sights, places, memories

I cannot really call this the last post on the W(e)VOW epic. After all, we own a bus. The adventure won’t stop for some time now, I imagine. This is just an excuse to put in a few last photos. Please do forgive me for ever repeating myself throughout these posts.

Most of my pictures are from the Grand Canyon, so I suppose I will start with that. We stopped for two nights in Tusayan, AZ so that we could have a full day of banter in the canyon. Since we arrived in the same vehicle, we got a group rate: $25 for everyone, instead of $8 per person – what a deal! We all did a lot of walking around the edge, and we all attempted a hike downwards into the gorge. We caught the sunset after admiring the Abyss for quite a while. Of course we had lots of stopping to dangle our legs over the edge.

The sunset is beautiful in the striking contrast formed between the brightly colored rocks and the deep heavy shadows cast back into the canyon.

Also, this is a stick:

We decided to travel southwards through Joshua Tree National Park instead of the originally scheduled Death Valley agenda. Admission to the park and camping permission turned out to be cheaper than we had anticipated, another pleasant national park surprise! The morning found us scrambling up rolling hills to survey our desolate surroundings. We managed to find satisfactory shower facilities in the RV water station before embarking on our journey through the park.

Impressively sized rocks abounded, some towering over our not insignificant vehicle. Of course, we were all up for the adventure of climbing these monumental stones, scaling epic piles of rock and admiring the vista.

Descending upon the freeway leading towards LA, we encountered several expansive corridors of wind turbines. One of our previous encounters with these impressive beauties was leaving Austin, watching trucks transporting single turbine blades, trying to turn gracefully on undersized highways. The closeness to such a delicate looking yet powerful piece of machinery elicited gasps of wonder from all of us. However, it was not until the allegedly flat expanse that is Kansas that I managed to capture the experience in a photograph. I will let you judge for yourself the claim that Kansas is as flat as a pancake.

The Pacific coast held in store two more wonders for us. The coast itself was impressive to any Mississippian used to our sound on the Gulf Coast which prevents any wave from getting enough power to splash more than our knees. Massive waves roll in from afar and smash with great drama onto craggy boulders that decorate the shoreline. The roads undulated and twisted as we navigated gorges and mountains, they forced us to explore forests filled with towering redwoods and negotiate tight spaces with other tourist traffic. For anyone growing up in Mississippi, we imagine the high pines that populate our state as fairly impressive trees – the redwoods overwhelmed that impression, dominating over any vision of an impressive tree and altering our understanding of how a towering tree would appear.

Of course I was generally impressed with the length of the trains that travelled in the western two thirds of the nation. One hundred and twenty five car trains would parallel the highways as we raced them unsuccessfully. Trains fully a mile long could remain beside us for miles in the expanses of desert that we crossed.

It was a wonderful trip that allowed us all to explore a phenomenal amount of the country. Simply getting to be in such an exceptionally vast land, even the barren empty stretches, was the cause of our wonder as we contemplated our place on this earth.

this took me ages to write

My phone rang as I stepped off of the train. J (why do half of the people that i stayed with have names beginning with j?) was getting out of class and was on her way to pick me up. I just missed C on her way out of town to cheer for the Blue Devils (who would go on to win the NCAA championship with her support).

Since the weather was still excellent, I spent a lot of time wandering around, exploring the campus. There was a definite style to the campus – all stone architecture. This was all very top down, pristine and tidy. It was clear that someone had a single vision as to what Duke would look like, and that it was being fulfilled. The chapel seemed to epitomize this, built to look like a fairly standard European cathedral, the inside was crisp and clean. The floors and walls were not littered with memorials as one might expect. The floor was not worn to a shine from centuries of foot traffic. The ceilings were not stained with smoke from ceremonies. While it was all very very nice – that was all there was. I caught the botanical gardens as everything was emerging from winter. Flowers were blooming everywhere and new plants were just putting out shiny green growth. The names of benefactors on buildings and places reminded me that much of the best public radio programming comes from here.

On my last day in Durham, I attended a biodiversity conference. Much to my hosts surprise, i was actually interested in attending, not going out of politeness! There were three topics covered, certification schemes, mitigation and paying for environmental services. The speakers surprised me with how local much of this work is. Projects of all scales needed to be funded, or offset in some way, making great opportunities for small land management companies. The effect of certification schemes was particularly interesting – with no real standardization in the field, effects of certification varied broadly as each promoted different aspects of environmental protection.

The train was running late, so we took a small wander around campus. After a few more pictures and a last visit with some of J’s friends, i found the train was making up lost time and we rushed off for the station. I made it a few minutes before it arrived.

I got off in Greensboro to change for the Crescent service to Meridian. It was quitting time as i walked down Elm street. People were coming out into the street to enjoy the restaurants and shops that downtown Greensboro had to offer. I stopped for a rest in a park, which had a large sign with information about the Greensboro Greenway – a downtown loop of bicycle and pedestrian friendly pathways and parks. I wandered into a nearby neighborhood and found myself at UNC Greensboro. This was a fairly quiet campus on a friday night, but I was able to find a shop nearby to pick up some foodstuffs for the long train journey ahead.

I boarded the train around midnight. One lady getting off had five large bags that the porter helped her with – she had traveled all the way from Seattle with what appeared to be everything she owned. We were assigned seats and I settled in to my spacious seat. The leg rest came up and the seat reclined and I could hardly reach the seat in front of me even as it stretched out. I fell asleep roughly for the night, but enjoyed waking up to peek out of the windows. The lights came on to wake us up at about 7 am, an hour before Atlanta. I tried to wander down the train when we stopped, but one of the cars was being cleaned, and I got told off for not wearing shoes. I settled back into my seat and cracked into a quality meal of a muffin, goldfish crackers, an apple and vienna sausages. I would save the moon pie for later. I visited the cafe car many times in between Atlanta and Meridian to enjoy the better windows and a bit of quiet to read.

This brings me to two complaints about Amtrak (besides the horrible boarding procedures) the track (ok, this is beyond Amtrak control) beyond Atlanta, going south and west is horrible. Jointed track leaving the station in Katowice, Poland is gives a more comfortable ride than the track through Alabama. Also, the windows are too small. Please take note of that when buying new trains: window size.

My journey ended when my mom and brother picked me up in meridian… Though I probably could have caught a ride with the JSU bus taking a carriage full of students back home.

briefly

I stayed another night in boston, hosted by some FOAF (ok, really bad joke) which was lovely. In the morning, I headed to the bus station and caught the noon Fung Wah bus to NY. This was the cheapest and most jokes sounding form of transportation to take. I had heard that they may be the fastest bus to NY, even with a short McDonalds stop along the way. I boarded, half expecting an eastern european style trip, with people smuggling twine, sausage and strawberries piled high in the seats. It was packed, but just people.

Apparently my trip over was fairly middle of the road. I noticed that nobody on the Interstate was able to pass the Fung Wah. When we got into NY traffic, the driver took us through s maze of streets to avoid slowing down. This resulted in getting pulled over in Queens, to the annoyance of most passengers. Once we crossed the bridge into Manhattan, we were dropped in the middle of Chinatown. I grabbed some takeaway and headed for Penn Station.

On the train to Delaware, I called up J (A?) and let her know i was on my way. Apparently the last plans I left with her were only tentative, so she was startled that I was on my way. This meant that i had a little time to wander around Wilmington before being picked up. This was lovely, the weather was warmer and only a light drizzle instead of the downpour that Boston was that morning.

Tuesday was my big day in Newark, DE. The weather was gorgeous, so after meeting for lunch, we wandered around campus and wondered about the architecture. There was definite classical influence, with the bold white Ionic columns contrasting with the pervasive dark red brick. In ceramics class, I tried my hand at making tea cups. Afterwards, we had to go pick up a speaker: Todd Murray of Hope’s Voice. I found out in the car that there was a raffle for a cruise going on at this event, which i was only attending by coincidence. J (A?) made me promise to take her on the cruise if I won. After the talk, “Does HIV look like me?” the raffle was held, and to Todd’s great amusement, I won.

There was once a Dunkin’ Donuts here. After it closed, and I stopped hearing about it, i figured that it was petering out in some desolate corner of the world. But no, Dunkin’ Donuts is alive and well on the east coast. So, after an obligatory stop there on the way out, I was dropped back in Wilmington where I had some time to wander before catching a train to North Carolina.

The departure boards in the station strike a great contrast to airport departure boards, where delays are expected, so expected arrival time is used, rather than scheduled arrival time. In the train station, I watched as several trains departed bearing only a status stamp of “On Time”. I boarded my train and settled in for the 8 hour journey. There was a major stop in Washington DC where i slipped off hte train for a peek around. The station was fairly epic. Fine marble floors and a massive vaulted ceiling lined with statues contained upscale shops enclosed in rich hardwood. I had time for a short march up to the capitol where I noticed that the capitol police were poorly outfitted with fully suspended mountain bikes. These are pretty much the worst bikes to ride on city streets.

Boarding the train again was a bit of a hassle. With only one escalator leading to the platform it carried passengers away from the train when the train arrived, and now carried them to the train. I am pretty sure that is not even legal, not to mention safe. There was no standing about on the platform, except the massive queue that formed at the one open door on the train. Basically, boarding planned to the the least convenient thing ever. Not only did they check tickets at the boarding gate, but also as you boarded the train, and twice on the train.

We left DC under diesel power on some CSX tracks. Tropicana trains were pulling out of town alongside us. “Quantico will be our next stop, Quantico, home of the Marines, FBI, and CIA. Hoo Rah! Semper Fi! Quantico, Hoo Raaahhhhhhh!” was the enthusiastic announcement before we pulled into Quantico. The tracks in rural Virginia and NC were just littered with cute small towns. And coal. But that is mostly in Virginia.

next:
last stop. duke.

i like trains too.

Some people bemoan the lack of train connections in the US, some just complain about the lack of alternatives to the car or plane. People often ask why it is that Europe has a better (presumably defined as more dense, accessible, and frequent) rail network than the US. I am pretty sure that this question is often asked rhetorically, but I’ll answer it anyway: After World War Two, European countries invested heavily (yes, with monetary help from the US) in their damaged rail networks.

With that out of the way, I can introduce the issue at hand. There is currently a lot of excitement over the prospect of high speed rail in America. Californians passed a bond issue to finance a high speed link from LA to SF; a cabal of governors in the midwest signed an agreement to promote high speed rail; and the federal stimulus plan includes money for developing high speed corridors in several places in the country. This is all very exciting, and has undoubtedly lead to a massive surge in articles of dubious accuracy extolling the joys, benefits and statistics of high speed rail.

For clarification, I really like trains. Trains are my favorite form of transportation. I look forward to reading train industry journals online – the ones filled with advertisements for ballast tamping machines and in depth analysis on the different types of track and sleepers available. Some of my friends at university thought it was weird how much I liked trains – I could only explain my interest by saying that since I had been deprived of trains as a child, being exposed to so many made me go over the edge. It was an infatuation. One might expect me to be very excited by the prospect of having high speed rail in my own country. I’m not really.

For all of the great things that can be said about high speed rail, it is not really what we need. We need a solid, extensive, well served passenger rail network first. High speed rail would serve a few cities, when a train is traveling at 186 mph and above, it is not practical nor efficient to stop very often. Services of this speed would only serve major cities spaced over a hundred miles apart. High speed rail is designed to compete with air travel. While this is great, it limits the users of the network to those in major cities. What is needed is an expanded network, not a slimmed down one. Access to train travel needs to be increased, not restricted.

Right now, Amtrak has 44 routes. 31 of these routes only have service daily, if that often. The number of route miles served more than once daily is hardly 14% of the number served only daily (3,934 route-miles served more than daily, 28,233 route-miles served daily or less. source.). A network like this does not serve its potential customers well. What is needed is a serious attempt at making rail travel a viable travel option in the US. A more complete network would be able to feed into the inter-city routes that make money for operators.

A successful rail network could consist of three parts: Local, Inter-City and High Speed.

Local trains could share track with Inter-City trains. These would be slower, smaller trains which stop more often. Capable of speeds up to 80 mph, these trains would serve the sprawling urban areas and smaller communities along the Inter-City routes. Services could run frequently during the working day to maximize the usefulness to commuters. It should be noted that may local and state authorities already operate services like this.

Inter-City trains would run faster and stop less frequently. Routes for these services could follow major transportation corridors, and current Amtrak routes and serve cities too small for high speed service. These could run fairly frequently throughout the day. With double track, these trains could operate around 125 mph and share tracks with the local trains.

High Speed trains would run on dedicated high speed lines. Modern traction technology such as exhibited in Alstom’s AGV allow for these trains to operate at up to 220 mph. Services of this speed would compete directly with air travel and serve cities over 100 miles apart. The slower services would feed passengers into the service at major cities.

It would not be easy to build such a national network. Unfortunately, it has been a long time since American had an extensive network, and many of the miles of track have been taken up or fallen to low standards of maintenence. After all, standards for track built pre 1940′s would not be the same as the precise engineering required for high speed lines. Amtrak shares track with freight trains. Much of this is single track, and even though Amtrak gets a two hour window for travel, a single delay on a long distance train may set the train back for longer farther down the line. The tracks need to be upgraded so that Amtrak can operate at its most efficient speed. Or better yet, the government could take over the ownership of the train tracks themselves. This would allow a single body to oversee the construction and maintenance of track. Depending on the conditions of such a deal, rail operators may actually like the idea: they get to stop worrying about track maintenance, handing over cost and liability to the government; they may get an immediate cash infusion (most large train operators have high debt loads) as the government buys the track and land from them; all they have to do is subject themselves to a timetabling authority, where they could be guaranteed a slot close to when they need it.

Many people object to the idea of the government playing such a large role: owning the track, operating the trains… As far as owning the track, it does not really matter who owns it, so long as it is maintained to high standards. Most people are happy to tacitly consent to the governments ownership of roads, so the government owning other transportation infrastructure really shouldn’t bother anyone. Privatization of rail is possible, if it can be first established well enough to turn a profit. Privatization may not be needed though. State ownership of train operations is less relevant in Europe now with open access of one country to another. By this I mean that one can catch a German train in France, a French train in Italy, a Polish train in Hungary, and many other great combinations. It doesn’t matter that it is a government owning the company that owns the train, pays the conductor and picks out the decor – it is free market competition amongst government owned operators. So long as there is effective, efficient management, it does not matter that the government plays the role of sole shareholder and regulator of one or more train operators. Local and state governments could play a more active role in local and regional services, providing line with its own flavor and democratic ideal.

High speed rail is sexy, no doubt, and building an excellent network is a noble goal. With an average speed of 86 mph, the Acela, America’s only ‘high speed’ service, is laughable. It would be much more impressive to see an American Iron Horse splitting the countryside at 220+ mph. Before that is done though, we need to ensure that the rest of the passenger rail network will be strengthened. It is no use building a high speed rail network if the rest of the network falls into decay and passengers turn their backs on it due to lack of accessibility. High speed trains would certainly raise the profile of the train network, but that would be lost when potential passengers look at their options only to find that they have none.

Accommodation in Ukraine

“I’ve had many a good blanket on this trip.” -Ste

And so I present a review of the accommodation encountered on our trip to Ukraine. Disclaimer: There is one hostel in Poland, and one hostel we didn’t actually stay in.

PTSM Hostel, Rzeszow

Our first night was spend in Rzeszow, Poland (pronounced shay-shouf). There is one hostel in town, cracking location right on the main square. We went to our excellent local Polish restaurant, Chopin, to book the hostel – they have no online booking, so we needed someone who spoke Polish to do the calling for us. They found this fairly amusing, and were perplexed at why we would want to go to Rzeszow, but excited we were going anyway.

We arrived in town late. It was about 22.30 before we got to the hostel. At 32zl each for a night, it was a bit more expensive than we expected. Bit of confusion paying, somehow ste lost about 20zl. We dropped our stuff off in the two private rooms and headed out for food. The lady at the reception, who spoke very very little english let us have an hour to get food – there was a 22.00 curfew! That was lovely of her. The rooms were very basic. Basically a standard Soviet style concrete building. A bit old and maybe crumbling in the corners. The eight of us shared two rooms of four. Bedding was included, but the mattresses were poor, one bed looked like a cannonball storage shelf. The rooms were plain, other than a negligible attempt at putting artwork on the wall. Nothing special, nothing besides the bare minimum for furnishings. Comfortably empty.

Location: 5/5 Excellent, on the main square!

Price: 2/5 cost 32zl for a night, but it is the only place in town.

Staff: 3/5 well, there was only one person there, very nice, but not much English.

Owner: n/a we never saw the owner.

Beds: 2/5 a bit better than sleeping on a stoop in the Netherlands, but bedding included.

Quality/Cleanliness: 3/5 Was pretty much like a worn down hotel.

Amenities: n/a there aren’t really any.

Retro Hostel Shevchenko

Our local questionable cafe across the street from the hostel.
Our bus dropped us off at the train station where we emptied the cash machines of their cash. We caught a cab to the hostel (40 hiryvna per car) Retro Hostel Shevchenko. Again, it was getting late so we dropped our stuff off and wend out to get food. Marushka (sp?) gave us advice on where to eat and pointed to a few things around town before we headed off. Her advice for food was spot on. It was a chain buffet restaurant, but served legit Ukranian food, cooked right in front of you. Returning to the hostel later we found that the toilets were still under construction. It was quite tricky to flush, having to fill the tank manually and then pull up the seal on the bottom of the tank, also by hand. Replacing it was a delicate act, and refilling it meant it would leak out before the next usage.

The dorm we stayed in was at the top of the building, a bit if a trek, but pretty much fine. There were bunk beds packed in, with perfectly acceptable beds. Nothing really of note here. There was rumored to be free wifi throughout the building, though we could not test this. There were two old computers in the lobby which provided internet for us. During our stay Marushka worked and worked and worked. She seemed to be the only person employed there. She was constantly cleaning or doing some admin work for the hostel. Even though she was constantly busy, she was always willing to have a chat or give advice to us about our trip. It is difficult to describe how lovely she was to us. She always offered help and chat when we were around. On the last day we stored our bags behind the reception desk, and she didn’t mind us hanging around in the evening. There was a ping pong table that we played on a bit. They only had one ball left though; we would have bought more but it was a sunday, and the sports shop was closed. Besides the remodeling in progress (apparently it has been in an unfinished state over a year now), the only downside was a strict closure of the hostel from 12-14:00. Apparently this is a throwback to the origins of hostels when they would be closed for cleaning and to force the young’ns out. This is the only hostel I have ever encountered to keep this rule up.

Location: 4/5 Minutes away from the old centre.

Price: 5/5 dirt cheap as far as I know.

Staff: 5/5 Marushka will probably do anything in the world for you.

Owner: n/a never encountered owner, rumored to be a vicious Siberian.

Beds: 3/5 they were fine.

Quality/Cleanliness: 4/5 toilets under construction.

Amenities: 3/5 cheap drinks/free juice when you leave and partial ping pong.

Hostel Kosmonaut
Whilst chatting with M, Ste and R(1) one night the owner of another hostel in L’viv came and joined our table. He was an Australian who ran Hostel Kosmonaut. He had a bit of a rant about the treatment of the workers at the hostel that we were staying at. He had a massive go at us when we let slip that we came because it was cheap to come here – “you come here because it is cheap? … you dont even know man …” He also got angry when I asked the difference between two pronunciations of the currency, I said that I noticed more Russian and older people said Gryvnia, while younger and more English speakers said Hryvnia. He responded by yelling that I shouldn’t even think about saying Gryvnia and “these people have been oppressed for a thousand years … and you say Gryvnia?!” Obviously there was some deeper meaning, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of actually answering my question. His passionate, close-minded anger was not restricted to just talking about Ukrainians he even got angry when i mentioned that I was heading back to the hostel to use the toilet – he angrily directed me to nearby toilet facilities (“don’t pee in the hostel man! Just go over there!”). On the bright side, he turned absolutely timid and sneaked away when a few young Ukrainian chaps showed up to join the chat.

Location: 3/5, not as near centre, but closer to a tram line.

Price: 3/5 more expensive than our hostel.

Staff: n/a they work 8 hours a day and are probably lovely.

Owner: 1/5 angry man.

Beds: n/a

Quality/Cleanliness: n/a never saw it.

Amenities: n/a.

Overnight train to Kiev


It was easy enough to get to our overnight train to Kiev. Just a little walk to a tram stop, then a 1 hiryvna ticket on the number 2 to the station. Last stop. Wonderful station, beautiful at night, and possibly the nicest waiting area in the world. Men’s toilets are free, women’s are 1 hiryvna.

The train was new and pretty much the nicest train ever. Second class, two compartments with four beds each. Everything we needed was in there. Sheets, blankets, pillows, towels, mattress covers, secure storage under the bottom beds and storage over the corridor for the top beds. A light to indicate which toilets were occupied and personal lights over each bed, as well as dim settings on the main lights and a volume control for the radio. There was a bit of a problem of no A/C for a while, though it cycled on a times during the night. It wasn’t too hot on the top bunk, but we certainly didn’t need the wool blankets we were provided with. It was quite a noisy night, and the train rocks a lot as it is fairly fast on poor tracks. This oddly didn’t provide any barrier to me getting to sleep easily and having a long sleep all night. It was a bit of a short trip (about 8 hours), so I didn’t really have enough time for a full nights sleep. All in all though, it was wonderful.

Location: 5/5 Its a train! L’viv AND Kiev!

Price: 4/5 good value at 164.05 hiryvna, transportation and accommodation.

Staff: 4/5 they offer tea and coffee in the morning.

Owner: 3/5 Ukranian state trains, seems fine.

Beds: 4/5 nice bed, mattress cover, and you wake up in a different city!

Quality/Cleanliness: 5/5 perfect, new!

Amenities: 4/5 hot drinks and a light in the compartment to tell you which toilet is free!

Kiev Lodging Hostel
We arrived in Kiev and got a taxi to drop us off at the hostel. We were taken exactly to the address and found the number. We could not find any sign indicating that there was a hostel. We looked up and down the street thinking that maybe were were dropped off at the wrong place, no luck. Plenty of restaurants and a couple of travel agencies, no hostel sign. It has been my experience that hostels do not always advertise their presence more than a small sign, but there was nothing to be seen, not even on the names by door bells. Finally, with the help of a man in a five star hotel down the road, we were able to find the door code and details of how to get in. We went through an anonymous door and up some stairs, to find a tiny piece of paper that said only “Backpackers” next to a door, so we rang the bell.

Shoes are not allowed past the entrance corridor, as the hostel is kept very very clean. Possibly clean to an obsessive point, but this should not be a problem for the short term visitor. There are showers and bathrooms near the entrance, and you may be able to get away with shoes in there. There are a couple of large dorms, and a staff closet to stash bags before checking in and after checking out. The staff are fine people to get along, but do not make the effort to talk to you. This is in contrast to many other hostels with bubbly, extroverted staff who immediately offer help with your stuff, advice and sneaky hints for the city and ask about your travels. Some people may like this more reserved breed of staff; but I find having a good bit of chat with people who know the area is much appreciated on any trip. There is a full kitchen where slices of ham disappear one at a time, but this is to be expected in any hostel really.

The owner of the hostel may offer a free drink around every now and then, but don’t get too excited. After following some of his strongest recommendations we were massively disappointed with the results. A local place to eat (with a large spoon out front) turned out to be a buffet with dismal food which was probably days or weeks old, and microwaved as you watched. The food was some of the lowest quality I have ever eaten, and was not even fully heated. Probably the least safe food I ate on the holiday (less safe than uncooked sausages, moldy bread and that strange beverage from the large metal tank on the side of the road). A market he recommended turned out to be a tourist tat market. A book he had prepared on the city mentioned wells found around the city as excellent places to drink. I had not seen any of these and asked about them, where I might find them. He only said something to the effect that I would not find them, and could not go to them. So I asked if the book was wrong, to which he looked blank. I asked “was it a lie?” that the book said they were everywhere (a more universal word?). He said there were none (for me at least?) and I said off hand that my hopes and dreams of drinking from the wells were smashed. Bad call. He kicked off on me immediately. He got very angry and assumed that I thought myself a university educated “big man” (a term that makes me shudder because of the connotations with warlords) and that he was stupid because he was a hostel owner at the age of 40. I will spare the details, but the idea here is he completely kicked off on me in a fairly unrelated manner. He later told the others in the group that the water would not be any good for us for biological reasons, as we were not used to the organisms in the local water. When I returned moments later to give an apology for any misunderstanding, he responded with a fairly blank look.

On the basis of the poor quality of the hostel owners recommendations, I drank some water from a fountain I found in a cemetery. It pretty much tasted like the tap water, which I read is fine biologically, but may have high levels of lead in it. We visited hidropark later as he had told us that it was disgusting. The water was somewhat clear and cold (sure, Chernobyl drains there, but thats less of an immediate threat than the agricultural waste in the Mississippi River that may have exacerbated a staph infection I once had). Hidropark was lovely, and had free beaches, so was again, the exact opposite of what the owner said.

Back to the accommodation review, the hostel was pristine. The dorm we slept in was fairly nice. It was a bit easy to tip the bunk beds over when climbing to the top, if nobody was weighing down the bottom. The mattresses were fairly poor, and rested on s hard but thin slab of masonite, or something similar. There was air conditioning, which was pretty lovely after a hot day out in kiev. No food allowed in rooms, but drinks are.

Hard to find hostel, but really nice, just keep a low profile around the owner and staff.

Location: 5/5 cant argue with dead central, even if it is hard to find.

Price: 3/5 more expensive than most, but cheapest in kiev.

Staff: 3/5 seemed fine, nothing special.

Owner: 1/5 makes horrible recommendations, thinks everyone is calling him stupid.

Beds: 2/5 completely shot mattresses on top of Masonite.

Quality/Cleanliness: 5/5 pristine.

Amenities: 5/5 ticks all the boxes, +free drinks, big telly and air conditioning.

Overnight PKP train from Kiev to Rzeszow

We exchanged our last hiryvna for dollars and euros and spend our change on food. Our train from Kiev to Rzeszow was our most expensive bit. Around 762 hiryvna, it was a 17 hour train ride which involved an international crossing, two customs inspections and a gauge change. There may be cheaper options, such as only taking the train to Przemysl but changing there before the gauge change. Also, stopping short of the border, taking a different train or a bus across the border may end up much cheaper (after all, it only took us roughly £20 to make it to Kiev). Taking a bus or walking across the border would be much more hassle (it was trouble free on the train) but much much cheaper. Also, it would be possible to take a lower class carriage if not going beyond Przemysl.

The carriage conductor was a lovely man. He escorted us to our compartments and provided us with a washcloth and soap. The compartments had a bottle of water and a sink. Three beds stacked on one wall, the middle one folded down to make the back seat of the bench when not sleeping. When we found a problem with keeping one of our beds stable, the conductor solved the problem – by swapping our compartments. At night when people wanted to have a drink before bed, we just had to ask the conductor, and he directed us to someone on the train who was willing to share their smuggled drinks for a cheap. The train was quite hot. It didn’t take long before all the guys had their shirts off leaning out of the windows as we went along. Thankfully we were able to lower our windows in the compartment, but you have to hold them down for some time to make sure they don’t spring back up. We were able to keep ham cool by dangling it out of the window as we went. The carriage was nearly empty besides us, or at least nobody hung out in the corridor or with their doors open as much as us.

The train was excellent. Being a bit sweaty just added to the ambiance, but it cooled down well as the sun went down. It was a great train. Excellent trip, plus pretty much the nicest sleep all holiday. Surprisingly, even with the window open, I think it was quieter than the other night train… not sure how that happened. It may be the case that our previous train was multiple units, while this one was locomotive driven. That is just pure speculation, though we definitely had a locomotive the second time around.

Location: 5/5 exactly where we wanted to be. Its a train!

Price: 0/5 pretty much the most expensive thing on the trip, next time take a lower class and get off before border crossing.

Staff: 5/5 lovely guys, free tea or coffee, sorts out problems in rooms happily, shares stash of smuggled goods if you ask.

Owner: 4/5 I generally rate PKP trains highly.

Beds: 5/5 quite possibly the best sleep I got all trip.

Quality/Cleanliness: 4/5 tidy, clean compartments, thoughtful interior with everything we needed, plus a few nice surprises.

Amenities: 5/5 had pretty much everything we could (and did) ask for. Ensuite sink, washing kit included.

Captains Log

Arrival. 4 June 2009.

Arrived in Poland. Ryanair flight from Bristol to Rzeszow (pronounced shay-shouf): £10 return, no pesky card fees thanks to M having a visa electron. Eight of us found our way to the hostel in the centre of town at about 22.30. Set our stuff down in the room and headed out to eat. Apparently there was a curfew of 22.00 but the lady at reception indicated that she would give us an hour to go eat. Ste appears to have lost £20 in a kerfuffle over paying for our rooms. We head to a kebab shop across the rynek and get some food. After staying up late talking R(1) finds a massive hold in his sheets, Ste decides to eschew the bedding and curl under his leopard print blanket. Sheets are tiny.

5 June 2009. Day one.

I was very perplexed this morning when my phone alarm went off, only once, at 8.00. This perplexed me as the phone was turned off. Apparently it is meant to do that.

On the way to the station we stopped by a supermarket for some food. Two sausages, bread, yogurt and water came to about 7zl. The lady selling the tickets was lovely, working out the best price for us, a single for 14zl, and the next three for 10zl each. Better price than we expected. It was a slow stopping train to Przemysl (pronounced pshi-mish) which meant that there were loads of tiny stops in the middle of the countryside where maybe one or two people would get on or off. The conductor didn’t wait around though, giving as little as 8 seconds from stop to go. The countryside was generally unruly and unpopulated. There were long strips of farmland instead of more regularly shaped fields. Small patches of land near the tracks and stations were converted to allotments. There looked to be a rather large market in Przemysl when we arrived. Didn’t go there, tried to find some lunch. I stuck with bread and some surprisingly nice peaches from a little vegetable stand near the bus station.

We bought bus tickets to L’viv, Ukraine, and waited in the station. We saw our bus pull in, and almost immediately people started loading it down with goods. Some cars and vans pulled up to the bus and carried things in out of view. This was all very suspicious, not made any less so by the amount of American Dollars exchanging hands. By the time we got into the bus, there were boxes of strawberries filling half of the seats that we had to move out of the way. The rear of the bus was stacked high with spools of nylon string. There were bags of walnuts under seats and mysterious boxes in a secret compartment behind the front bumper.

I sat down next to J in the back and soon got to chatting to a Polish lad about our age whose name may have been Bartlett. He and his friends were traveling to Ukraine as it was cheap. He advised against taking the Ukrainian mini-buses (which apparently are dirt cheap and go just about everywhere). We should stick to the main coaches and trains. Walking across the border is possible, but sometimes gets busy and you may end up standing in a crowd in the rain for hours before being let across. Our border crossing did not go quickly though. At the first stop, before the Polish passport control, we were stuck waiting at the border while lots of money changed hands at the front of the bus. After about half an hour, we made it to passport control to leave Poland. Didn’t take too long and we crept towards the Ukrainian control. This took much longer. Passports were collected, and we were given travel documents to fill out and keep with on us throughout our travels. The older Ukrainian ladies next to us advised we write down that we were visiting for tourism, but laughed when I asked if ‘revenge’ or ‘espionage’ would be acceptable.

That turned out to be the quick and easy part of the journey. M had a closer inspection because his passport photo didn’t look like him. Border guards lead out bus to a garage where they started pulling out and inspecting items from the bus, discovering the illicit packages of meat hidden in the front. They pulled the smuggled goods out and took loads of pictures before making us wait for quite some time, inches from the road to freedom. It was maybe over three hours for the whole ordeal. This didn’t set good precedent because apparently it is more common to be held up for a long time when trying to get back into the EU, when cigarette smuggling is rampant. This is when we decided that we would have to take a train the entire way back.

Once we were finally released (in a bizarre rush back to the bus) we sped across the border. Finally in Ukraine, I looked out to find simple suburb-spaced houses with front yards converted into miniature farms. No wasted space. Every now and then a shrine, a cross, or a statue of the Virgin Mary would appear on the side of the road, evidence of a strong Orthodox church.

Once in L’viv train station, we emptied a few of the cash machines of all their hryvnia (which has been massively devalued in the recent economic excitement). Bartlett recommended we get a 40 hryvnia taxi to the hostel and went off with his group. We quickly left to go to “Fat House” (translated) before it closed. This was a chain buffet restaurant which is cheap, filling and Ukrainian. On the way back to the hostel, we found a questionable cafe which had coffee, food and a broad selection of drinks. Ste and I ended up talking to an old Russian man who claimed to have fought in Afganistan – somehow, Ste ended up giving the man some money to buy some chicken from the cafe and never got his change back.

6 June. First full day in L’viv.

J and I got up around 9 and headed to the cafe for a questionable coffee. Went back to the hostel to find everyone getting ready to go out for the day. Went to Double Coffee, a posh sit down coffee and food chain which was actually more expensive than eating in Britain! After breakfast, we checked the time of the England v. Kazakhstan match and looked up trains to Kiev. Walking around J, S, Big L, R(2) and I found a book market, where I bought a cheap pin to put on my camera strap. We found an art and junk market later which was an excellent find. Most stalls were set up with artwork and textiles, but some were just tables laden with old stuff. Silverware, cameras, cutthroat razors and cigarette cases in abundance. I bought a necklace and looked at a number of cameras (“good soviet quality!”). There was a wicked large format camera with a fogged glass viewer, broken shutter cable, for only 200 hryvnia. I also saw a number of old leather suitcases. These are some of the things that i somewhat regret not buying.

Got some pizza for lunch. Went back to Fat House for dinner. Tried in vain to find a place to watch the England Kazakhstan match.

7 June.

Nice and Sunny day. Bought sausage, yogurt and two litres of multivitamin juice for breakfast. We all went walking together, up a large forested hill, didn’t find anything interesting except a man who had apparently fallen asleep there the night before lying on a log. Lay around in a park near the university for some time. Lunch was a bit of a mix up when the waitress didn’t remember who ordered what, and didn’t know any english. As we didn’t know what exactly we had ordered (things with english translations like “Combined Team of Meat”) it was difficult for us to sort out what was whose.

It poured down rain all afternoon so we stayed in the hostel playing Ping-Pong. We headed to the train station around 9 to catch our overnight to Kiev. Guy in station saw my camera and wanted his picture taken.

8 June. Arrival in Kiev.
Our train got in at about 7.40. Pulled in next to the Kiev-Vladivostock train, one of the longest scheduled trains in the world. We immediately went to book our tickets back to Rzeszow. We were given two options, not cheap. 761 hyrvnia for one train the whole way. We didn’t really discuss our options and just went ahead and bought the tickets.

R(2) noted that people were very trusting in Kiev. He said, about the taxi driver “There were 8 of us, we could have taken his car.” But… he was a taxi driver. This was delirious early morning talking. At any rate, it took us a while to find the hostel, having not written down the door code and there being no signs on the door. Finally found it and dropped our stuff off. It was a bank holiday of sorts so the main street near Independence Square was blocked off to traffic. Grabbed a Mr. Snack (translated) for breakfast before exploring further.

J pointed us to a food market that was excellent. One large covered market with tables piled high with vegetables, spices, sweets, nuts, fruit, raw meat, fish, and sausages. The sellers would vie loudly for your attention, and money. The ladies selling cooked meats would offer random samples from their tables to entice a sale. I ended up getting a chunk of ham and some bread.

We regrouped at the hostel and planned a short sightseeing tour. M and I attracted some local who kept yelling excitedly about something in Ukranian, the only things we could make out was “fascist” and “hitler kaput.” Moved on to Dynamo Kiev stadium, which we could not get in. This is where Soviet POWs who had formerly been Dynamo Kiev players regularly thrashed Nazi military teams.

9 June.

We started out with some more sightseeing, going back to the St. Sophia national preserve, which we visited the day before. We went in today, 2 hryvnia to get in, 3 more to climb the bell tower. This was well worth it for the view, it was much higher than it looked from the outside. We walked down a street towards St. Andrews cathedral where there was a market recommended by the hostel owner. Turned out to be tourist tat. Not quality junk. Shame. Went to Chernobyl Museum and Botanical Gardens. Had a disgusting dinner at a place recommended by the hostel owner. Looked up some markets to visit the next day.

10 June.

Struck out early to go to some markets. Traveled far and wide in Kiev, but only found food markets and new goods markets. Nothing really good and classic like L’viv. Headed to Hidropark to meet up with the others. Walked around on the beaches of the Dnipro river until they spotted me, as i didn’t have enough credit to text to meet them. The beaches were packed with people. It was a nice sunny day, and the water was freezing cold. Swam around a bit and let the current move me slowly down the beach before swimming back in. Headed back to the hostel, grabbed some dinner and headed to the station.

We had to change money out of hryvnia before leaving. With no pounds available, I got 50 dollars for my 350 hryvnia. Purchased some last minute food and drink for the upcoming 17 hour train journey and climbed aboard. It was an immensely sweaty train and it didn’t take long for the boys to strip down to trousers only.

11 June. Final day.

Morning was passport control in the Ukrainian station at Mostiska. The carriage conductor came by and offered tea and coffee. We picked up some Polish passport inspectors and customs agents in the middle of nowhere on the way to Przemysl where we would change gauge. My previous post has the details on that change.

Finally we arrived in Rzeszow. We left our bags at the station and walked out. It was oddly quiet as we walked back to the main square. We found the tourist information centre was closed, and learned it was a public holiday. There were restaurants open, but not much else. People were out drinking and having ice cream in the beautiful weather. We had a good walk around, discovering that Rzeszow is actually really nice! There were lovely buildings and interesting places all over. We ended up settling down for a meal around 14:00 and staying there for quite some time. We headed to the main square for a sit down just before massive rain clouds moved in. A downpour ensued and we were forced into a heavy metal bar where we waited out the weather before returning to the station in time to catch a bus to the airport.

Changing Gauge

I’m going to kick this off with a video I have compiled of the train changing gauge from Ukrainian wide gauge to Polish standard gauge. This is also my first experiment with Vimeo, a high quality video sharing site. So let me know how the quality of the video looks on this host.

The gauge change took a couple of hours total, and we were in the train the whole time. The first couple of seconds show us going by the machines which do the lifting, and you can see that the track in the middle is actually two tracks, the outer being wide gauge, with standard gauge in the middle. So in our case, the train rolled in on the wide gauge, the bogies were unbolted from the carriage, these machines lifted the carriage straight up, new, standard gauge bogies were slid in, pushing the others out of the way, and we were set back down, ready to roll. I think they just replace the locomotives with the proper one.

So, without further ado, the video:

Oh, beware watching Vimeo videos on non-Intel macs, apparently it will always be choppy sound and video. Not sure why.

More to come on the post exam trip. Captains log is being typed up now. Travel info for Kiev and people to avoid in L’viv, as well as a review of several accommodations along the way. Stay tuned!

Paris: i need it three times a day

Eurostar needed me.
The only line from London to Paris has been changed. Upgrades on the English side of the deal will raise the speed to 186mph the whole way. St. Pancras station will host the start of the event. Newly remodeled (or, still under a lot of work) the platforms doubled in length.

We were issued three tickets to go to paris that day. Mine and Marcus’s were all first class. While we didnt make it very far out of the station each time, it was still good fun to board the train and stretch out in first class. On the first trip we found that the Chief Executive of Eurostar was right behind our coach, and came in to speak with us after he made an announcement.

We were plied with plenty of tea and refreshments, as well as a packed lunch for our troubles. The train left the station, stopped, waited, and turned around. We checked out the museum dedicated to the development of the line as well as a photo exhibit of the people who worked on it.
After the testing, we had a few hours to kill, so we did one of the few things available in london… nap on the circle line. One and a half loops got us to St. James Park, where we walked past the Met office, with police waiting in vans, on call for the King of Saudia Arabia. The Queen was flying her flag and silver Mercedes with tinted windows were streaming into the palace.
It was a lovely, if long and tiring, day in London. I indulged in a bit of trainspotting and should soon be the proud owner of a return ticket between London and Paris.