So we decided to take advantage of the 4 day weekend by finally taking a trip to Lviv, Ukraine. Admittedly, I was not really looking forward to it. While I LOVE traveling in Europe by car, that is because it is very relaxing to drive fast on the highway. Not so much when driving through the Ukraine. We left early on Thursday morning and made pretty good time through Hungary (where it was mostly highway). Then we arrived at the border. Fortunately there were not THAT many cars in front of us, but it still took us 30-45 minutes to get through as the border guards are PAINFULLY slow. We had to prove our citizenship and prove that the car was actually ours. It is a company car, so the name on the registration is my company name, so tehy seemed quite delighted to point out that the names didn't match. I then showed him my "authorization papers" and he actually seemed disappointed. This was not a very good introduction to their country, in my opinion.
We continued on for another four hours on the two lane roads of the Ukraine. It actually was not as bad as I had imagined it, but we were happy to arrive into the city. We had reserved an apartment there, but once we realized that it wasn't in the downtown area, we decided to cancel that and just find a hotel room (plus it was drizzling and a little cold, so we just wanted to be in a comfortable full-service joint). The dollar strengthening over these past few months has been fantastic for us, as everything seems to be free these days (not to mention that the Ukraine is not that expensive to begin with). We checked into our hotel and then ate at the Asian restaurant on the premises that was quite good before heading to bed. I felt like it was a waste of a day, since all we did was drive, but Heather pointed out that at least we spent the day together as a family.
We woke up the next morning and made our way through the old town. Lviv was for many years part of the Polish Kingdom (prior to being taken by the Soviets after World War II when Poland's borders were moved westward), so it has an element of Polish influence. We went inside the Church of the Transfiguration and visited the "Black House" (now the Lviv hsitorical Museum). The Black House is a renaissance building made of sandstone, blackened through the years, and probably the most famous and expensive tenement house in Lviv.
From there we visited the Armenian Cathedral, a 14th century church with a 16th century belltower. Unfortunately they were doing some work on it, so it was closed. So we were not able to go inside. But we did pass a lady that was selling "pictures" of her pig with tourists. We also passed the only real color we saw all weekend, with a row of tenement houses neatly and colorfully kept.
We continued our journey to the Lviv market, just across from the Opera House. Here they sell all sorts of jewelry, artwork, and other upscale flea market type of items. We enjoyed sifting through the rows of artifacts before settling on an oil painting of Lviv, a necklace for Heather, a patch, and a couple of crappy animals that the girls wanted. We went to purchase some ornaments from one of the vendors and was ONE Ukranian currency (whatever it is called) away from the requested price (about $0.20) and the lady wouldn't sell them to us! I really just didn't have any more cash with me, it wasn't that I was trying to negotiate with her! I walked away out of principal and promised I would not go back to her (we ended up not finding anything close to as good, so I humbled myself and made it back there later in the day, post an ATM visit for $0.20, before the market closed)!
We went back and took a break back at the hotel before getting in the car and driving about 100 KM to Olesko, Ukraine and visited the Olesko castle. Built in the 14th century as a fortress, it later was remodeled in the renaissance style as an aristocratic palace. Unfortunately, it has seen many years of neglect, and it was interesting to see the remnants of what USED to be surely a marvelous structure. You can see the remains of the palace fountain and the gardens, well worn over from lack of care (and including a surfing Monk). 
We drove back to Lviv, passing a number of people on the side of the road selling vegetables (mostly potatoes and cabbage). It made us feel bad seeing so many people selling the same stuff just feet from each other, wondering how anyone could actually survive this way. We also noticed the lack of color in the people, meaning everyone seemed to be dressed in dark browns, blacks, and greys. It just perpetuated the sense of gloom that we felt.
We returned to the hotel and again we ate Asian at the restaurant at the hotel (it was still good!) and went to sleep. We decided that it would be better to leave Saturday morning and have a day to recover before going back to the grind, so we left early Saturday morning to return to Budapest. Everything went well until we got to the border. Unlike our trip into the Ukraine, this time there was an extremely long line of cars, none of which were moving. I made my way up to the front on foot to check it out and found a border guard. I asked him if he spoke English because I wanted to ask him about a separate line that didn't seem to be as long, and if we could go into it. He just shook his head, indicating he didn't speak English. "Deutch?", I asked him. Again, shook his head with no expression. He then looks at me and says, "RUSSIAN!" and turns away from me. I guess I wan't getting into that other line. We waited a while longer, at which point Ryan was fussy, so Heather took him out of his seat and out of the car. At that point a border guard noticed her and the baby and waved us to the front of the line! We quickly made our way up and through the FIRST passport control. We THEN realized that we had to get through the CUSTOMS line! Realizing we had a real asset in Ryan, I took him out of his seat again and out of the car and attempted to get the next guard's attention. Once I achieved this and he noticed the baby, he also waved us up to the front of the line. Thinking we were home free we arrived in the BRIDGE crossing line! I took Ryan out again, only this line was so long the guard at the front couldn't see us, so I had to walk him slowly closer to the front until the guard noticed us, asked me where my car was and told me to go back and drive through! This, though, wasn't the end and we then had to get through the HUNGARIAN border! I took Ryan out yet again, the Hungarian border guard noticed it and waved us up to the front again and finally back into Hungary. While it still took over an hour to manage through all of this, arguably we would still be sitting there today if we hadn't used our baby the way we did. I recommend anyone traveling to the Ukraine ensure that they have a baby with them (or maybe a realistic looking doll might work). As I mentioned in the previous post, there is a stark contrast between Hungary and the Ukraine. And just as we felt when we returned from Moscow/St. Petersburg a couple of years ago, we felt the same way returning from the Ukraine - That it was just nice to be back "home"!
No comments:
Post a Comment