дьвів 5 November
Lite traning behover ni ju - det star Lvov dar uppe
You need a bit of exercise it says Lvov up there.
Lvov is a big city. I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning (Ukraine is one hour ahed of central Europe) walking around in the city. As I wrote before I don't fancy going by bike as the roads are so bad. Interestingly enough things that have been steady for more than 1000 km shook loose when I came to Lvov and just cycled some 15 km looking for hotels on these roads.
it is hard to take a shot that really shows how bad the roads are.
As I wrote Lvov has many names and spealling. Sometimes it is also referred to by its German name Lemberg.
you can read more about it on e.g. www.guide.lviv.ua
The central market square - could have been Poland, Austria or Czech Republic as well.
Among its famous sons and daughters we note Leopols von Sacher Masoch, a novellist that inspired the classification of masochism. I went to a trendy bar dedicated to his memory.
The man himself
The bar...
It is nice just walking around studying the people.
There are many types. There are the traditional babuschkas (grandmothers) playing cards below
And of course there are alcoholics. Can be quite deptressing, but at least thereare not more of them here than in Poland as far as I can see. The city streets and cafes are full of young women, most of them dressed exclusively (a bit too flashy for my taste) and good looking. Apparently the new James Bond woman is Ukarainian, something that will up the hype even more I guess. The young men seem to be in gambling houses and beer joints. Both men and women alike seem to spend a lot of money on cell phones, the women a lot on clothes and costmetics.
I am into an intensive learning of the language and the alphabet. I would say it is quite hopeless to get around outside the main tourist treks if you can't at least read a menu. Here in Lvov some young people in the chic places and the internet caf'es speak English but for the rest. Some older people seem to speak German. Anyway I try to read the menus and order and it is not easy.
Try to order on that menu!
You can see a quite typical modern fast food joint. Basically built on American concepts (yes they have a McDonalds here as well). Otherwise restaurants come in many shapes, old fast food places, with pirogs and sausages, cafe-bars where they sell beer and snacks and some basic food stuffs. There are few real Restaurants. Most of them seem to be either giant halls from Communist times or small chic French or Italian style, with mainly standards European food. Street food is in a way the best as it is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). There are places for any size of wallet here, but basically it is very cheap. You can eat yourself sated for less than 2 Euros and you get a beer for 50-60 Euro cents and a cup of tea for 20-30 cents. I don't think Ukrainians eat a lot of breakfast or at least they don't eat breakfast out. Almost no food places or bars are open before 10!
The hotel I stay in is clean and has a comfortable bed and I pay less than 30 Euros for it. Same standard in Western Europe would be 80-90 Euros.
I spent two hours going around on various tramlines (costs 10 cents). It is an interesting way of seeing the town and also to se other people than the ones that populate the city centre. If a bus in Lithuania (and Sweden for that matter) is silent like a graveyard, a bus or tram in Lvov is like a market in North Africa! A total cacaphony. Very interesting and amusing to listen to them even if I understand nada. Also interesting to see the trusting system they have for payment. If somebody gets on at the back of the tram (these are double wagon trams) and the tram is full. He or she just sends his coins forward and a few minutes later the ticket comes!!!! Hey, how many million people citys in Western Europe would have a system like that! I am impressed.
North of here, the water goes towards the river Bug who joins Wisla in Warzaw, South of here we are in the watershed of Dnistr, which empties into the Black see.
So so far the Ukarainian leg of my journey has been very positive. Notably this part of Ukraine, Galicia, is supposedly quite different from the rest of Ukraine, it was part of Poland for quite a while and is (was) also the heartland of the Jewish settlement in Central Europe. Tomorrow I plan to continue by bike in the direction of Ivano Frankovsk, but it will take me two day to reach there. From there I plan to take some trip up to the Carpathians, probably by bus or train as we are speaking mountains and not just hills here. But it will depend on the weather. The last week has been very mild, I believe the normal temperature for this time of the year would be some five degrees lower. And while I am quite well prepared I am not in for snow. See you!
You need a bit of exercise it says Lvov up there.
Lvov is a big city. I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning (Ukraine is one hour ahed of central Europe) walking around in the city. As I wrote before I don't fancy going by bike as the roads are so bad. Interestingly enough things that have been steady for more than 1000 km shook loose when I came to Lvov and just cycled some 15 km looking for hotels on these roads.
it is hard to take a shot that really shows how bad the roads are.
As I wrote Lvov has many names and spealling. Sometimes it is also referred to by its German name Lemberg.
you can read more about it on e.g. www.guide.lviv.ua
The central market square - could have been Poland, Austria or Czech Republic as well.
Among its famous sons and daughters we note Leopols von Sacher Masoch, a novellist that inspired the classification of masochism. I went to a trendy bar dedicated to his memory.
The man himself
The bar...
It is nice just walking around studying the people.
There are many types. There are the traditional babuschkas (grandmothers) playing cards below
And of course there are alcoholics. Can be quite deptressing, but at least thereare not more of them here than in Poland as far as I can see. The city streets and cafes are full of young women, most of them dressed exclusively (a bit too flashy for my taste) and good looking. Apparently the new James Bond woman is Ukarainian, something that will up the hype even more I guess. The young men seem to be in gambling houses and beer joints. Both men and women alike seem to spend a lot of money on cell phones, the women a lot on clothes and costmetics.
I am into an intensive learning of the language and the alphabet. I would say it is quite hopeless to get around outside the main tourist treks if you can't at least read a menu. Here in Lvov some young people in the chic places and the internet caf'es speak English but for the rest. Some older people seem to speak German. Anyway I try to read the menus and order and it is not easy.
Try to order on that menu!
You can see a quite typical modern fast food joint. Basically built on American concepts (yes they have a McDonalds here as well). Otherwise restaurants come in many shapes, old fast food places, with pirogs and sausages, cafe-bars where they sell beer and snacks and some basic food stuffs. There are few real Restaurants. Most of them seem to be either giant halls from Communist times or small chic French or Italian style, with mainly standards European food. Street food is in a way the best as it is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). There are places for any size of wallet here, but basically it is very cheap. You can eat yourself sated for less than 2 Euros and you get a beer for 50-60 Euro cents and a cup of tea for 20-30 cents. I don't think Ukrainians eat a lot of breakfast or at least they don't eat breakfast out. Almost no food places or bars are open before 10!
The hotel I stay in is clean and has a comfortable bed and I pay less than 30 Euros for it. Same standard in Western Europe would be 80-90 Euros.
I spent two hours going around on various tramlines (costs 10 cents). It is an interesting way of seeing the town and also to se other people than the ones that populate the city centre. If a bus in Lithuania (and Sweden for that matter) is silent like a graveyard, a bus or tram in Lvov is like a market in North Africa! A total cacaphony. Very interesting and amusing to listen to them even if I understand nada. Also interesting to see the trusting system they have for payment. If somebody gets on at the back of the tram (these are double wagon trams) and the tram is full. He or she just sends his coins forward and a few minutes later the ticket comes!!!! Hey, how many million people citys in Western Europe would have a system like that! I am impressed.
North of here, the water goes towards the river Bug who joins Wisla in Warzaw, South of here we are in the watershed of Dnistr, which empties into the Black see.
So so far the Ukarainian leg of my journey has been very positive. Notably this part of Ukraine, Galicia, is supposedly quite different from the rest of Ukraine, it was part of Poland for quite a while and is (was) also the heartland of the Jewish settlement in Central Europe. Tomorrow I plan to continue by bike in the direction of Ivano Frankovsk, but it will take me two day to reach there. From there I plan to take some trip up to the Carpathians, probably by bus or train as we are speaking mountains and not just hills here. But it will depend on the weather. The last week has been very mild, I believe the normal temperature for this time of the year would be some five degrees lower. And while I am quite well prepared I am not in for snow. See you!
Kommentarer
Postat av: Kolbjörn
Låter som ett mycket trevligt land, du ser ut att trivas :) Kramar från Kolbjörn som Saknar dig...
Postat av: Lena
Jag gillade det där med betalsystemet på spårvagnen, intressant att det fungerar!
Postat av: kari
Ukraina värkar spännande, och see you, det är på bloggen, anars är det ett tag till.
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