Traveling And Adventures

You are in Moscow on business when your boss tells you he wants you to be in Kiev on Monday. Quick, what do you do? In the U.S., you need to enter in some search engines to find the best travel and flight. The train did not even register as an option. But here, in the former Soviet Union (FSU), the trains are usually the first (and often only) consideration for long-distance travel. Let's take a closer look at both options.
Most major cities in Russia and Ukraine, airports and most major airlines serving them.The country air is a modern and - as expected - relatively inexpensive. Fortunately, even on a purely Russian airlines such as Aeroflot, announcements are made in Russian and English languages. Not less convenient, all the important features of the airport is also in English. The main difference between Western and Russian aircraft peripheral infrastructure. Do not expect Starbucks. Instead, be grateful if there is a cafe at all. Bring your own toilet paper (a rule that actually applies to any mode of transportation throughout the CIS), and parentheses for a barbaric conditions of the bathroom.
Step through the gate and returned to civilization. Currently, passengers on the Russian airline is better fed than their American counterparts who are lucky if they receive a package of pretzels thrown his way. Various airlines Slavic, which serve various Western CIS resemble budget carriers like Southwest: professional, reliable, and no frills. They have a comparable safety record as well. Although you probably most of your long-distance travel in the CIS with the airlines, you should not exclude the journey by train.
Buying a train ticket easily enough, even if you do not speak Russian. In offices, for example the name of your destination, you hand the lady a piece of paper with the dates of travel, written on it. Just make sure you are using the European system: day, month.It's easy, and tickets are inexpensive. You can cross almost the entire space of Ukraine - the largest country in mainland Europe - a whopping ten bucks.
But it will not be in style. Ticket for ten dollars buys you passage through the barracks-style car called the "plaskart. I do not know what the word means, but I can only assume that it is for the Russian" suffering. "Summer or winter, it's always too hot and too crowded. Although the spirit of communal travel style "plaskart" may be attractive - just imagine the exchange of beer and dried fish with a perfect stranger - communal noise and odors quickly take their toll. Journey into a large wagon train of cattle system of Russia's best experienced vicariously.
It was a ticket for ten dollars. For $ 15 or so, you can go first class. Called "Coupe" (pronounced "Koo-PEH '), a private car, four people slept. Your own bed, own luggage. There's even a woman who comes to bring you tea. Some trains even more exclusive version: Written CB it is pronounced "ESS-Veh" and stands for "Super Wagon." seat at one of the two-bed rooms will cost about $ 35. But no matter how comfortable your personal compartment, there is no hiding from the noise of the train itself. My girlfriend finds the constant roar of rest, but as I try to sleep, it seems to be the hammer and anvil day at a metallurgical plant in the neighborhood. My advice: Bring ear plugs.
Nevertheless, the journey by train across the great country it is an amazing experience.Make your way to the diner, sit at a table near the window, and enjoy the amazingly delicious dinner as you watch the countryside roll by. Neither words nor pictures can express the miracle of passing endless fields of sunflowers in southern Ukraine. There is so much yellow around the world?
Depending on the time of year you travel, you ask similar questions of other colors.Imagine, for days, passing nothing but snow-covered fields in Siberia. Do you think someone has painted the windows white. Or go through the woods to the east of the Carpathians at a height of autumn. The trees are lit with red and orange. In the summer you can only see green fields and blue sky. Travel by train through the FSU is a visceral experience, and not simply be dismissed for ease and comfort of air travel.