Post Project Travels Part 2 - Kiev, Lviv and Budapest

We arrived in Kiev after what seemed like a very brief journey and found our hostel easily. It was pretty basic, but did us for the 2 nights we were there. Whilst we were in Kiev it was Ukranian Independence Day where we spent most of the day at a free open air concert which had more Ukranian trashy pop and traditional singing than you can shake a stick at!! People everywhere were shouting 'Slava Ukrainia' and everyone was generally having a party on the main road which had been turned into a walking plaza. The day ended with a spectacular firework display.

Also, whilst in the city we visited the Chenobyl museum which was very insightful even if it was filled with scary dummies wearing gas suits! We also went into some caves beneath a monastory in which there were glass lidded coffins containing mummified monks.

Besides this, we ate lots of tasty food - and continued to enjoy our new found love of pancakes!!

After a brief stint in Kiev, we headed on our 7th overnight train to Lviv, another city in Western Ukraine. Our hostel, Kosmonaut was wicked and our stay in the city was very relaxed and chilled. Amongst other things, we climbed to the top of the castle where we could see over the city, saw the opera house (the main attraction of the city!) and wandered the old part of the town through the narrow streets. Again there were plenty of pancakes to fill our stomachs!!

Feeling very refreshed, we headed to Budapest. 15 hours later, 2 passport and customs checks from the comfort of our train beds later, we arrived in the city. During the journey the carriages of the train were lifted with all the passengers on board and the wheels were changed as Russian/Ukrainian tracks are a different size to European ones. The train was much more sophisticated than we were used to; there were even plastic flowers in each compartment and carpet throughout!

We are coming towards the end of our travels :( (we return to blighty on Saturday), but we are currently having a brilliant time in Budapest. We have been caving under the city, chilling out at the thermal baths, visited the house of terror (Quite possibly the best museum ever!), went to the zoo where Emma fed an elephant and camels!, visited Margaret Island and ate some traditional Hungarian deep fried food, walked throught the streets of Buda, souvenier shopped and of course - ate lots of nice food; including pancakes - which no travels should be complete without!!

We are leaving for Croatia tomorrow for a very brief visit before we return to the motherland. Thats all for now. x x x x

---

---