One extreme to the other

Maybe I was just used to riding second class in a TGV train through Western Europe. The high speed trains in and out of France are awesome, really fast, clean, and almost futuristic. 2nd class trains to Ukraine are not quite like this. My sleeper couch looked like something out of a Soviet train museum, and I laughed at the situation more than I was disappointed about where I had to be for the next 24 hours.

I really wish you could have walked through it with me and seen first-hand what it looked like. It kind of looked like furniture you’d find in a friends dingy basement, and the smell was about the same too. No one speaks English, not even the conductor; I must be the only person not from Germany or Ukraine on this train. I have had a lot of things said to me, but no idea what, and a lot of people yelling and pointing at things for me.

I’m packed in a 3-sleeper room with two members of a big family who also have the rooms on either side of this one. They don’t know English at all, and I have not yet mastered Ukrainian. The only thing the conductor can say to me as he walks by is yelling Manchester United! hahaha

Again, I find it more hilarious that I want to complain about it, but it is soooo hot on this train. Berlin was only about 15° C, so I just don’t understand why it’s so hot. Most people are walking around, stripped down to their underwear, and I’m so sweaty. People are also allowed to smoke at the end of the car, not outside, but in the little walkway between cars, so it smells like smoke a lot too.

Ok, and now we’ll see if I arrive in Kiev on the highly precise Eastern European train schedule time of 16:48.