Their Time Will Come
Place: Lviv, Ukraine
Eventually I decided to return to Krakow. At least I know the sale clerks in Krakow Train Station do speak some English and I also remember there is a nightly train traveling from Krakow to Romania, stopping at several interesting towns in Transylvania and Bucharest (Romanian capital). Though that was the train I really did not want to get on when in Krakow. It cost around 100 Euro for a ticket from Krakow to Sighisoara, Romania and there is even no sleeper in those trains. Also, "Let's Go East Europe" has such warning in bold letter in its Poland chapter: do not under any circumstance take night trains. Yes, not only theft is rampant in those night trains (as I heard earlier in a hostel in Ljubljana), robbery and drugging fellow passengers also occur.
But I really wanted to go to Romania. If I am not confident to travel there through Ukraine, then I can only do that by traveling from Poland.
A very, very grave mistake, it turned out. And it eventually became the worst decision I made in this whole trip.
Let's get back to that in a later blog...
So I went to the bus station with the Ukrainian speaking Canadian woman and she helped me and her friend to purchase a ticket to Krakow. I would leave the next night. Things settled for now.
Still, I had 30 hours to see Lviv before I returned to Poland, so there was no pressure. I had some time to savor this relatively unknown Ukraine city.
More than a week ago, I was reading New York Times Travel Section in a Berlin Internet cafe. An article caught my attention, titled "Heritage Survives a Complicated Past in Lviv, Ukraine" (click to link to this article). This article makes Lviv seemingly a very friendly (compared to other parts of Ukraine) and sophisticated city. I was already contemplating traveling to Ukraine (though not certain yet at that point). After reading this article, I decided to go.
I walked into "Hotel George", hotel recommended by "Let's Go" and was also mentioned by the NYT article. It is actually cheaper than it looks, depending on what type of room you choose. It is more than 400 Ukraine hryvnya (HV) if you request a room with private bathroom (1$ = 5 HV). But I opted for a room with shared bath facility and the price went down to 145 HV, which is less than $30.
Hotel George is centrally located, right next to Pl. Mitskevycha and at the end of Lviv's major promenade, Prospekt Svobody (Freedom Avenue). Most sights in Lviv are within walking distance from here.
Since Lviv used to be ruled by Austrians, and the Poles, before it became a part of Soviet Republic of Ukraine, it does have some atmosphere more resembling Vienna and Krakow, than to Moscow. It seems that there are more Catholic churches than the Orthodox ones. Many of them are in Baroque and Rococco styles. I walked around the town and felt some fading glory of this lovely city. Unfortunately, many buildings seem in dire needs of renovation. Cracks in the pavement on its old cobblestoned streets makes walking around not as easy.
I walked into the Ploshcha Rynok (Old Market Square), supposedly the miniature version of Krakow's grand square and with a nice city hall in the center. Unfortunately, the city hall was completely under scaffolding and I could not even see the building. The whole square was being re-paved, so the outdoor cafe mentioned in the NYT article did not seem to exist anymore. I walked north to the Armenian Church, the oldest in Lviv. It looks nice from outside. However, it seemed closed for visitors that afternoon (even according to the guidebook, it should have been opened that day).
The next day, after checking out and storing my luggage (5 HV extra charge), I walked to the Open-Air Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Life. It is a little remote and a long walk from the Center. I did take a few wrong turns before finding it. An interesting museum park with many delicate wooden structures from villages all over Ukraine. Some wooden churches are especially nice. What surprised me was that there were hardly any visitors in the Park. When I was hungry, I thought I could get some finger food and local beer from some museum workers dressed as village women (like what they have in Riga, Latvia). But no, there is not even a food stand inside.
After the village museum, I walked back to the Center and went to the National Museum on Prospekt Svobody. I was charged 14 HV (though the book said the entrance is 4 HV, was I overcharged as a foreigner?). It is a nice museum with a relatively small collection. There are some religious icons, impressionist paintings, paintings from Austrian period, and even paintings from modern artists, all of them are created by Ukrainian artists. Again, I found there are not too many visitors in this museum (maybe 10 or 12 in my one and an half stay there).
In the late afternoon, I walked up to the Old Castle Hill northeast of the Center. Almost all the people hanging out there are locals. I did not see any group of tourist-like people around. Interestingly, I found I was the only Asian person wherever I went (ran into only another Asian, also a tourist I think, outside of a church), but nobody even took a second look at me. On top of the Hill, a cross and a Ukrainian flag sit high up there. This may be as well the highest point in Lviv. I had a nice panoramic view of the whole city. I could even identify some famous churches by their magnificent steeples and spikes: Assumption Churches, Dominican Churches, and the Cathedral.
Before I headed to the bus station, I had some light snacks and cocktail at Dzyha Art Center, a gallery/cafe also was featured in the NYT article. They serve nice deserts and long list of mixed drinks, all with low prices. I did make sure that they have menu printed in English. And I was glad to find that even the waitress speaks fluent English. If only she works at the train ticket sale office...
Lviv indeed is a rough and undiscovered gem. There is hardly any foreign tourists around. Compared to Krakow (now flooded with tons of tourists in every budget and persuasion), or even newly popular Riga and Tallinn, Lviv is still so untouristy. Tourism infrascture still needs a lot of improvement at this point. I guess Lvivians hope their city can become "the next Krakow" and hope tourism can eventually brings in tons of money like what it does to Krakow (Krakow's 100 plus youth hostels must have employed many college students in the summer). Maybe renovating the City Hall and re-paving the Square is their first step to prepare this city for the upcoming tourist invasion. With Ukraine now relaxes its visa policy and more people come to this country, they know finally, their time will come.
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