Well, 3 weeks have already passed since I arrived in the States. At first, I felt a bit strange, then I started to enjoy it, soon there were many disappointments, and now it feels familiar and even comfortable here. And now, a little more detail about all of this. New York Almost a 20-hour flight, and of course, with a 4-hour delay. Well, at least it was 4 hours and not 8, like Vova had! I arrived in the USA feeling as squeezed as a tube of toothpaste. I was met, grabbed by the arms, and dragged off to book tickets for tomorrow to Los Angeles. Next was the trip to the hostel. Subway I didn't really see New York itself, just the path from the airport to our hostel and back. We traveled by subway. It is terrible, pathetic, and I didn't like it at all. The train comes every 5-10 minutes (yes, it's not like ours where it comes every minute, and even then, if it's late, you start getting annoyed, but at least theirs works 24/7), the line map is completely insane, if anyone is interested, here it is) http://metro.donetsk.ua/other/maps/metro47.gif . The main thing to learn is that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the train and the station in the system. If in Moscow you always know where the train will take you at any station, even if you get on it blindly, that approach won't work in New York. Subway lines are marked with different colors: red, blue, green, orange, yellow, etc. Trains also have their own names, which are indicated either by numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; or by Latin alphabet letters: A, B, C, D, and others. The color on which the number or letter is depicted corresponds to the line color. The train name is indicated on its "head" on the front part, as well as on the side of each carriage. Trains following different routes run on the same line. Therefore, you cannot jump into the first train that arrives, like we do! But I think it's quite possible to figure it out and get used to it, after all, people live there!) And we were lucky on the way from the airport to Candy Hostel (that was our hotel for the night), we didn't mix anything up. Actually, maybe they did, but without me, since the guys arrived a day earlier. And so, in that not-so-fresh and best condition, I dragged myself onto the subway. We bought a MetroCard (these are NY travel tickets, I bought one for $2.25 and it's valid for the day) and in such a lousy state, sitting in the dirty New York subway, Vova was telling me what he had already managed to see here and how interesting everything is. But I had to interrupt him and ask him to shut up, because I wasn't processing anything. Soon I felt ashamed... And I agreed to listen, but on the condition that I wouldn't answer. In the NY subway, I felt literally like a white crow with three albino crows sitting next to me, because everyone around was black! I saw white people a couple of times, but they flashed by so quickly, maybe they wanted to get away faster))) In general, their subway is transport for the poor, and for us Work and Travel students, probably that's why there is trash everywhere, dirt, it stinks, and I even saw poop on the platform! Awesome...)))) City But the city itself seemed quite presentable to me. On the way from the subway to the hostel, I didn't see much, of course, but what I did manage to see, I liked! And we even got off at the wrong exit, so we wandered around looking for the right street, the guys were looking, and I just followed them and looked at everything around me. It was already night, but I didn't want to sleep even after such a long flight, because at that time it was the middle of the day in Moscow, and my body still thought it was there and forced me to stay awake. Everything around was illuminated, it was beautiful and completely unfamiliar. Unclear signs suggested I walk "down that street," but my back was aching because of the annoying backpack, and forced me to go where I could take a shower, lie down, and relax. Even though it was almost impossible to m
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Donetsk: Travel guide, prices and free housing · 2026
Donetsk, formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka, Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capital of the Donetsk People's Republic.
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No free-housing hosts here yet — the nearest city with them:
Sochi2 sources · As of September 18, 2026
Source: TravelHub · OurAirports (public domain)
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