I love Ukraine. I miss my people (so unbelievably much) and a lot of the conveniences of the good ol’ US of A (washing machines, for starters, the English language for another), but I love Ukraine. I mean that every day is an adventure and that is just up my alley. Thank you over active imagination and the stubbornness to make things happen.
But let’s just start by talking about what I did last weekend that makes me appreciate adventures.
One of my site-mates calls me up and invites me to join her and a few other PCV’s for a weekend trip to Lviv. Now, mind you Lviv is the first city I learned about prior to coming to Ukraine (the other was Kiev) so I was pretty excited. I didn’t know much about it other than it was one of the best cities to see and visit in Ukraine. Mind you, the person that told me this was from Lviv so he may have been a bit biased, but still. So I make my plans, call my RM, and book my train trip (which is really cheap being that I am only 2-4 hours away depending on what train I take) and start packing. Ok, that is a lie, I didn’t actually pack till an hour before I left but that is not the point. The point is that I am way excited for this trip.
Now, here is where the adventure kicks in. My site-mate calls me up the night before and informs me that when we thought we had booked the apartment to stay it, we actually didn’t, so when we don’t actually have any place to stay when we would arrive. Hmm, I know what you are thinking…. WHAT?! What do you mean we don’t have a hotel/hostel/apartment booked?! And this situation would generally cause some serious chaos and stress and possible panic moments. But nope, I just said “нічого, we will figure it out on arrival.” So boom, we get on the train eat some tasty Ukrainian crackers and cookies, and of course some garden picked apples and prepare for our adventure to Lviv.
Through some combined efforts and tour-book scouring (Thank-you Lonely Planet Ukraine!) we find and reserve some beds at a hostel. It wasn’t in the center, and didn’t have rooms to rent for the group (let’s do a real hostel experience anyhow!) but for 70 UAH (about $10) a night, we were game for it. Now, here are some of the benefits of this hostel. A communal kitchen, English speaking staff, foreign guests (this time from France, England, The Netherlands, and Japan), and wait for it…. *drum roll please*… the hostel was a castle! Yup, I spent the weekend in Lviv living in a castle! Mind you, I don’t want to have any confusion here- it was really just the shell of a castle, the insides had been refurbished to an apartment style building, but still. I will post to pictures and you will see. It was fabulous.
For our adventures in the city (which was the most beautiful city I have ever been in) we were able to visit some beautiful churches and cathedrals, the Lviv Brewery Museum, the City Center (though we didn’t go into the Opera House), the Castle View (not sure if that is the official title- but we climbed all the way to the top of this hill/mountain to get a fabulous view of the entire city) the bazaars- including the Arts and Crafts Bazaar, the Chocolate Factory, and a few cafes- including the Gloria Jean Café- for our little minute of American comfort.
And for the kicker of it, let us dive into the food topic (which you should know by now is one of my favorites). We could have chosen to eat good ol’ foreign food (Thai, Mexican, Greek etc) for a hefty cost in the city or we could have eaten cheap Ukrainian food (got to get some mayo in our diets you know) or we take a third option. Cook for ourselves. So we made our foreign food at the hostel- and buying everything bazaar and supermarket kept everything cheap (and cheaper still when you split the cost amongst many) and having both a vegan and vegetarian with us also kept it super healthy. So we made lots of salsa (thank you Ukraine for having some chili peppers at the bazaar!) and smothered it over all our meals. And we had some Chipotle style burritos- which were probably the most glorious food to hit my mouth in a long time. And stir-fry and fried rice, and breakfast skillets, and salads. So we got the taste of the restaurants, but for a million times cheaper and better accommodations. Everyone chipped in to help prepare, cook and clean, and then it was family style dinners. Just amazing.
So I highly recommend Lviv to everybody, I am planning my next visit already! I also say that please remember to wear good walking shoes- their cobblestones situation will kill you even in good sneakers, plan enough time to walk around (and rest owing to those cobblestones), and take advantage of the bazaar for delicious fruits and veggies! Things that if you are brave to do, sit in the center with an old man and play some chess with him (though he will probably beat you, even if you have a bunch of both Ukrainians and Americans helping you out), take pictures with the Babas at the bazaar- they may just give you free apples (or a girlfriend if you are a guy), and speak all the Ukrainian you can- it just may give you a discount at the bazaar!
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