Eurohotel Lviv

... duck but apparently did not point correctly and received shrimp. Big huff about it.

Drinking in streets is fine. It is very common for people to just hang out in public squares or parks. People walk around the streets carrying beer in the evenings.

It is getting pretty cold. I have to start layering, fleece and light down jacket. This is some sort of festival weekend. I stumble on a choreographed pyrotechnics show with a dozen performers.

... We finished out afternoon a the tourist market where I completed my pyksanki egg collection.

In the evening we grabbed tasty treats for the train at a Viennese cafe and boarded our overnight train back to Kyiv. We settled into our cabin and shared a glorious bottle of wine. Company arrived later and Ross was forced to leave the cabin to allow the middle aged Ukrainian women to change. We got a good sleep after being given the evıl eye from the aforementıoned lady.

... Can't rave about them enough. I could have gone to a cultural museum in Lviv but skipped it as I figure I've been to the Ukrainian Cultural Village outside Edmonton a few times and that is more than enough. Plus at least with the cultural village at home I could read the signs. Instead I went to a couple churches and what not. Not a ton of things to do or see in Lviv but you can chill out and take some time just wandering around. One of the best things to see in Lviv ...

... saw us on an Eddie-led venture to the banya, the traditional Russian bathhouse experience. A Ukrainian banya is exactly how one should picture a the laundry in a 40 year old Soviet jail. Concrete floor, walls and ceiling - all showing the discolouration of decades of heated, humid, fetid air and cumulative millennia of sweat. Fittings that have seen no trace of renovation nor repair. Bodies engorged for far too long on borscht, dumplings and booze. But what it lacked in day spa ...

... a quick feed, and we still heard no English. So far, things were looking up !!! As we had had no sleep, we died very quickly. During breakfast, an older Seppoe mentioned that La Traviata was playing, and the tickets were very cheap, so we hauled ass over to the opera house. Luckily for us there was a Uki girl who could speak English, and £7.50 later, we had row 5 seats. We walked out and went to see what L'viv had to offer. We came ...

Train Day! I got up fairly early (for me), packed up my bag and then headed out. Went through all the underground walkways, past the vendors selling food and various items on blankets, to the metro. I was still half asleep, so once again I got wacked in the leg by the little gate which I'm sure will leave another nasty bruise. I also got off at the wrong stop. Not to worry, soon enough I started to wake up and made my way to the correct stop and was ...

... looked at me like at an alien. Obudzilismy sie dosyc wczesnie, o 9 rano (w Polsce byla 8), zjedlismy sniadanie i wyszlismy z domu. POLSKI: Celem nr 1 na ten dzien byly tradycyjne chatki ludowe - cos jak Museum Wsi Opolskiej w Bierkowicach, ale bardziej dzikie. Do tego byla tam piekna drewniana cerkiew, a w 1 z domkow ubrano nas w ludowe stroje ukrainskie i zrobilysmy sobie sesje zdjeciowa. Sarah miala na sobie wianek, w ktorym wygladala calkiem zabawnie i uroczo. Potem ...

... had set up camp outside the rathaus. I'm not sure, perhaps it was all of these things. It certainly felt different to the market squares I'd seen in Poland. After getting over the hurdle of ordering some food from a menu we couldn't read, in a country which spoke a language quite different to one we were used to, Chris and I found a reasonably priced hotel near the centre and decided to catch up on a little sleep before meeting a girl I'd contacted through the hospitality club ...

... fires were lit and we eventually survived. We made ourselves a scrumptious dinner and watched two movies, while also reading books and puzzling over Sudoku. 11 November: End of camping in a hostel with barely running water. We have learned that getting up early doesn't help since 6AM tends to be around 7:45AM for water. After washing up we poured the remainder of our food into the skillet, excellent breakfast. Heading out to see the cemetery museum and the many monuments ...

... English, when he's in German he speaks German, and now in Ukraine he only speaks Ukrainian. anyway it was fun watching him for about 1/2 hour until he finally passed out cold on the bunk, leaving about 2 or 3 beers on the table open, which eventually spilled as the train shook through the night, so not only did the compartment reek of cigarette smoke and alcohol, but stale beer when i awoke in the morning ...