Saturday 4th December 2021

Krakow, Poland to Lviv, Ukraine

The train departed promptly at 9.31am from Krakow for the 2hr 40min journey to Przemysl, a city in the south east of Poland.

There, we will wait 50 minutes for the train that will take us across the border, into Ukraine and on to our destination, Lviv.

The scenes from the train were of flat countryside, arable farming, chalet style houses and hundreds of allotments.

Pockets of snow were dotted here and there.

Further into the journey, there were many snowy scenes with blue skies above.

On arriving at Prezmysl and after checking the information board, we proceeded to the platform. However, following the signs brought us to a wire fence with no gate.  Retracing our steps, we came to a building and after peering through its dirty windows, we realised that it was a customs office. Perhaps it would open just before the train was due to depart…or not…

After a while, we followed three Ukrainian chaps, one of whom was hobbling slowly on crutches, through a now opened gate in a fence and onto the platform.

Shortly after the train departed, four Polish border control guards entered the carriage. They had high tech computer scanners strapped around their necks and began to scrutinise, scan and stamp everyone’s passports.

I noticed a few trees which all had lots of birds’ nests.  Anne and Pete, however told me that the ‘nests’ were actually mistletoe.  One learns something every day!  Apparently the plant is hemiparasitic which basically means that it takes some of its nutrients from another plant.

There was more snow as we travelled further into Ukraine and the scenery became prettier.

Later in the journey, the Ukrainian border officials boarded the train and checked passports and paperwork including covid vaccination certificates.

When we arrived in Lviv, we realised we had no Ukrainian currency to pay for the taxi. So, the guys went off to find somewhere to exchange our Euros for hryvnia, leaving us girls with the luggage.

On their return, we were soon approached by a grinning taxi owner.  After telling him our destination, he quoted “200” and as we all nodded in agreement, he added “and 50”, his grin widening even more!

During the journey he gesticulated and, as often happens, spoke increasingly louder as he tried to get something across to us.  Well, it worked as one of us realised that he was telling us that he couldn’t take us directly to the hotel due to the one way system but that he would get us very close.

After leaving our luggage in our rooms, we went immediately out to explore a little of Lviv (which is pronounced Lvov).

 

Within a few minutes we found ourselves in the main square. Rynok Square (Market Square) is home to the town hall and various other interesting buildings with attractive facades. The medieval square is paved with cobblestones.

It soon became dark and we started to look at the restaurants and bars situated around the square, many of which were full.  It was Saturday evening!

After a while we found a bar named ‘The Laboratory Bar’ and easily found a table.  The place was as perhaps the name suggests filled with items one would expect to find in a chemist’s laboratory –conical flasks, glass phials and quite an elaborate network of copper piping.

It took us quite a while to order a drink as the barman had given us a QR Code menu and none of us had a QR Code Reader on our phones.  I mean, really? Just to purchase a drink? Some people still don’t have mobiles! Eventually, we just ordered four beers.

Most of the restaurants were still full. However, we followed a waiter in the Atlas Restaurant in Rynok Square through what seemed like a maze of differently decorated corridors and rooms until he showed us one with an empty table.

The waiter informed us that the numbers next to the dishes in the menus indicated the weights. He explained that the 200/75/25 referred to the meat, potatoes and sauce. Dave and I remembered this from when we visited Russia.

It was fairly late when we left the restaurant, and stepped into the square. A temporary ice rink, no doubt erected for the Christmas season, had quite a few skaters and quite a few folk were watching them.  Unfortunately, we will have left Lviv before the Christmas Market takes place.

 

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