The Ukrainian Carpathians between transit road and complete seclusion

Get out of the city, into nature - that was the plan. But plans often have a life of their own 😊.

So first of all, take the bus out of Lviv. The bus station is the new hub for Ukrainians fleeing to Germany and the West because Flixbus and Co. can take them faster and more uncomplicatedly across multiple borders than the train. The sight of the huge suitcases, the patient children, and the often extremely chic and tired-looking women always gives me goosebumps.

The first act at the bus station almost went wrong because our bus almost left without us (who relies on the information that platform four is the right one 😊). Luckily, we recognized the right bus just in time and were able to run after it. A barrier, a nice bus driver, and we were still inside, to drive about two hours south into the Carpathians. On the way, we quickly organized the train ticket for the onward journey in a few days (okay, that took longer, ended up in two tickets for the same train because even the super nice ticket office clerk couldn't book the entire route continuously and afterwards, we knew all the places on the Romanian border with a train station).

Arriving in the new nature paradise, the Skole Beskids National Park, we realized that we are still at the beginning of collecting experiences because we had a lovely hostel in a beautiful mountain landscape, but right next to the transit road Kiev-Hungary with really many trucks. Well, experience and who needs sleep at night - we have rest areas on the road that unexpectedly provided us with luxurious catering.

The next day we headed into the mountains, and that's not a matter of course here because there are very few hiking trails, but we made sure that this village (Korostiv) also offers a fantastic hiking route, so we were able to enjoy about 25 km uphill, over the ridge, and back down. The plants, the blueberries, the view - MEGA!!! And we were also lucky with the weather because we almost completely circumvented the heavy rain and only had to unpack the rain cape briefly.

After another day in the valley and with some routine to cross, walk along and endure the transit road, we continued towards the Romanian border with the previously organized tickets on the night train at 3:27 a.m.

There we treated ourselves to a day in the salt bath because, surprisingly, we ended up in a spa town again - this time the Ukrainian Solotvyno. After that, we crossed the Theiss River into Romania on foot...

Kathleen