Dreaming of Lviv
In the past fortnight, I visited Lviv twice and fell in love with it completely! In spite of temperamental weather(see London), lack of basic amenities (people get water here three hours a day) and general sad state, the place rocks! Seeing the old town alone makes up for all the inconveniences. The architecture carries the spirit of old Austro-Hungaria and Rech Pospolyta. The most common religious denomination is Greek-catholic, although a few roman-catholic orders represented here as well.
And then there is the opera- separate entry on it is necessary.
The culture of people here is distinctively different from that of Kyivites. Generally people are more chatty and open at the first encounter, have more Central European feel to them. Lviv is only 700,000 large. Small size makes it more cozy and cute.
Coffee makes up another distinct Lviv feature. Heaps of little coffee houses are all over the place. People drink it black, Austrian or zillion other ways, check out the Viennese Cafe on the main square to indulge.
To get from Kyiv to Lviv there is no easy way, unless you drive. Then it’s about 6 hours. The fastest train takes 7 hours, but runs at an awkward hour. Then there are several overnight trains, that take 12, most of which you’ll sleep though. No good marshrutkas cover this route.
Tags: architecture, travel
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February 19th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Dear Olechko. Is it true that, if you visit Lviv, you should leave all your Russian language in Kyiv? I’ve heard the second language for many Lvivites is German…
I’d love to visit. Although I would have to take the train as I don’t have a car.
February 19th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
English will be of more help to you.
Yes, trains are not so scary after all.
February 20th, 2007 at 1:35 am
[...] writes and posts pictures of the Western Ukrainian town of Truskavets, as well as Lviv and its Opera House. Veronica [...]
February 20th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
Great post! I’m glad you liked my hometown so much!
Little_Miss_Moi:
It’s true that Lvivians don’t particularly like it when Russian is spoken, since many people are very patriotic. Ironically, most of the same people known Russian very well, so I would say that is the second language of most Lvivians. Polish is another popular language in Lviv.
February 20th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I’ve recently seen an advert by Ukrainian airlines for special deals on Kyiv-Lviv flights that should not break your bank, should look into this…
February 22nd, 2007 at 11:56 am
Yes I have seen these ads too, and they advertise that it’s a 737! which comforts me, I’m not keen on the yakolevs…
Re: language
I did feel bad about deciding to learn Russian over Ukrainian. But I already see the benefit, e.g. when I went to almaty, I could speak Russian there. But I have been practicing ‘dyakuyu’ etc in case I visit Lviv.
October 19th, 2007 at 1:51 am
I have dreamed about Lviv many many times. I was thinking of setting some of my fiction there. BTW, I love that first photo taken from an interior.
January 9th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Happened to be in Lwow this summer, I was with a polish fluent speaker and they seemed more then happy to help and assist, i completly second the sentiments about how the culture and people are friendlier, If you’re with a Polak/Polka then see if you can find cheap accomidation around the rynek, we ended up spending 3 nights at $5usd a night per person.
Mostly found that kyivites were rude… got mugged in the metro at the vaukzal station, most people in simferopol were awesome, but its a poorer spot, yalta was a wierd russian playground, no ukranian spoke at all, Odessa felt more ukranian, less polish then Lwow, but for some reason I feel like Lwow, with everything wrong, bad trams, bad water, crumbling infastructure, is the best thing that ukraine has going for it. Gorgeous city. If I imagined paris in the early 1900s it would be Lwow. Possibly same feeling as pre-war warsaw anyone?
January 14th, 2009 at 5:56 am
i love lviv
February 1st, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Lviv is like Krakow but with less tourists still and lower prices.
April 29th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Nice photos Olechko.
I also think that Lvov is a great place!