Winter break is coming up pretty soon, and I finally firmed up my travel plans for my vacation. I'm going with another teacher to Ukraine from December 23rd to December 30th. We'll head from Vladimir to Moscow on the 23rd, spend the afternoon in Moscow, and then board a train to Kiev at 4:46pm. We'll arrive in Kiev bright and early (4:18am), and spend Christmas Eve day there. Then we'll get on a train that evening at 10:20pm and go to Lviv, which is a city in western Ukraine. I can definitely say that I never expected that I would spend a Christmas Eve on a Ukrainian train, but life is funny like that.
We'll arrive in Lviv at 6:30am on Christmas (no presents waiting for us there). We'll spend the 25th and 26th in Lviv and then go back to Kiev late at night on the 26th. We'll spend the 27th in Kiev and then board a train at 10:05 that evening and go to Odessa. We'll arrive in Odessa at 7am and spend the whole day on the 28th and the morning of the 29th there. Then, we'll hop on a train in Odessa at 2:08pm and head back to Moscow. This last train ride will be quite long--23 hours--and we'll arrive in Moscow at 3:15pm on the 30th. Then we'll get on the express train back to Vladimir and be back in our quiet little city before midnight.
We originally planned to get back to Moscow a day earlier, and we didn't plan to go to Odessa, but the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) decided that we needed to spend another day traveling. The law says that all foreigners need to get registered with the FMS within seven days of arriving in Russia. The 29th is the last working day before the long winter holidays (the whole country is on holiday until January 6th or 7th), but we would arrive in Vladimir too late to get in line at the FMS office and get our registration completed. In short, it is mandatory to get registered on the 29th, but it is impossible to do so. So, to get around the bureaucratic mess, we decided to extend our trip by one day so that we will arrive on the 30th--a holiday--and we won't have to get registered until after the winter holidays. That extra day seemed like a perfect time to go see Odessa, which is supposed to be like a country within itself: They have a diverse culture and their own very distinct accent (some people would call it their own language).
I'm excited for this trip! We'll really get to see a lot of Ukraine in the span of just couple days. Although I have been told that Ukrainian trains are not pleasant to travel on, and my tickets for all the train travel in Ukraine cost less than $60. So we'll see how that turns out....
We'll arrive in Lviv at 6:30am on Christmas (no presents waiting for us there). We'll spend the 25th and 26th in Lviv and then go back to Kiev late at night on the 26th. We'll spend the 27th in Kiev and then board a train at 10:05 that evening and go to Odessa. We'll arrive in Odessa at 7am and spend the whole day on the 28th and the morning of the 29th there. Then, we'll hop on a train in Odessa at 2:08pm and head back to Moscow. This last train ride will be quite long--23 hours--and we'll arrive in Moscow at 3:15pm on the 30th. Then we'll get on the express train back to Vladimir and be back in our quiet little city before midnight.
We originally planned to get back to Moscow a day earlier, and we didn't plan to go to Odessa, but the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS) decided that we needed to spend another day traveling. The law says that all foreigners need to get registered with the FMS within seven days of arriving in Russia. The 29th is the last working day before the long winter holidays (the whole country is on holiday until January 6th or 7th), but we would arrive in Vladimir too late to get in line at the FMS office and get our registration completed. In short, it is mandatory to get registered on the 29th, but it is impossible to do so. So, to get around the bureaucratic mess, we decided to extend our trip by one day so that we will arrive on the 30th--a holiday--and we won't have to get registered until after the winter holidays. That extra day seemed like a perfect time to go see Odessa, which is supposed to be like a country within itself: They have a diverse culture and their own very distinct accent (some people would call it their own language).
I'm excited for this trip! We'll really get to see a lot of Ukraine in the span of just couple days. Although I have been told that Ukrainian trains are not pleasant to travel on, and my tickets for all the train travel in Ukraine cost less than $60. So we'll see how that turns out....
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