Dnipro Main Station#

Good morning everypony from sunny Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth largest city! Today, we begin our journey to Europe’s biggest pony convention, GalaCon, in Waiblingen, which is near Stuttgart, Germany. It is going to be a long exciting trip, and we’re bringing you along!

Our journey begins at Dnipro Holovnyi, one of the three train stations in the city and the only one used by long distance trains. The train station on this site existed since 1884, then named Ekaterinoslav, after the city name at the time.

During World War II, the station was completely destroyed, with the new station building construction finishing in 1951. The station building and the square near it was last refurbished in 2003, though the look was largely preserved.

Dnipro-Holovnyi is, like most train stations in Ukraine, a through station, which used to be an important interchange between the lines heading East of the country with the ones heading South and North.

Nowadays though, with most of the East and South connections not served because of the destinations being occupied and being in the middle of a warzone, the station largely serves as a terminus, with all long distance services terminating either here or a station down in Zaporizhzhia.

The station has ten tracks available for passenger service across five platforms, last two confusingly named 9 and 11, though the latter ones are mostly used by commuter trains. Level boarding is available from Track 1, if the train you’re taking is departing from it.

The station is much quieter than it’s used to in peaceful times, although it still has services to most important destinations, such as our capital in Kyiv, Odesa, and in the West of the country to Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Uzhhorod, among others.

There are also two international services to both Przemysl and Chelm on the Polish border, both of which are running daily.

It all feels great and all, except… we wouldn’t be travelling from Dnipro Holovnyi today. But, to find out why- let’s roll the clock back a little

Two weeks before GalaCon 2026#

Unfortunately, due to the Russian air strikes, the Ukrainian Railways has become very unreliable in terms of travel times, which, of course, is understandable. Safety first! But, when trying to make a connection like this- it’s far from ideal.

That, and the Ukrainian Railways’ transition from the summer peak to off-peak schedule, which meant that the tickets for my dates weren’t available for purchase when they usually were, has led me to do some digging for alternative options of travel. And, actually, I’ve found what seemed like a perfect one.

KLR Bus is a relatively new Ukrainian bus operator, founded in 1996, beginning their international services in 2012, and growing to connect Ukraine to more than 15 European countries ever since, with their services to Germany launched back in 2022. Seeing that they’ve operated the bus route to Stuttgart with the only change being at their bus terminal in Khmelnytskyi, I decided to book, especially with how I couldn’t find almost any other alternatives at the time.

The booking process was quick and easy in their app, even though I had to pay a lot more than I would’ve if I would’ve decided to travel by bus in the first place and booked my tickets early.

Then, a few days before the trip, a call from one of the KLR Bus managers followed, advising me about the border crossing requirements, and offering to buy travel insurance for the trip. I planned to rely on the insurance that I thought I had with my credit card back then, so I declined.

Then, in a few days, it turned out that my vacation plans will have to be changed, because I was worried too much and I didn’t tell my boss in time. I was even worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it to GalaCon this year.

Fortunately, everything came together greatly, and I was even able to spend an extra day after the convention in Stuttgart itself, and oh my, was it worth it. But let’s get to things as we go.

Day of Departure#

After packing up everything, having a little rest after the last workday before GalaCon, I’ve headed to the Dnipro Central Bus Station, which is about 5-10 minute walk away from the Dnipro railway station.

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Moon visible amongst the clouds on the departure evening - a good sign, right?

Dnipro Main Bus Station in the distance

The bus station surroundings, feels eerily quiet at this hour

The bus platforms are still busy though

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Photos by Cosmic System

The bus station was built during the Communist era and still keeps its utilitarian and Soviet vibe, being very run down and crowded during the day, as people queue up to get their tickets downstairs. Overall, it’s not the most pleasant place to be in, but it does its job. There’s even supposed to be a hotel somewhere upstairs, but I don’t know if it is still operating, as I’ve never been there and never had the need to.

Departing the Dnipro Main Bus Station#

I’ve arrived at the bus station around 11pm which was supposed to be early enough, right? After trying to figure out which platform the bus will be departing from (10 hryvnias or 25c for the brief consultation from the information desk feels like robbery honestly), it turned out that the bus has already arrived while I was trying to figure out where it’ll be departing from.

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Our bus has arrived!..

...but it seems that it's the wrong bus?

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Except… it seemed like the wrong bus has arrived. Hannover, Hamburg and Bonn are in a complete opposite direction from Stuttgart, right? Well, at least the bus license plate is correct, so that’s reassuring-

Taking us to Khmelnytskyi will be BX 1135 HC, a Van Hool TD927 Astromega that was bought by KLR in 2022. It is a double-decker bus that, apparently, was very much full tonight. Taking us to Khmelnytskyi will be BX 1135 HC, a Van Hool TD927 Astromega that was bought by KLR in 2022. It is a double-decker bus that, apparently, was very much full tonight.

After what felt like an eternity in the queue, we finally got to the driver, who, turns out, only needed our passport for check-in. I suppose it both reduces the need for passengers printing tickets, since not everyone has a KLR app, as these tickets can also be booked with third-parties, but also ensures that everyone boarding has the right documents for crossing the border, since almost universally all passengers that are boarding this bus, will be travelling abroad. Boarding was chaotic, as, while there was some queueing, the queue finally ended up being more about “who can get to the driver first”, as there was no real line like you’d expect. Not that I cared, as the seating was distributed by the driver, as this was a free-for-all without any seat reservations, as they don’t appear to do those in buses that go across Ukraine.

After the check-in with the driver at the front door, you have to go to the other driver at the baggage door at the back of the bus, tell them where you’re going so they can sort the baggage in the baggage compartment, and receive your baggage tag, after which you’re free to enter the bus and find your seat.

Late departure#

At ten minutes past midnight on the 3rd of September 2026, we departed the Dnipro Central Bus Station, twenty minutes behind schedule, in an aisle seat An announcement followed, instructing us on where we were going, asking us to only use the toilet to get your number one done and not to throw anything into it, otherwise it’ll be shut off for everyone for the entire journey, followed by an announcement that Kryvyi Rih is next in about 1.5 hours.

Late-night trip across Central Ukraine#

Kryvyi Rih is the longest city in Europe, stretching roughly 126km from North to South, and is a birthplace to our current president, Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Too bad that we haven’t really had an opportunity to see the city, as we passed through it right when it was pitch black outside.

The stop here was largely uneventful, although i’ve asked the driver if the reclining mechanism on my seat was broken or not, since it didn’t stay in the reclined properly on the way to Kryvyi Rih and, sure enough, it was broken. Fortunately, the driver was nice enough to change my seating allocation to the table seat on the first floor.

Snaking up towards the Central Ukraine, Uman was next, with me waking up from a presumed nap around this time.

Sleeping here was actually alright, although I couldn’t really fall asleep all that much, only napping for a bit, before turning and trying to nap again. It surely wasn’t as comfortable as sleeping on the train would’ve been, but it did the job.

The seat itself was comfortable, even though I thought it was on the stiffer side at first. The legroom was great even in the airline-style section, and the perceived stiffness of the seat didn’t actually lead to me feeling any discomfort throughout the journey. I even tried laying down on the seats, as I didn’t have a seat mate at the table seats (and which, as it turned out after the trip, I technically wasn’t allowed to do), almost to no avail. The seats on this bus had individual reading lights and adjustable air vents, as well as USB power sockets, but the plug sockets were nowhere to be found. A small tray table was provided in the airline style section too, although not big enough for anything meaningful.

Waking up in a familiar setting#

Uman was a city I actually visited years ago, on a class field trip to Kyiv, here and back, so turns out I remember that botanical garden that we were passing by rather well. I even remembered the little cafe we had lunch that day, even if it was years and years ago, possibly even before COVID. Life is weird, huh?

The journey throughout the central Ukraine was pretty much uneventful, with us arriving at the Khmelnytskyi KLR Bus terminal around 13:00, so with about an hour in the terminal itself to take a breather, have some lunch and prepare for your next bus.

The KLR Khmelnytskyi Bus Terminal#

When we were approaching the terminal, the drivers were making the announcements on which buses go to which cities next, which was extra helpful, even though you could probably find it out either through word of mouth, at the terminal itself, or by contacting support, if you’ve missed it (although I don’t know how you would, since they said it twice).

After a quick check-in with the driver of our new bus, which was way quicker than in Dnipro, possibly because I was one of the first ones to arrive there, as I decided to check in there first and pick up my luggage afterwards, I’ve left my luggage in the luggage compartment of the new bus, found my seat at the front of the bus, left most of my stuff there besides the documents, and then it was time to enter the terminal building itself.

The terminal building was certainly a huge change from the gray and dull Dnipro Central Bus Station. It was bright, modern, spacious, with the walls being almost all universally glass, which made overlooking both the city and the buses arriving a pleasure.

Inside the terminal building there was a small waiting area although probably the biggest part of it was definitely the bistro, the menu for which can be looked up online and in the KLR Bus app before arrival. There was also a self-service ticket machine, a mini-market together with the little KLR merch store, and an information desk, although most passengers here were connecting, so I didn’t see anyone using it while I was there.

I’ve decided to go a little easy this time, leaning towards something I’m more familiar with, as our family has always been on a more easy side when it came to our cuisine, so I picked up some meat cutlets with mashed potatoes on the side and some tea. It was alright, although the cutlets were a tad dry in my opinion. Overall, I’ve enjoyed the lunch though, I think it was worth it, although I was probably even more well-fed as I thought I was, since I probably bought way too many snacks on our way here.

The next bus departure time was approaching in the meantime, so I headed back towards the platform, where our next bus was waiting for us.

Onwards to the border#

The bus taking us over to Poland would be WGM 2556U, a MAN Beulas Jewel that surely felt a bit bigger than our bus to Khmelnytskyi, at least in person at the beginning. A panoramic seat at the beginning was what I went with during booking, and it certainly made the ride way more pleasant than last time at the back. The seats here were similar to what we had in the bus across Ukraine, but with leather coating, and static headrests, which was a nice touch.

Departure from the Khmelnytskyi KLR Bus Terminal was 7 minutes late, at 14:07. A bus-wide announcement then followed, greeting us on board and such, similar to what we had when we departed Dnipro, as well as about the border control procedures, such as which border checkpoint we were heading towards, what to expect there, as well as some of the basic border crossing rules rundown, such as what to bring or what not to bring through, and what could happen if you tried to bring something that isn’t allowed across the border.

The journey through the beautiful countryside of Western Ukraine went smoothly, though we approached Ternopil about half an hour late.

Our stop in Ternopil was an uneventful one, alhough when I went out of the bus to stretch my legs and get some more water to drink on my way to the border, it surely took me by surprise just how much the accent of the people speaking here has changed compared to the bus terminal in Khmelnytskyi, even though it’s been just about an hour and a half of travel between the two cities; while in Khmelnytskyi it felt like everyone spoke kinda similarly to what I’m used to in Central or Eastern Ukraine, here in Ternopil a solid Western-Ukrainian accent was clearly present, similar to what I remember hearing from my trips to Lviv. Listening back to some voice messsages I’ve sent to my friends in Ukraine after departure from here, it almost feels like I’ve unconsciously mimicked it a little bit then. Fun stuff.

Departure from here was 26 minutes late, at 16:26. Next stop was Lviv, with another KLR Bus Terminal in sight just about two and a half hours later, with us catching some traffic jams on the outskirts of the city, as it was close to 6pm when we arrived.

Border checks#

As we approached the border, anxiety started building within my mind, as I was worried that the Ukrainian border guards wouldn’t let me out due to how the martial law used to work for a long time here in Ukraine, although deep down I tried convincing myself that it was alright and we should be fine, same was by my mum when I messaged her.

We ended up posting up near the Krakivets – Korchova border checkpoint second in line, even though I could hear the bus crew scolding some of the passengers over the intercom for getting onto the bus too late in Lviv, as they’ve missed the time they told everyone to get seated at, which meant that other buses could’ve potentially beat us to the border.

The border checks went surprisingly smoothly, even though I was kinda worried about the Ukrainian border guards not letting me through, with the previous border crossing laws being in place for so long that didn’t allow for stallions aged 18 and over to cross.

We’ve disembarked the bus and went through the border checkpoint on hoof, while the bus driver crossed the checkpoint on the empty bus instead, letting us board only after the inspections were complete. The border guard only asked me for my passport and my military e-ID, which I had in the government app.

The polish border then immediately followed, with it being way more chaotic. We were all rushed inside and then instructed to come through the border one-by-one by the border officials who explicitly instructed us to talk to them in Ukrainian while they responded to me in Polish, and instantly turned me down when I tried talking to them in English. I was asked what my final destination was, how long I would be staying there, how much money I had and if I had insurance, after which my index finger was scanned and a photo of me was taken, which followed by putting my bags through the X-ray scanner.

It was way shorter than I thought it would be, and the most of the border crossing was spent- well, waiting. We’ve ended up spending around 4 hours in the border crossing area, from waiting on the Ukrainian side to finally being set free after the Polish one, and it seems like after the Ukrainian border crossing went without a hitch, I wasn’t worried about crossing at all.

It was a bit funny actually about how some passengers ended up travelling with a guinea pig, which caused a little bit of a commotion, as they didn’t disclose it ahead of time, which resulted in a bit of a hustle at both checkpoints, but seems like everyone went through safely.

Witamy w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej!#

After exiting the border checkpoint, Kraków was next, though we only went through the airport, and I was in a half-asleep state, so I don’t remember any of it apart from seeing the airport bus stop lights with the airport building to my right, as I had my eyes half-closed.

Sleeping on this bus was a bit better than the previous, maybe due this bus having headrests, maybe due to me being a bit more tired in general from two days without proper overnight sleep.

Speeding through the Czech Republic#

I woke up somewhere in rural Czech Republic, not too long after we crossed the PL/CZ border, and what came next was a long wait, as we only saw highways for pretty much the entire morning.

We stopped at an OMV gas station on the D1 midway to Prague to have a rest stop, which I got robbed at, paying 348 CZK (about 15€) for a plate of risotto with a chicken leg, which I thought was a robbery at the time, at least compared to the Ukrainian prices I’m used to- but Nyx said that it’s too expensive for a German oo, which kinda confirmed my suspicions. In the end, an overly expensive proper meal was better than having no proper meal at all, so I ended up taking it nontheless.

This was also when the bus drivers offered us either coffee or tea, which was a nice touch.

Prague was next! We crossed the city at a snail’s pace as we approached the Praha hlavní nádraží, and, eventually, the Florenc bus terminal, which we departed about two hours late.

Bundesrepublik Deutschland#

The border check into Germany was- nonexistent, as we were just waved through by the border officer. The rest of the journey was unremarkable, as we departed Ingolstadt three hours late, but after Munich our delay ended up shrinking and shrinking, as we arrived only an hour late at the Stuttgart Flughafen Fernbusbahnhof, at 21.40, with scheduled arrival being at 20.35. Us blowing past Ulm definitely did help as well

Us meeting up with Nyx, who I would be staying at, was also fun, as I just barely found the U-Bahn station, as he arrived. It was certainly a mistake to try to search for one in a place you’ve never been at before ^^

Though the signage could’ve probably been better too

Anyway, now, with some fried Maultaschen for dinner as my first taste of a German cuisine, it’s time to head off to bed, as the first day of GalaCon is coming up tomorrow.

Thoughts on the bus journey so far#

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with my experience on the journey with KLR so far. The crews of both buses were very nice and great to travel with, the second bus even having a female driver on board.

I was a bit misled, since ticket said that tea and coffee will be provided, which I thought meant that it would be available on board at almost any time, while in reality it ended up being provided only during one rest stop, so it was largely almost inconsequential.

The rest stops were plenty and the toilet was working throughout the entire journey, only closing after Munich, since it was full by then.

The support experience was great, even though the chat response times could probably be a bit better.

The mobile app feels modern, although it feels a bit half baked at times, with the tickets being refunded and duplicated by the support staff instead of just the first ticket being altered. Same goes with all the upsells, like seat selection that is bought later through the phone line or the support chat in messengers, it is displayed as a separate ticket, meaning that after everything my tickets menu looked a bit too chaotic with me not understanding which ticket is the main one at times.

The journey information can also only be viewed before departure, with the journey not found error being displayed whenever I tried viewing the journey information during the actual trip, which was solved only by searching for the same bus on a different date. Certainly not ideal, but still manageable in the end.

The seats were comfortable and I didn’t have any problems with my back being sore after 40 hours on board, the legroom was great and overall, I would probably travel with KLR again next year, especially since they have an up to 50% discount for tickets if booked early, resulting in prices as low as 76€ per person one way. The seat selection adds extra, but even with that, it is still way cheaper than travelling by train, where this money will only probably get you to Budapest from where I live.

The GalaCon itself is next and this blog post is getting way too long already, so we’ll probably cover the convention itself and the ride back home next time. Have a magical day everypony!

-Comet