Travel route - eastern europe

hey there!
I have a planned route, just wondering if anyone has recommendations on these cities or a better itinerary.

My starting point and destination are both unchangeable.

And I have 10 days to make this journey.

Warsaw - Lvov
Lvov - Ivano Frankisvk
Ivano - Suceava
Suceava - Iasi
Iasi - Bucharest.

Has anyone done this route? -- 10 days is tight but iv been to warsaw and bucharest before so those places are not in the ten day span, they are just transport hubs for me.

Train travel in Ukraine is looooong! anyone recomend a better route? I do wanna see Ukraine tho.
Or anyone have recommendations on these places?
Thanks!

Hi!

You should go to Ukraine by all means!
I was there in several cities and really liked it!

Try the national food "salo" and "borsh".
The drink is "gorilka", but I didn't really liked it, tastes as vodka

Quoting Svetoch

Hi!

The drink is "gorilka", but I didn't really liked it, tastes as vodka

'Hurilka' is the Ukrainian work for vodka !
I havent done this route from start to finish, but I have done all 6 cities.
It is never my intention to say the wrong thing to the locals about their place of living. In fact its unheard of. But Ivano Frankivsk and Suceava really arent the most exciting places in the world. I.F. has very little to offer anyone. It is a relatively large city of around 1/4million people with the oblast (region) taking it up to around the 1/2million mark. I would recommend not being there at all in the winter unless you have the skin of a rhino with added internal heating. I was there in December and it was around -30c with a much nastier chill factor. Otherwise, tremendous hospitality and very cheap indeed but really not a lot to do. Kiev which I would very much recommend you visit, is a lot further north and east and quite a bit colder than I.F. in the winter months.
Suceava is a city of around 100,000. Again its not very interesting at all. However if you are into monasteries you are spoilt for choice in the closeby region. There are hundreds of them within a short bus ride.
The trains in Ukraine 'and' Romania are slow. I went from Ivano Frankivsk starting off at around 2pm and got to the capital around noon the next day. Oh and the trains are also extremely dirty too.
If you would like me to suggest a different itinery between your start and finish points then I would suggest Warsaw Kiev - Kiev Brasov - Brasov Sinaia - Sinaia Constanta - Constanta Bucharest.
The train trip from Kiev to Brasov will take well over a day, maybe 2 days. However from Brasov to Sinaia is only about an hour.
Iasi, pronounced 'Yash' is a similar city to Suceava but much bigger.. very uninteresting.
Bucharest is one of Eastern Europes largest cities with varying statistics of the population. The people I know there all seem to think that an accurate estimate is around 3 - 3.5million. It is widely accepted as the 6th largest city in the EU.
In the winter its quite cold with temperatures down to around -10c. However in the summer it can quite regularly get up to 44c. Just unbearable. Its extremely dusty in the summer, much like Cairo.
As long as you stick to your start/finish points that you mention I wouldnt say that 10 days was not at all especially tight. Just stick to a line as straight as possible. Then again in Eastern Europe a straight line on a train is about as possible as a straight line on a big dipper !
Edit.. Forgot to mention. Dont be ashamed of yourself if you get to Warsaw and go no further. Its a magnetic place from every corner to the centre. One of the worlds friendliest cities and not the place to be on a Saturday night if you dislike alcohol. Need I say more ?

[ Edit: Edited on 28-Aug-2009, at 14:26 by BedouinLeo ]