For those of you out there who are unaware, there are no direct trains or buses between Lviv, Ukraine and Zagreb, Croatia. I'm almost positive this little factoid will be of absolutely no value to anyone, but I wasted several hours of my life to come to this conclusion, so I'm going to throw it out there hope someone finds this useful. From Kiev, I took a rather uneventful train back to Lviv for a few days to relax and figure out how to get to my next destination, Zagreb. I wracked my head on the matter for hours on end, and after countless worthless phone calls I realized it was a hopeless endeavor. The only option for me to get to Croatia was via Budapest, Hungary where I would switch from my train to a bus that would take me the rest of the way to Zagreb.
Before I left the US, people frequently asked me if there was anything that scared me about my trip. To most people, the idea of leaving their entire life behind to backpack around the world is terrifying in and of itself, but they wanted to know what frightened me since I obviously did not share their same concern. I never had a particularly good answer for them, but there was one strange fear that would always come to mind whenever I was posed the question - being lost in a foreign train station
I will admit my decision to visit Kiev was more of a conscious effort to give family and friends grief. After my time in Lviv, I realized there is really nothing to fear about Ukraine and, contrary to what people think back home, everyone I spoke with said Kiev was perfectly safe to visit. With Russia now axed from my travel itinerary, I had a few extra weeks to explore Ukraine and since an overnight train to Kiev was only $12, I figured why not. In all likelihood, this was my only chance to visit Kiev, because I doubt I would ever travel halfway around the world for the sole purpose of visiting Ukraine.
