Lviv

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Thursday July 23, 2015 – I woke up sometime around 4am when the woman on the train with me left to go to the bathroom. She couldn’t unlock the door so she had to wake up her son to help. They were quiet, but I am a light sleeper. An hour later I got up to go, always afraid that soon everyone will be and the line will be enormous and I’ll never get in before the train stops. But it turns out that was never the case on this train. The train arrived at 6:30am and I didn’t have anywhere to go. This is a problem I did not anticipate when booking an apartment, instead of a hostel. In a hostel, you can just go and sit and wait or drop your bag off when you get there. But here, I could not check in until 12:30. I could leave my bag at 11am, when the cleaning woman was there, but that was still quite late. So I sat in the train station for an hour, writing in my journal and basically just being tired. Then I decided it was late enough to brave the tram to the city. It was adorable and old and only cost 10 cents! I had to ask for help to know when to get off the tram, because the stops were not called what I expected. Bu the driver was able to convey that I needed to get off in 4 stops from when I asked, so that was great. I walked to the left luggage place the woman renting the apartment told me about and dropped off my large backpack. It makes me nervous to do that, but all was fine. I then started to walk around Lviv’s old town. It is very different than much of Ukraine as it used to be a Polish city, back in the day, so the architecture is different to the Soviet style in so many places. It’s really a pretty town. And the center is compact enough for walking. There are mnay churches, and I went from church to church, having a look inside. Some were having masses, on a Thursday morning. Crazy. I sat on a bench eating my pretzels at one church and by 1:30, I decided it was time for lunch. I went to another cafeteria style place the tourist info lady mentioned when I stopped in there. It was cheap but not as good as yesterday’s. From there I picked up my bag again and walked to the apartment.

I met Ohla and she showed me the apartment. It was a large room with a bathroom and breakfast nook. She also brought me a bowl of nectarines, which was very generous. And delicious. We made plans to get together on Saturday to visit the outdoor museum just outside of town, which was nice, and then she left. I was so hot from my walking around and had a headache, so I stayed in for a while, watching Jon Stewart and Larry Wilmore. I can’t believe Stewart’s last show is so soon. Depressing.

Around 4pm I went back out and decided to check the Opera house to see if there were any tickets for tonight or tomorrow’s performances. I looked it up online and was surprised that there was an operetta on tonight and a ballet on tomorrow night. Often, these kinds of shows are on hiatus for the summer, so that was lucky. At the box office she showed me the list of prices and the seating map. I decided to get me some of the expensive seats, right up front. Eighth row for both shows. It only cost $13, for both shows together. Amazing. From there I walked a little and had a cheap, early dinner, since the show started at 6pm. I came back, had a shower and relaxed a little. I left at 5:35pm and it took only 10 minutes to walk there. The show was quite good, but I was worried that my skirt and tank top were not really appropriate. But several people looked like they were coming back from the beach (there is no beach) or a football game, so I actually felt ok. The seating chart when I was choosing my seat made the theater look huge, like I would never see/hear from other seats. In truth, I think I could have sat anywhere and been fine, but it was a good seat. The ticketing was all done with actual paper tickets that already had the seat and date printed on them. There was no electronic nothing. She just flipped through what was available and found a single seat up front. The show had three acts, but it was all in Ukrainian. The operetta was called Der Zigeunerbaroni (the gypsy baron). I read the synopsis beforehand so I understood the story, but after the second act I thought it was done and got up to leave. It was 2 hours at that point and I also thought that an operetta was shorter, so that it might be done. Then I realized there was no big over the top applause session at the end, so I stayed. Glad I caught the end as well. The brilliant thing about it starting at 6pm was that I was home by 9pm, and I’d like to get to sleep early after the poor sleeping on the train last night. Now it’s raining and I hope that brings the temperature down. This is the first time I don’t have a real fan. I found a small portable heater fan that also works without the heat, but just.

Friday July 24, 2015 – It was much cooler and cloudy today, which was a relief, but it was almost silly that I wore shorts and a tank top. It was a bit windy, and people even had jackets on. I had even put on my sunscreen for later. Turns out the sun did not appear until much later – 5pm. Oh well. In the morning I went to the pharmacy museum, which was much larger than I expected. You go into an actual pharmacy, pay 50 cents, and then go into a back room. Which leads to another room. Which leads you all around and under the building. I ended up in a courtyard and this lady was sweeping and she opened a door for me. All the while there had been arrows on where to go next, but this was apparently the end, where you just go outside next, though you could also just walk upstairs, presumably to someone’s apartment. From there I went to the history museum. It is a little confusing, as there are many different places for the museum, and each has its own fee and exhibits. I went to the two that were together, the Italian courtyard from the 16^th century, and the royal apartments. In the royal apartments, everyone had to put on slippers over their shoes so as not to scuff the wooden floors. I felt like I was gliding. I was lucky to meet up with a tour group towards the end, as the guide showed them an old music box and played it. That was cool to see, and I wouldn’t have heard it otherwise. From there I tried to find the ethnographic museum, which was supposed to be right next door, but instead I found a gift shop and coffee place, which for all I know were part of the museum, but no luck otherwise. After that I had some lunch at a Georgian restaurant. I ordered a katapuri – the kind with the egg on top, like they do in Batumi. Not quite as a good as being in Georgia, but not bad. Then I took the tram to the Lychakiv cemetery. It started in the 1700s officially, but the oldest grave stone is from 1675. The cemetery is huge, with more than 300,000 graves. They actually charge to enter ($1), and though a working cemetery, they keep it as a preserve as well. At times I forgot which country I was in, as many of the graves were in Polish, with Polish last names, as Lviv used to be a part of Poland. It was a bummer that it was so cloudy, as the pictures weren’t what they could be. I usually really like graveyards, but I just felt a bit melancholy here on this day. Right at the end of my time there the sun came out, and all was better. But then I had to go, to get back to town to have a little downtime before the ballet. This is when it’s awkward to have a performance so early, at 6pm. I stopped at a shop to buy water and a yogurt on the way back, and had an hour to relax before the show.



The ballet was Le Corsaire, and it was about pirates and slave girls. Who knew that you could combine pirates and ballet successfully? It was split into two acts and was over by about 8:15pm. So strange to come out of a theater after an evening performance to find that it is still sunny. I walked around a little more, and eventually decided to get some khinkali (Georgian dumplings) to go for a late dinner. It might be my last chance, and they are delicious. My time is Lviv is nearly up, as tomorrow I leave on an afternoon train for Moldova. But looking forward to seeing the outdoor museum with Olha in the morning.

Saturday July 25, 2015 – It got much cooler in the night and felt quite ok for sleeping, with the windows wide open. I had to repack my things, and wasn’t sure if I’d get a chance to rearrange them after the museum today, since the apartment was being cleaned and someone else was moving in. It’s always a bit stressful when you don’t know what will happen and exactly how. I may have time to change before the train, I may have to go in what I’m wearing. Which shoes should I wear, no shower until tomorrow, where is my seat on the train….so many questions. Wanting to pack everything, but can’t while I’m using the computer and the cord and the plug adapter need to be packed in a particular place, and that has to happen at the end, and only then can some other things go in….the mind of a crazy person living out of a backpack. Having to pack and repack a backpack every other day or so always stinks. A suitcase would be easier in many ways, but for the actual moving from place to place, the backpack in the easiest. Always a challenge.



Ohla came to pick me up a little after 10am and we took my things to her car, where they would stay when we were at the open air museum. She drove us there and we spent a couple of hours walking around. The museum has traditional houses and buildings from different part s of the country. She was a great tour guide, explaining the meaning of different buildings to me, and the things inside the houses and what they represent. I also tried a special type of dumpling with potato that was very good. We got back into town around 1pm and Olha dropped me off at a tram stop near the grocery store. My train didn’t leave until 3:30pm, so I went to the shop to buy some fruit and chips to eat on the train. I walked a little to get some pictures, but it was very hot and I had both of my backpacks with me, so it was especially inconvenient. I waited at the tram stop for a while, but the tram I needed never came there, so I walked to the tourist info back in town to ask where to catch the tram. It came quite quickly and I made it to the station with no problems. At the station, there was no money exchange, so I asked and found that there was one nearby. I walked to a shop, bought a sandwich, and then converted my leftover money to euros and then spent the leftover money that wasn’t enough to make a euro on more water. I walked back to the station and was able to get on the train already. My seat in a room for four, but one lady wanted to change, so I did. It was a good thing, as the room I ended up in a room with a Ukrainian woman and her two American middle school-aged granddaughters. We talked American! It was awesome. I made these poor girls my new best friends. I played cards with grandma and one of the girls, a game I could not really understand but won once anyway. This train ride was from 3:30pm to 9:19pm, to Schmerinka. Said good bye to the girls and grandma and then had to find my way into the station. I hated it immediately. Not easy to figure out, hot, no electronic board with info. I tried to ask a woman who sold tickets which platform I needed for my next train and she would have part of it. She sent me to the info desk on the other side of the station. The next train was from Schmerinka at 10:30pm to Chisinau, arriving at 8:30 the next day. The lady at the info place told me the answer in Ukrainian, so me be confused, and then told me platform 4. She was just messing with me. I sat for a while and with 25 minutes until departure, I went to find track 4, knowing it would not be easy. I also didn’t know if my train started here or if it would only stop for a couple of minutes, and I wanted to be prepared. I had to ask a guy who worked there and he just led me there, over the other tracks, something I was trying to avoid. But it was nice that he showed me. The train was already there and I boarded. The woman showed me my compartment and I had the whole thing to myself. Awesome. No one was even in the one on either side, it seemed. Should have been a good sleep, but of course there was passport control to go through, at 1am to stamp out of Ukraine, and at 2am to get into Moldova. That one seemed weird because the train was moving when they came to me. I guess they were going back also? The woman who stamped me in was annoyed that I did not understand her questions, so she barked out a few English words I could respond to. At 3am they came for customs, to ask how much alcohol/cigarettes I had. That was easy, but altogether it made for very little sleep. My favorite thing about these trains is that when you flush the toilet, you realize you’re just emptying everything onto the tracks. It makes you rethink all of those movies where people are walking on the tracks. In Western Europe it is different now, but in many places it is still pee and toilet paper on the tracks.Nice.

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Photos

Steps out of Pharmacy museum
So worn