our passports, at the Romanian checkpoint the train crew returned them before we left, we begin to wonder if they've been forgotten. The train comes to a halt in a marshaling yard.
We can see many dogs, and lots of men in shorts, socks and flip flops. I remembered reading that they had to change the wheels at the Ukraine border as the tracks are a different width and it became obvious that this was what was now happening.
The entire train was lifted in to the air by a series of screw jacks,
the action was so smooth, if you didn't look at a fixed point you didn't know that you were moving. All the while the new wheels were being put into place by a flimsy looking gantry cane. The old wheels were pulled out of one end, and the new ones pulled under the from other.
This impressive feat of heavy engineering was performed by the men in flip flops, and all the time the train was kept under close watch by soldiers and dogs begging at the windows for food. I wanted to take some photos, and video of the work, but my actions caught the eye of one of the soldiers and she started to march towards me gesturing No! I put my phone away disappointed, and I didn't get the opportunity to film more, we were being watched far too closely.
Once the work was completed the train was reversed back to the checkpoint and the border guard grudgingly returned our papers. The locomotive was replaced by a slightly less noisy diesel, and we were on our way again at a steady pace.
The buffet car had two tables, and a large kiosk with a display of chocolate, alcohol, cigarettes and crisps. A thin Russian guy was buying some Vodka, every time the chef added Vodka, the thin guy told him to add more, eventually his cup was full to the top with neat Vodka. He then appeared to negotiate the price. Once his transaction was complete the thin man greeted us in English, and offered to help us with the menu. We chose beef and potatoes. He advised us that we should come back after the next station but pay now, he then negotiated our price and told us "That is very good price"
We had brought our own beer and wine, so we decided to take these straight back to the buffet car and enjoy a drink while we waited for our meal.
We hadn't been sat long when the chef appeared with two plates of pretty good steak and chips with a fresh side salad. Afterwards we had a mug each of whole leaf tea and some Russian chocolate, it was the best meal I've had in a train by a very long way.
After dinner we both got a pretty good night's sleep, and we woke on a mainline with the train making good speed, it was only a couple of hours to Kiev, the journey had seemed to fly by.
The scenery is now dominated by massive pine forests, the occasional village with a Lada or motorbike and sidecar waiting at the level crossing. Many of the trees were full of Mistletoe, great balls hung from the branches, I wondered if they had the same Christmas tradition as us, and if not, was that the reason why the Mistletoe was doing so well.
We had brought our own breakfast, so after a quick clean up we sat in the buffet car and ate croissants. We were alone, as we were the following night. It seems that the buffet car doesn't get much use, and that two tables are plenty. After breakfast we pack and prepare to disembark at Kiev.
The spa was welcome, but once we left we really didn't see anything worthwhile to stop at on our drive, so we ended back in Kiev sooner than we though (despite getting lost again)
We even found a great bar called Shato with fantastic traditional Ukrainian food and it's own brewery. It was busy, and afterwards we could see why. I'm going to say more in another post on Original Gravity at a later date.
