Night 3 - Night train to Lviv, Ukraine

Everyone had warned us about the trains in Eastern Europe, about how they were always late and crowded and slow and dirty and not air conditioned, and that even the first class wouldn't be as nice as German second class compartments. (And we did splurge for the first class, as it meant we had our own sleeping cabin, which seemed worth it with a baby, and wasn't all that expensive compared to German trains).

Well were we ever pleasantly surprised! The first night train we were on had really fabulous little cabins, complete with a little sink with running water that was cleverly folded away into a little cupboard. (I really wish we'd taken a picture of that!) The conductors were also dressed more like flight attendants, and came around shortly after we started to offer coffee or tea, the latter of which came with slices of lemon in these really cool glass mugs with pewter handles.

Here's the view from the bottom bunk, where Béla and I were cozily snuggled in together. At first this didn't seem like it was going to work so well, mostly because the bed slanted slightly, and a bit the wrong way (i.e. so that I was worried about rolling out in the night). The bar on which the folding mattress rested was a bit loose, which wasn't at all dangerous, but meant that it leaned a bit outward. It was remedied by shoving Jeremi's sandals between the bed and the bar, and we slept find after that. That's our big backpack wedged up over the door, which will be relevant later.
I sort of wish we'd taken more pictures of our compartment, but we were really ready to get right to sleep. The train went from something like 10:00 to 6:00, which sounds like we were on board for 8 hours, but it was only really 7 hours because there's a time change, and it took us an hour to get Béla to sleep after he'd explored the train compartment fully, and beyond that we were crossing a border in the middle of the night, so we knew we'd have to wake up for that. What I didn't realize is just how long we'd have to be awake for that...

First the conductor came around and knocked on every door so we would wake up and open our doors, and he handed around entry and exit forms that we had to fill out. (Because Béla has his own passport rather than being included in my passport, which isn't very common in Eastern Europe, I filled one out for him as well.) Then we waited a while. Here's Béla waiting for the border guard to come around, passport at the ready. (Yup, his feet were really dirty.)
First came the Polish border guard, who collected all our passports so that we could get exit stamps. We waited a while, and another border guard brought them back. Again, we waited.
Next came a Ukrainian border guard in military fatigues who took away all our passports and the completed forms. He didn't understand why there were three passports but only two people, so we showed him the sleeping baby, and he laughed at his passport photo, and gave us Béla's form back. Then we waited a while longer. Next came a woman from customs, who was going through peoples' bags. Because the big backpack was shoved up over the door she didn't notice it, which saved us having to go through everything. (There was nothing of interest in there anyhow.) Then we waited a while longer. Finally, a different Ukrainian border guard came, this one in a fancier uniform, and gave back the passports with entry stamps inside, and the entry part of our immigration forms removed.

Finally, we could get back to sleep. All in all we were awake for at least two hours at the border, which made the 6:00 am arrival in Lviv seem all the earlier. But for that, you'll have to wait for the next post.