Travels and Traveling in Urkaine

Over the holidays, we traveled to Kiev to take my parents to the airport. We stayed a few days in Kiev with them, as well, to show them the city. My boys are AWESOME travelers. We’ve traveled by train a lot around Ukraine, so they are used to the routine. There are two, daily express trains to Kiev from Kharkov (and vice versa): the morning express goes from 6:30am-12:30pm, and the evening express is from 4:30pm-10:30pm.

I love traveling by train! When the boys and I traveled to see Dougle while he was in Kiev, we discovered First Class. In First Class, you have the option to travel in a semi-private compartment with 3 seats or with 6 seats. The door is a glass door, that leads to a long hall that travels the length of the train. Bathrooms are on one end, though I hate using the train bathrooms. Most of the time, they are VERY gross! But, you can often see the train tracks from the drain in the bathroom floor. In Second Class, it is like air travel. There are just rows of about 30 seats per car. With children, it is wonderful to have a compartment to yourselves, so they can be a little louder and won’t bother everyone and where there is a little extra leg room (for Canaan to walk around) and a small table. If we travel overnight or on a long journey (usually over 12 hours in length), you can travel in several classes. One is in a community car with many bunk beds. Another way is in a compartment with two bunk beds (4 beds). We have always traveled in the compartment. I am including a picture of it, as well, for you to see the various train cars we travel.