Ukraine 2010 trip report - To Krivoy Rog

Beautiful hills and menacing sky

Ten days had passed in the rainy Carpathians and it was time to move on. We of course could have taken a minibus to Ivano-Frankivsk but as we don't really fancy them, we decided to walk to the nearest railway station and take a train straight to Lviv instead. The small town of Vorokhta is the main starting point of climbs to Hoverla and that's where we were headed. It was a 6-kilometer walk but the weather was nice and my backpack didn't feel so heavy. Inna didn't appreciate the weight of her backpack though.

A happy painting

We bought some juice and fruits from the small shops on the way and enjoyed the nice hilly sceneries around. As we got closer to Vorokhta we saw a nice painting on a wall of an ugly building and some scary ski jumping ramps. Not that I would ever try ski jumping anyway but the ramps in Vorokhta looked like they could be from the '60s.

Funnily it was already our third time in Vorokhta, and every time we have been waiting for the same train in the middle of the night. The train leaves at about 2 am and there isn't much to see or do in Vorokhta. After eating in a small restaurant we just tried to kill time at the railway station by talking, playing some games and sleeping. The train was even late a bit, which is not as common in Ukraine as one might think.

Once we got to the train we realized that some locals were having a small but noisy party in carriage, right next to our beds. It was most annoying and I wasn't able to fall asleep before Ivano-Frankivsk, where they finally got out. The next time I woke up in Lviv, where we ate a bit before getting on the train to Krivoy Rog. The trip lasts almost twenty hours - plenty of time to rest!

We arrived at Krivoy Rog the next day in the morning and Inna's parents were waiting for us at the railway station. A quick drive with Inna's father's Lada and we were relaxing in Inna's room. It was time to take a shower, wash clothes and make everything wet dry.

Scary ramps

The traffic in Ukraine can be confusing sometimes.

Abandoned soviet-era factories in Krivoy Rog