Poland trip, part 1

We have a whole lot of photos from our trip. I don't know how well I'll do with posting them, but here's a start. This is just from the travel on the way there!

On March 1, we took a marshrutka (bus-van) to Zaporozhya, to catch our train to Kiev. I think we've finally figured out how to handle these overnight trains. It's still not easy, but it's bearable. Instead of getting all four places in one coupe, we got the four bottom bunks in two neighboring coupes, plus one top. It really only costs a little more, and everyone settled better. The only problem was that I felt sorry for the poor guy who ended up having to join our traveling circus, because he also had a ticket in one of those coupes.

Starting out

The older three

We got into Kiev the next morning and spent all of that day in Kiev. We ended up going to a big mall and killing time there. We left our camera locked up in our suitcase, so I didn't get any photos. It was really impressive and great fun for the children, but a bit too overwhelming (at least for me). That evening we got onto the train to Krakow. We like Polish trains so much better.

Polish train

(Actually, Raia and Asya were on the bottom bed. Raia had just moved up for a few minutes, when I took this photo.) Polish trains, at least those that we've been on, have three bunks on one side, and a sink on the other. There seems to be a lot more space to move around.

Breakfast

He was sitting on top of the closed sink. I think I have a photo very much like this of Asya.... Yes, here it is.

Changing the wheels!

Watching the work at the border

Such excitement!

Burning off energy

"Working" hard

Quiet fun

Enjoying the view

This time we didn't see storks (too early?), but we saw hordes of deer again. Why are there deer in Poland, but there aren't any just across the border in Ukraine? We also loved the beautiful pheasants. Their colors seemed brighter than usual to me.

March 3rd, in the afternoon, we arrived in Krakow. Our friends met our train and drove us to the apartment we had reserved. It was such a blessing to see their familiar faces and have their help! Bogdan was absolutely at the end of his rope, and the rest of us were tired, but we slept really well that night.

To be continued...