In a comment below, Elya writes that it's only 12 hours from Cologne to Uzhhorod by train!!!...

The reason it got me so agitated is because Uzhhorod's one of my favorite places in Ukraine - but it's 19 hours or something from Kyiv... Moreover, I had my worst train experience on my way there back in 1999 - train #237, car #8, I still remember that!.. - cockroaches... It's been six years so, though, and maybe they've killed them all by now... I wrote about the experience in Evil Trains - here...

Anyway, Uzhhorod is a wonderful town, we used to go there a lot in the Soviet times, for kids' tennis tournaments, mainly in winter, so when I got there at the beginning of May 1999, I was pleasantly shocked to discover that Uzhhorod was as breathtaking as Kyiv then: that's the time when sakuras are in bloom there...

We were staying at a really cozy, tiny hotel near the Market, called Atlant or something. I wonder if it's still there.

And Uzhhorod has one of the most charmingly named little streets I've ever seen, somewhere uphill from the Market: vulytsya Dayboz'ka - translated roughly as God-Willing Street, or Inshaallah Street!

***

Elya and everyone - thank you so much for your comments and warm wishes - and all the very best to you, too!