We fancied breakfast today, so we nipped two doors up the road and bought Danish pastries, juice and yoghurt. In our hotel room we have a fridge that we thought we'd take advantage of, so we bought bread cheese etc which looks slightly better than what was in before, vodka. Believing that Sundays here would be much similar to England we decided to see the sights of the city as attractions, museums, shops etc would be closed. After consulting the oracle that is Lonely Planet, we decided to head towards the history of Ukraine museum. On our way we kind of [View Full Entry]

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The night train from Lviv to Kiev is not exactly the most relaxing form of transport, but is definitely an experience. We arrived safe and sound in Kiev at half seven and found that the toilets were shut for another half an hour. We then discovered that the left luggage lockers were too small for our backpacks. So with full bladders and our bags on our backs, we headed into a city we had no map of to try and find somewhere to stay. We began our trek in the wrong direction from the train station and only began to walk [View Full Entry]

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Our first official "sightseeing" day came on our third day in Lviv. Lonely Planet had a walking tour of the city, so we decided to do that. We visited many churches/cathedrals but some in particular stood out. The roman catholic cathedral was our first stop. It was quite impressive from the outside as it occupied the best part of Ploscha Katedralna. Inside was more like an art gallery than a cathedral. The stations of the cross were painted on every available wall and pillar. The whole ceiling of the cathedral had renaissance muriels covering every space. The next church worth mentionin [View Full Entry]

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It was around eleven when we woke up. We ate breakfast but it turned out to be a mistake for Rob who was ill straight after. After sitting a while till Rob felt better, we headed out to the ticket office to enquire about tickets to Kiev. It turned out that Rob wasn't feeling better, so we headed back to the hostel. There we clambered into bed and Rob spent a good few hours sleeping off the hangover whilst I dozed and updated diary entries. When we were both up we went through to the kitchen to eat Something. There were [View Full Entry]

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We woke up at about 10 o'clock which is after the time water is available in central Lviv (only water is 6-9 morning and evening). Fortunately the hostel has a storage tank so toilets can still be flushed. I enjoyed my free breakfast which consisted of some interesting cereal and banana which wasn't quite like western cereal but was greatly appreciated all the same. From the hostel we headed off to find a book shop for a dictionary as we are completely lost without one; as one sign in ukrainian looks much like another. This then means we can't eat or [View Full Entry]

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Today we had breakfast with Regan who lent us his book on the Ukraine. I made a few notes on accommodation and tour guides etc. We ran out to the supermarket and bought some food for the train journey. (namely bread, cheese and fruit) We settled the bill with the hostel which was cheaper than we thought which is always a good thing. We walked to the train station avoiding every bit of sun possible. I now know where the British summer sun went, it's here at the end of September. The train was alright in that we got a seat, [View Full Entry]

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We had an early breakfast this morning and we left with plenty of time to get to our bus stop. We had gotten to the end of the street when we remembered that tickets might be a good idea. After a considerable amount of waiting for the right tour, being allocated "Krakow Tours" stickers and showing of tickets we were eventually on our way. After being irritated by group tours yesterday today we were part of one. In our defense you are not allowed around the mines without a guide so we would have been in a guided tour whichever way [View Full Entry]

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Breakfast today was a quicker affair as today we were heading to Oswiecim and Birkenau, more commonly known as Auschwitz. We got to the ticket office and before I could say where we wanted to go, a bored looking sales girl informed me about the buses to Auschwitz. We caught a minibus for 28pln return for both of us. (£5 approx) the journey took just over the hour. Once at the museum centre we each bought a guidebook as we'd been told it was better to read that as we go around rather than pay for a guided tour. We looked [View Full Entry]

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Today was the allotted sightseeing day, so after our gratefully received included breakfast we set off to the centre with guidebook in hand. We began our tour in the main square in old town. In the centre of the square is a renaissance cloth market which now houses a souvenir market. The building itself is beautiful, however the hoards of people inside is not so nice. St Mary’s church is in the northern part of the square and I really wanted to go in to see the gothic altar but we found you had to pay to enter. This I thought [View Full Entry]

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We woke and spent a while arranging our bags in actual daylight. We checked our bags into left luggage at the hostel, settled the bill and went out to find a stylus. We walked all the way to the mall by the train station to a shop called Saturn. This is a technology geek’s paradise; I could picture some of Rob's friends moving in. They have everything and anything to do with computers; however they were sold out of styluses. We caught the train from Warsaw central station. We were in a rather crowded compartment and on the whole the journey [View Full Entry]

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