Blogs from Ukraine, Europe - page 8

Being a relatively big city almost right on the border with Poland and thus the EU, Lviv is supposed to be Ukraine's most "European" city and I've have heard nothing but rave reviews about it; therefore I was excited to find out for myself, what all the fuss was about. At the second time of asking, I actually caught my train there. And it was a really nice train. Like, really nice. I had company this time too, in Americans Ben and Kerry which was also nice, nicer still after we decided to walk to the hostel despite the freezing cold at 11pm, thanks to taxi drivers trying to rip us off. My inauspicious start in this city continued when I got to my hostel. I was sharing a dorm with an old, bald Ukrainian man ... read more

A few years ago in Belgrade, I had a conversation with an Irish guy that I have never forgotten. I'm sure I have mentioned this before somewhere in another blog entry but we were talking about weird geographical obsessions; a single, unusual place that for no particular reason, you just really want to visit. For me, that place is Minsk and I have already had two attempts to visit the place aborted. For Luke, the Irish guy, that place was Odessa. I wonder if he ever made it; if I had kept in touch with him, I'd have told him that I had now made it - that I had fulfilled his Odessan obsession. And with a new country came new weather. It was cold. And it rained. Oh, how it rained. This was the first ... read more

Day 2 Lviv, Ukraine As we continue to get lost in Lviv we're getting a bit of a complex about it. It's partially because we have been searching on-line for information ( e.g. For the Post Office in Lviv) where the location and the marker given on Google Maps is placed wrongly. But also, we keep going 180 degrees in the wrong direction as we set out..... doh.. Anyway, we've been outside the central grid that I talked about yesterday and found a flowing, elegant 1890's - 1915 Lviv, Secessionist buildings and cobbled streets everywhere. It's a bit faded, with rendering and painting needing attention, but not without charm. Around the Philharmonic Hall e.g. and past the Lviv Art Gallery on Stefanyka Street up towards the Museum Prison of Lontskoho Street and beyond we found some ... read more

Kiev was in many ways like Moscow - vast boulevards, monumental buildings, great parks- but built on hills. And less kempt. Moscow is full of roller bootees and skate boarders as the pavements are wide and smooth, and flat! Not so in Kiev. The pavements need too much attention. there are few people biking. The underground trains were always crammed at any time of day, deep, deep down, entry by tiny plastic tokens, totally reliable but claustrophobic. The best bits of time there for us were a visit to the puppet theatre in the park overlooking the river and beers in the open air drinkery by the fountain at the Golden Gate. The puppet theatre is amazing - a huge magical Castle built in the 90s specifically as a puppet theatre. The interior decorated with evocative ... read more

It's been a busy time since we left Moscow early on Monday morning: walk to Park Kultury station, metro to Kievskaya, aeroexpress train to Vulkhovo airport, flight to Vilnius, hang around Vilnius airport, flight to Kiev, packed Skybus coach to Central Kiev station, sweaty heave of suitcases uphill ,...finally to delightful Hermitage hotel. Now we are installed and had our first day of exploring A city which has some aspects in common with Moscow, but many differences. The main streets are broad, traffic filled boulevards with wide, wide pavements.... But here there seem to be more trees. It's very warm here and a bit dusty.... Moscow was washed with water carts every morning we think. And there are hills here! The streets are quite a heave, in Moscow and St P'sburg every thing was flat. There ... read more