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Polish traces
Entry 107 of 129 | show all | print this entry |
My last stop in Ukraine brings me to a city of many names. L'viv, Lwów, Lemberg, Liov, L'vov, all depending upon whether you're Ukrainian, Polish, German, Romanian or Russian. Most of the Poles and pretty much all of the Germans were shipped off after World War II ended, but for much of its history the city was associated with Poland or the Austro-Hungarian empire. Today it still strongly feels like a large provincial city in Poland (with tour buses of Polish tourists to boot!), though it's become in recent years the biggest stronghold of Ukrainian nationalism. Russian is still spoken here (if slightly begrudgingly), but the vast majority of the population uses Ukrainian in their everyday affairs and is quite happy to do so.
It's a beautiful place, with large spaces of greenery and a vast, almost completely intact historic center. Little destruction befell it in World War II and the Soviets were fortunately quite gentle in regards to modern "modifications," so there's a tremendous amount of the old atmosphere remaining. Like in Chernivtsi, most central streets are cobblestone (and often very uneven!) and trams jostle with the odd mashrutka for eager customers on the main transportation network. Traffic is predictably awful, but with reasonably quick reactions it's pretty simple to navigate as a pedestrian. And of course there's the mafia about (my hostel saw a visit the day I arrived, actually), but it's largely considered a very safe city for its size - about 700,000.
I'd like to be able to spend more time here overall, but I've unfortunately been limited to about a day and half of sightseeing. My Belarusian visa starts tomorrow and, what with my prebooked hotels and a strict 5-day window for visiting, I have to head out of town tonight on a Minsk-bound train. I have, however, managed to take in a good chunk of the city in the scrunched amount of time available. Some people say you need three or four days to do the place justice, others recommend at least a week. Personally, I feel I've hit a good 80% of the attractions in the last day and a half (minus the museums, which are largely considered average). So while I certainly wouldn't mind paying the place another visit someday, I don't by any means feel cheated for time.
Oddly enough, I had the best Middle Eastern (Lebanese) food I've had in months here in town. The hostel I'm staying in is located just up the street from a place owned by a couple guys from Lebanon that seem to rake in the customers. By a weird fluke, I ended up eating their twice yesterday, simply because I went out for dinner in a group, and there was nothing else in the vicinity with a kitchen still open. I just made sure to order a completely different dish from what I had for lunch though, and that made it just as enjoyable.
Lviv isn't quite as off-the-beaten-track as its reputation would suggest though. As noted earlier, Polish tourists seem to come here in droves, and my hostel in particular is packed with American backpackers. Everyone I've talked to in Ukraine (tourist-wise) has been through here or had plans to go later on, and the center stays pretty busy with photo-snapping visitors across the day. Obviously the Ukrainian government's decision to first simplify and then remove visa regulations for most Western nations has paid dividends in terms of attracting more tourism. It's a good thing, because in the case of most places I've visited, it looks like many cities are finally able to finance thorough restoration projects of their old towns as a result. In that regard, things are looking up for Ukraine. Now if they can just do something about the dreadful corruption and economic disparities. . . .
Off to Belarus tomorrow, which should be interesting. Few people seem to tag the place onto a travel itinerary, so I'm sure it's going to be a considerably different place than others I've so far visited.
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