Lviv'ing la Vida Loca

I decided to splash out the princely sum of 560 hryvnia (about 17 Euro) to travel first-class from Kiev to Lviv, the next destination on my trip. I’d been told that first class on the train was similar to first class in the UK, so I thought it would be nice.

It wasn’t, really. We had a cabin between 4 of us but instead of normal seats we had to sit on what were beds for when the train was used overnight. There was a tiny table that extended about a third of the way along, so we all had a tiny space to share. As I was there first I took a window seat, and had the table in front of me. I’d thought maybe to use my laptop during the journey, but it quickly became a place people put their used tea bags, empty McDonalds containers, and anything else they didn’t want in their life.

There was only one power socket, and that oddly enough that was located near the ceiling. My phone could have used some charging, but I decided I didn’t want to get involved in the Ukrainian game of “Pass the Power Socket”. Many a time I’ve bitched about trains in the UK, and while there’s certainly scope for improvement it could be much worse.

At least we arrived more or less on time, although it almost looked like a different century to me - with a dark platform, steam everywhere and train engineers checking the wheels of the train it could easily have been 150 years ago. I half expected to see manservants lugging travelling trunks around.

Stepping back in to the 21st century, after deliberation I took the cowards way out and booked an Uber to take me to my hostel - my phone battery by now was really quite low, it was getting late and I had no confidence I’d be able to find my hostel.

Luckily my Uber driver had no such problems, and what a difference to my last hostel! The place was spotlessly clean, so much so that I felt ashamed of my raggedy jeans and muddy shoes. The girl who was working at reception was lovely and kind, and showed me round. I felt doubly ashamed when I checked my e-mail and found they’d sent me a mail asking if all was OK as I hadn’t shown up at the time I’d rather flippantly chosen.

In fact all the girls who ran the hostel were friendly, helpful and kind. Nothing seemed too much trouble, not even the guest who had ordered a taxi and, on being told it had arrived, did absolutely nothing to move for about 10 minutes when in a mad panic she dashed out of the door, a flurry of apologies and bags.

I took a walking tour in the freezing cold with a surprisingly large group. We were shown round by a guide who professed herself “in love with Lviv”, and it certainly showed in her enthusiasm for the place. She would be describing how the gas lamp was invented in Lviv and just seemed blown away by the fact. It was endearing though, and nice to see someone who was genuinely passionate about where she lived. We were all so cold and she went to a lot of effort to do all she could to keep us interested. Certainly it made a change after the apathy of the Kiev guides.

Plus the tour gave me the opportunity to trick an idiot, which is always a treat. Kind of annoying throughout the tour, he clapped me on the back as if we were old friends and told me that I looked like someone out of Game of Thrones. I told him that I was an extra in an early episode, but refused to say which one. I hope he spent some time reviewing them frame by frame.

Lying to people aside, the best thing about Lviv is the coffee. Everywhere you go there are loads of coffee shops, and very cheap for the tourist. Every day I went for coffee in a different place, and in none of them was I disappointed (apart from the place that brought me the bill instead of another coffee as I’d asked for, but never mind!).

My favourite was the Coffee Mining Manufacture on Rynok Square where the coffee is “mined” from underground. The atmosphere was great and the coffee was beautiful. I was tempted to buy a coffee flask, to keep me going on the cold days, but couldn’t quite figure out where to pay.

I didn’t do any of the museums in Lviv. Places here tended to be very dark, so I was never sure if they were open or not, and generally were a bit of a trek in the cold. And it really was very cold too - you know it’s cold when the Polish guy complains about it!

The view from the tower at the town hall is fantastic. There are a lot of steps to get to the top - there’s no lift - but it’s worth the trek. I went in the early evening, and didn’t stay too long because it was even colder up there, but seeing the town lit up by the streetlights was perhaps the best view Lviv had to offer.

Lviv feels much more like a European city than Kiev. Many of the buildings look a lot like those in Warsaw’s Old Town. This is in part due to the fact that Lviv used to be a Polish city, and it’s only since the Second World War that it’s been a part of Ukraine. I’d been told that Krakow is where Germans go when they want a cheap weekend, and that Lviv is where the Poles go. There were certainly a lot of Polish people about while I was there, but then again Lviv is very close to the Polish border, only about an hour away.

The people here were definitely a lot friendlier than in Kiev. The one exception was the shopkeeper I bought a Coke from. It had been a long, cold day. I’d done a walking tour in the morning, and then a fairly boring tour in the afternoon and spotted a shop on the way back to my hostel. I really wanted some chocolate, but they were all behind these glass screens and the woman behind the counter saw me looking confused but didn’t do anything to help. She didn’t say a single word all throughout our brief transaction, just looked at me as if I’d pushed her mother down some steps. In hindsight it is certainly an appealing idea.

Whether people speak English here depends quite a bit. Younger people tend to speak more English, but also it’s perhaps best to use some thought - in Ukraine the main languages are Ukrainian and Russian, and you’re unlikely to encounter someone speaking English who works at a checkout in a supermarket, for example. There just doesn’t seem to be a massive demand for it.

I would recommend Lviv, perhaps as a couple of days, but not much longer. The main difficulty is getting there. It’s about a 6 hour trip on the train from Kiev, and similar from Krakow (but that way you have the awkward border crossing to deal with). You do wonder if the city would be more prosperous if it were still part of Poland, though. Written on February 22nd , 2018 by David Seddon