Berlin to Odessa Day 12: L'Viv (Львів) Pt. 2
2 full days in L'Viv, 2 packed days of activities. One of these days was a little extra because Graham was sick (he stayed in bed and I got to play).
Our first full day started with a wild ride through L'Viv traffic following our host Marta's car. Chaotic is about the correct way to describe the traffic with buses, cars, and trucks charging through intersections while simply leaning on the horn. Traffic lights are sometimes present but almost always ignored. The best way to get somewhere seems to be to sit in the middle of an intersection until traffic backs up enough in all directions for you to advance. At least during rush hour.
We followed behind Marta as best as we could, sometimes advancing ahead of her in a queue of cars, sometimes rushing to keep up. This was often made more difficult by the very erratic state of the roads. Occasionally covered with asphalt, but more often uneven stones that resemble something akin to large rocks strewn across an uneven surface. And going down these roads on a bike felt like drilling into bedrock with a jackhammer.
Marta brought us to a pharmacy that she manages (her family owns 7) and we met her father. Graham is a pharmacist by trade and said that he recognized all of the products/tablets etc. They also sell prescription glasses. One of the pharmacies in a very central location is even open 24 hours!
We didn't see very many bikes around (we were guessing in part due to the condition of the roads) and Marta made us worried by laughing at our U-Lock/cable lock combinations by saying that people will simply take a welder and "bzzz...bzzzzz" and steal our bikes. So we left them in the pharmacy (in the front in front of a display case).
She took us around the center a little bit before she had to go to work. We went to the famed L'Viv opera house (more on that later)
In front of the Shevchenko monument in the center of town in front of the opera.
There was a protest going on in front with people who had posted up in tents to protest adding Russian as an official language to the Ukraine. Our host said she doesn't want the Ukraine to become part of Russia again but that as a citizen, she doesn't feel like anything she would do would change anything in any way. She even cringes at the upcoming parliamentary elections that will take place next month saying that she will vote, but that it will be hard because she hates all of the candidates and doesn't think any of them represent the interests of the people.
After she left us, we walked around the town up to an ancient fortress at the top of the city called the High Castle which offered a great view of the entire city.
Then went to try out our Ukrainian in a market place to buy some food to cook dinner for our hosts.
Eating our way through fresh raspberries and blackberries while picking up some fruits and vegetables.
And examining some tasty sweets to supply us with energy for our rides.
Afterwards, we went to the ballet at the Opera house.
It has a magnificent interior and boasted a full orchestra along with the dance company. They played very well an some of the dancers were very impressive, especially the lead roles. The ballet itself was a light comedy by Gertel. The English translation in the program was confusing and we could only decode some of it after watching. And we never quite managed to understand the title, "Unavailing Carefulness" (Даремна Обережнсть). The story was a classic farmer's-daughter-doesn't-want-to-marry-her-suitor-and-runs-off-with-another-man. So the title may need a little tweaking.
The ballet-going crew with our host in front and her friend, Olga, in back.
The next day, while Graham was sick, I embarked on a pilgrimage with Marta, her father, Olga's boyfriend Andri (Andrew), and about 40 other people on bikes to a monastery about 20km from L'Viv. We had a police escort and backed up traffic on the freeway for about an hour.
For some people, this was a fairly religious affair, they were going to converse with nuns, priests, pray at some monasteries, etc. For others it was just a chance to hang out and learn some history about religion and some areas in the Ukraine.
They even made me a name tag and wrote my name in Cyrillic.
The first monastery (and only one I was able to go to), Stradtch (Страдч) was located in a village that was overrun by the Mongol hoards hundreds of years ago. There are extensive underground caves below and the nuns and priests had been using them for years. When the village was invaded, hundreds of villagers hid in the caves for 2 days until they were discovered and suffocated by smoke. It is now still part of the monastery and we were able to go in and explore the caves.
One part was especially tight and required squeezing upwards (and then back down) through a space barely large enough to accommodate my frame while flat on my stomach (some people were not able to make it). It was definitely not for the claustrophobic especially because the feeling that you are trapped is pretty accurate at the point. Not only between the rocks, but given the history of the place, you probably wouldn't want to stay there. As I was crawling through, a guy at the other end was shining a light and murmuring in Ukrainian. I don't know what he was saying but he was either giving me directions, or praying continuously that I wouldn't get stuck. It was strange inside - all of the voices from around the cave were audible but muffled. Incomprehensible but not because I don't speak Ukrainian, I could hear them through vibrations in the rock. At the other end, I was greeted with a tremendous applause and flash photography, they said it was because no foreigner had ever been to this spot.
Photos in the cave are very hard to take in the cave given the darkness and the dust, but here is a man descending into the tight hole described above. The length of the passage is only about 30 feet long.
After some praying, we all departed and had a picnic lunch in the forest. Some traditional Ukrainian Vidbevna (відбивна), a spiced pork dish, with a tomato/cottage cheese salad, potatoes (the staple), and cheese with Armenian lavash bread (basically tortillas). It was pretty elaborate for a forest lunch and delicious.
After getting back to the house, we made Varenas, which are the same pirogies we had in Poland, but we got to do them ourselves this time. They are very easy:
Mix flour, water, and some salt into a dough (some people add eggs or oil for consistency, we did not) and make circles from it.
Then mash together boiled potatoes, cottage cheese, and cooked onions and fill the circle, seal then boil them in a pot.
Olga's boyfriend, Andrie (Andrew) putting the Varenas to boil.
The grand total. Some at the top were filled with raspberries from Marta's garden.
It has been amazing in L'Viv but as usual, we must leave and seek something new.
Our first full day started with a wild ride through L'Viv traffic following our host Marta's car. Chaotic is about the correct way to describe the traffic with buses, cars, and trucks charging through intersections while simply leaning on the horn. Traffic lights are sometimes present but almost always ignored. The best way to get somewhere seems to be to sit in the middle of an intersection until traffic backs up enough in all directions for you to advance. At least during rush hour.
We followed behind Marta as best as we could, sometimes advancing ahead of her in a queue of cars, sometimes rushing to keep up. This was often made more difficult by the very erratic state of the roads. Occasionally covered with asphalt, but more often uneven stones that resemble something akin to large rocks strewn across an uneven surface. And going down these roads on a bike felt like drilling into bedrock with a jackhammer.
Marta brought us to a pharmacy that she manages (her family owns 7) and we met her father. Graham is a pharmacist by trade and said that he recognized all of the products/tablets etc. They also sell prescription glasses. One of the pharmacies in a very central location is even open 24 hours!
We didn't see very many bikes around (we were guessing in part due to the condition of the roads) and Marta made us worried by laughing at our U-Lock/cable lock combinations by saying that people will simply take a welder and "bzzz...bzzzzz" and steal our bikes. So we left them in the pharmacy (in the front in front of a display case).
She took us around the center a little bit before she had to go to work. We went to the famed L'Viv opera house (more on that later)
In front of the Shevchenko monument in the center of town in front of the opera.
There was a protest going on in front with people who had posted up in tents to protest adding Russian as an official language to the Ukraine. Our host said she doesn't want the Ukraine to become part of Russia again but that as a citizen, she doesn't feel like anything she would do would change anything in any way. She even cringes at the upcoming parliamentary elections that will take place next month saying that she will vote, but that it will be hard because she hates all of the candidates and doesn't think any of them represent the interests of the people.
After she left us, we walked around the town up to an ancient fortress at the top of the city called the High Castle which offered a great view of the entire city.
Then went to try out our Ukrainian in a market place to buy some food to cook dinner for our hosts.
Eating our way through fresh raspberries and blackberries while picking up some fruits and vegetables.
And examining some tasty sweets to supply us with energy for our rides.
Afterwards, we went to the ballet at the Opera house.
It has a magnificent interior and boasted a full orchestra along with the dance company. They played very well an some of the dancers were very impressive, especially the lead roles. The ballet itself was a light comedy by Gertel. The English translation in the program was confusing and we could only decode some of it after watching. And we never quite managed to understand the title, "Unavailing Carefulness" (Даремна Обережнсть). The story was a classic farmer's-daughter-doesn't-want-to-marry-her-suitor-and-runs-off-with-another-man. So the title may need a little tweaking.
The ballet-going crew with our host in front and her friend, Olga, in back.
The next day, while Graham was sick, I embarked on a pilgrimage with Marta, her father, Olga's boyfriend Andri (Andrew), and about 40 other people on bikes to a monastery about 20km from L'Viv. We had a police escort and backed up traffic on the freeway for about an hour.
For some people, this was a fairly religious affair, they were going to converse with nuns, priests, pray at some monasteries, etc. For others it was just a chance to hang out and learn some history about religion and some areas in the Ukraine.
They even made me a name tag and wrote my name in Cyrillic.
The first monastery (and only one I was able to go to), Stradtch (Страдч) was located in a village that was overrun by the Mongol hoards hundreds of years ago. There are extensive underground caves below and the nuns and priests had been using them for years. When the village was invaded, hundreds of villagers hid in the caves for 2 days until they were discovered and suffocated by smoke. It is now still part of the monastery and we were able to go in and explore the caves.
One part was especially tight and required squeezing upwards (and then back down) through a space barely large enough to accommodate my frame while flat on my stomach (some people were not able to make it). It was definitely not for the claustrophobic especially because the feeling that you are trapped is pretty accurate at the point. Not only between the rocks, but given the history of the place, you probably wouldn't want to stay there. As I was crawling through, a guy at the other end was shining a light and murmuring in Ukrainian. I don't know what he was saying but he was either giving me directions, or praying continuously that I wouldn't get stuck. It was strange inside - all of the voices from around the cave were audible but muffled. Incomprehensible but not because I don't speak Ukrainian, I could hear them through vibrations in the rock. At the other end, I was greeted with a tremendous applause and flash photography, they said it was because no foreigner had ever been to this spot.
Photos in the cave are very hard to take in the cave given the darkness and the dust, but here is a man descending into the tight hole described above. The length of the passage is only about 30 feet long.
After some praying, we all departed and had a picnic lunch in the forest. Some traditional Ukrainian Vidbevna (відбивна), a spiced pork dish, with a tomato/cottage cheese salad, potatoes (the staple), and cheese with Armenian lavash bread (basically tortillas). It was pretty elaborate for a forest lunch and delicious.
After getting back to the house, we made Varenas, which are the same pirogies we had in Poland, but we got to do them ourselves this time. They are very easy:
Mix flour, water, and some salt into a dough (some people add eggs or oil for consistency, we did not) and make circles from it.
Then mash together boiled potatoes, cottage cheese, and cooked onions and fill the circle, seal then boil them in a pot.
Olga's boyfriend, Andrie (Andrew) putting the Varenas to boil.
The grand total. Some at the top were filled with raspberries from Marta's garden.
It has been amazing in L'Viv but as usual, we must leave and seek something new.
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