Blogs from Ukraine, Europe - page 37

Ana never tells me her plans, especially when she moves from place to place. I suppose it's due to Ukraine's unpredictable nature, and people's unwillingness to 'count their chickens before they hatch'. While she was working in America last summer I got a message saying "Hi from Broadway!" when I thought she was in Philadelphia, and she appeared in Kyiv this autumn when I thought she had University coursework due in Lugansk. So when I learned that I had been offered this interview in Ukraine I was tempted not to let her know my own plans until I had arrived from London; "Surprise! Meet me on the balcony in Maidan Nezalezhnosti at 7!", my sms would have said... In the end I lost my nerve and told her five days before. It's just as well, as ... read more

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 stumbled upon St Sophia's Cathedral which was named after the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. It is Kiev's oldest standing church built from 1017. You did have to pay to go in, but the entrance and ... read more

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 mentioning is the Dominican church which was so grand and immense inside that it really didn't feel like a church. There was gold leaf decoration everywhere and so much detail in every tiny muriel, window or ... read more

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 quite a few people in there with whom we chatted to for a few hours. The owner of the hostel and a few others are used to drinking copious amounts of vodka so they found ... read more

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, but it was too hot in the compartments. For the last part of the journey in Poland we stood with our heads sticking out of the windows, it was very refreshing. The train terminated in ... read more