Lviv Has Sucked Me In: Part One

Firstly I would just like to say that I am sorry that I have not posted in almost a week. Its been a mix of things, but mostly I am trying to adjust to Lviv and I've been tired lately.
Let me explain how time kind of works here, or at least for me. I would like to say that some of the native population here operates this way too, but I cant be 100% sure yet. I start my day between nine and ten in the morning by rolling out of bed and taking a shower. I've found a great way of cutting time out of my morning routine too. No makeup. Yes I know this seems scary on many levels, but seriously it is great. No one looks at me odd for doing it either.(Try it someday) After that I have breakfast which a German this morning joked that it was on par with a concentration camp breakfast. (I have heard so many politically incorrect jokes in the past week its not funny, well honestly a lot have been.) Its really not that bad, but its pretty much just bread with a bunch of spreads and fruit of some sort. I bought yogurt at the store and have been eating that with it. I am thinking of maybe buying oatmeal this week if they have it. So right now being done with breakfast brings the time up to about 11am. Lunch is normally at 3pm and dinner ends up at about 8pm and I go to bed close to midnight if not later.
Now lets talk about food quickly. I'll go more into details as I talk about what I've been doing. Nothing here is fresh for the most part I feel. Milk comes in a bag. Fruits and vegetables are frozen for the most part except for things that are in season like oranges, apples, bananas, root vegetables, and cabbage. Meat is frozen unless its just been killed, or has been processed into some type of loaf thing or sausage. Speaking of sausage would any one care for one made out of horse meat? I have yet to eat it, but I probably will before I leave. PETA come after me if you want. I'll fight you with one of the sticks of horse meat sausage. I am sure it will leave a big bruise.
Moving on to where I am living. I am currently living in the Kosmonaut hostel, in a four bedroom dorm. This is night seven here for me and its my fourth or fifth night in a row without roommates. Its kind of nice really.I have the bottom bunk of one of the bunk beds (same bed as last time here!). Its cozy. The bathrooms have a nice shower that has hot water, just incase you thought that Ukraine lacks hot water. If it did I would not be here. One issue with the toilets is you cant flush the paper down there. It goes in a little waste basket next to it. I hope you enjoyed that little tidbit of information. Also I am currently the only girl staying here. There have been others, but they've left. I don't mind it for the most part. I've just become one of the guys. I mean I don't wear make up so I just blend right in with them. Also when we go out at night to eat or what not I always am walking with a guy. Also its kind of that little sister like mentality some of them adopt around me. All and all I have no issues with my hostel mates.
So what have I been doing you ask? Well Wednesday I spent my day walking around the city and what not. That night I was sitting in the common room watching my hostel mates (4 Swiss people, 2 Aussies, 1 Canadian, and one guy from Hong Kong) do a vodka tasting. They ended up drinking 4 shots of vodka in about 20 minuets. It was pretty funny to watch. After this they somehow convinced me to go out with them. I think they may have called me a lame American. We ended up at the Sadomasochism bar. For those of you who were not aware Lviv was the birth place of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch who created this or what not. We went into the bar and there were chains and such on the walls and we all thought Oh this isn't too bad. We sat down and ordered drinks (I got tea. Lame to some but there needed to be at least one sober person in the group.) and all of a sudden we just heard *whack*. Someone was getting whipped in the next room. That's right, you heard me correctly. The woman then came into our room and some guys volunteered with gusto and took their shirts off and others were somewhat forced. It was extremely odd and yet I couldn't look away like with a car crash.

We met a Ukrainian couple when we were at this bar and asked us to go to dinner with them. We were lead to a place that looked like a regular apartment building in Old Town and when we knocked on a door this old man in his bathrobe answered the door. The couple talked with him for a bit and then we were lead into his apartment and through a door which opened up into the beautiful restaurant. It blew all of our minds. It was probably one of the nicer places I have ever been in. The theme seemed to have been the Free Masons. Most of our group ordered dumplings that came out covered in a blue green fire. It was amazing. I skipped getting anything because I had already had dinner. Now I must tell you about the toilet. You walk in and there is just a thrown there with huge lit pillar candles next to it. Intense classical music is playing loudly. I have never felt like I was more on a mission when I went to the bathroom in my life. I really should have taken a picture but this was a classy place. I mean come on there was a thrown for the toilet! After everyone finished eating it was time for me to go home and sleep.
The next day the two Aussies, Dan and Luke, and I went shooting. This was my first time shooting a gun. It was kind of scary, but the fact that I had gotten teased about not being a true American for never having fired a gun was enough to make me do it. I did ok shooting. It safe to say no one is going to be recruiting me to be a sniper anytime soon. We had a photo session after and I felt really silly. We joked that we were like those terrorist that you see in the news with all their guns. Bad joke again I know.


Later that night we were sitting around wondering what to do for dinner and we decided to go to this place that someone had suggested to our Ukrainian friend who was staying at the hostel. Five of us trudged off to this little restaurant that was nestled below a church. It was beautiful and would definitely be a great "first date" place. We worked our way through the menu making sure that we picked correctly. I ended up ordering a beer, borsch, and some kind of pork with a rice type thing. The beer was on the ok side. In no way in Ukraine known for it. The borsch on the other hand was amazing and I am not a big beat fan. It had chunks of potatoes and meat in it as well. When my meal came it was little chunks of pork with a rice, kuskus type grain that had some pumpkin flavoring. One of the best things about it was that they aren't afraid of fat here. They leave it on, which really enhanced the flavor. Other things that were eaten by my friends was rabbit in a sour cream sauce and wild boar ribs. Those both looked amazing and I going back to have both for sure. All of the glass that was used in the restaurant was also hand made in the church above I believe. They have a shop for that as well and you can bet I am going back to look and hopefully buy something. Did I mention that my meal was only $10 American. Complete score.
It however is super late right now so I am going to go to bed and hopefully I will pick up where I left off tomorrow, but its also suppose to be 45ºF here tomorrow so I might try to find a beach or something and go sunbathing. Only kidding.

Day Seven in Europe: First Full Day In Lviv

My day started with me getting up at 9am (just so you all know I am now 7 hours ahead of Maine.) and rolled out of bed and right into the kitchen for breakfast. I had some toast and a few clementines. Breakfast isn't the best here, but it could be a lot worse. Its not like I am expecting french toast or anything, just more fruit would be nice I guess.
After that I took my shower and got dressed and went out to get reacquainted with the city. I first stopped at the bank and took out 1,500 UHR which is about $190. I felt really rich at this point, we all know I'm not. I then went into a bookstore and bought a dictionary. I managed to tell the bookstore people that I didn't want a Russian dictionary in Ukrainian. Quite proud of myself for that.
I then started wondering around the city, but I started to get hungry and headed to catch the bus to the grocery store. I stumbled across a protest in one of the centers and grabbed my camera out of my bag and started shooting. I went right to the front and got as close to the action as possible, my mother is probably cringing right now as she reads this. It was a peaceful protest by the way. I went and asked some of the people who were running the protest who were about my age what was going on and they explained that a new tax law went into affect in January and it is making it very hard for small businesses and they want to law repealed. I then went back to my photographing and I started chanting with them when I could understand what they were saying and a woman who was part of the protest stopped me and asked if I could e-mail the photos to them. I said of course and ended up talking with these people some more and got my picture taken holding the Ukrainian flag. My arm band to join the Ukrainian revolution should be arrive in the mail any day now.

The rally ended and I went off to catch the small bus to the grocery store. I was probably in there for a good hour. There is so much to see and most of it is written in Ukrainian. I stood trying to find the right water for probably a good three minuets. You see the Ukrainians like the water with bubbles in it a lot and its hard to find still water. I stood there shaking bottles to see if bubbles appeared. I choose right in the end and good thing I did for paying $1.50 for 6 liters. I ended up with some fruit, yogurt, turkey, a chunk of cheese, some ramin noodles (Just incase), bread, juice, tea, sour kraut, and frozen broccoli. I then went to the check out and as the lady rang everything up the total just kept going up and I was thinking Oh no I've gone and spend way too much. Yea I spent about $12 on all of that. Broke the bank on that trip to the store.
I then went to the bus stop and waited for mine. When I got on it was decently full. At every stop more and more people kept getting on and it was getting ridiculous as I am standing there trying to hold my bag, all my food and my six liters of water. When the bus would make a sudden movement and I should have moved I didn't, it was that packed. I could not wait for my stop to come. They do have a cool system though where you pass your money up to the bus driver from person to person and now one takes it. Would this happen in America? Probably not.
I then walked to my hostel and made a sandwich for lunch out of the bread, turkey, cheese and sour kraut. It was ok, nothing to write home about. I then spent some time talking with some of my hostel mates. I'm pretty much the baby here and one of the only girls, so the big brother syndrome is happening.
I went for a late afternoon walk around the University, through a park and then some of Lviv. I ended up stopping for tea and pastries at a place I had been before. The tea was fantastic. It was presweetened and had lemon in it as well. I got a little chocolate cake and what I thought was a fried dough type thing. It was like a huge fried meat dumpling masquerading as something tasty. Huge let down.
I then came back to my hostel and chilled for a bit and then made dinner and then hung out with two Aussie and a Canadian and talked about things. Mostly travel stuff of course.
Now it is time for me to go to sleep.

Day Six: Krakow, Poland to Lviv, Ukraine

This morning started off with me waking up at 7am after only a little over five hours of sleep. I took what I would like to think was a quick shower, but we all know I lack this concept, and got dressed. I did my best to pack properly and said goodbye to a few hostel mates. Also I must admit that this was one of the harder hostel goodbyes. I became good friends with a good amount of people there. Last night night I had a blast with Ellen and Scott. You see Scott is an Aussie, but he's also half Polish so he gave us a tour of Old Town last night pretending to be fully Polish. It was really a laugh the whole thing. Best part may have been him trying to speak his broken Polish to the girl at mcdonlds that spoke perfect English. A+ for effort right?
I checked out of my hostel and grabbed a quick breakfast to eat with me on the train and set off dragging my suitcase and another bag. I got on the train to find the first car completely full and wondered through the train until I could find a cabin that had a seat. I came across one that had three guys sitting in it, but then I heard Mama Otters voice in the back of my head about being safe so I kept looking for another cabin. I found one with a woman, a teenage boy and a nun in it. Seemed like a score to me and it was until the nun pulled out her laptop. Now the fact that the nun even has a laptop is kind of odd to me. She plugged in her headphones and started to listening to music, except there was one problem, it was still playing on the speakers. It was fine for a while, it was in Polish and I just put my headphones on and listened to my music and ate my breakfast. A little bit later a guy with the food cart came by ( I am still waiting for that witch from Harry Potter to come down a train and sell me chocolate frogs someday) and the nun and I both got tea. By this time she had switched to a song in English and the food guy kind of chuckled as he shut the door. At this point I kind of lost it. God was punishing me for the night before. I just knew it. The same song kept playing over and over again. It didn't end for the longest time.
The train ride that was suppose to be four hours was finally over after five hours, (welcome to Poland!) and I was in the border town of Przemyśl. From there I took a small bus to the actual border. At the border I got the pleasure of walking through all these Ukrainians on the Polish side trying to sell vodka and cigarets as it is they are cheeper in Ukraine. I went through the Polish side of the border and the woman had slight trouble finding the stamp for when I came into the EU, guess I travel too much and then she sent me on my way. I then got to walk through no mans land, did I mention this was all slightly up hill? I then got to the Ukrainian side and again got slight hassle from the border people. Its not often they have an American crossing this way I guess, but they were friendly the whole time. I am pretty sure they were just wondering what the heck I was doing going to Ukraine for February, just like everyone else I know. As soon as I came out of the border building a guy wanted to take me to Lviv in a taxi (It's like 40 miles away). I shook him off and then another guy told me he would take me for 30 Euros. I told him no that I was taking the bus. Mind you this was all conversed through very broken English on there part and like three words of Ukrainian on my part. I ended up finally getting to my small bus which was only a little over $2 American. I was the only non-Ukrainian on there and I couldn't have been happier. This is the real way to travel so you see the real culture. We drove through countryside and towns until we reached Lviv. I found my tram and took a seat and sat there in the freezing cold for about 10 minuets before it finally moved. I sat there thinking, Welcome back to Lviv and its horrible public transportation. Looks like someone is going to be walking a lot. The thing finally moved and I patiently waited until I saw places that I knew so I would know where to get off. I am pleased to say that I found my hostel without a map by memory. I got to the hostel and just laughed that it had not changed one bit, where as little Lviv has grown up since the last time I was here. I have the same bed and everything. I will take some pictures of my pad of the next month and post them for sure. Tomorrow I think I am going to spend going grocery shopping and I need to get a dictionary badly and I am going to go buy a months worth of Ballet tickets. Also I might look into sleeping sometime too.
Also I am including for your viewing pleasure an over happy me about being on a bus to Lviv <3

Day Five In Europe: Sunday Funday!

My Sundays normally consist of me going to my favorite breakfast spot, 158 Pickett Street Cafe, for brunch and getting a bagel with hummus and two cups of coffee, however there is no 158 here in Europe and I will not cheat on it with some two bit bagel place. So this Sunday morning I went to church. That's right Mama Otter I said church. I went to a nice big old Catholic Church (you try to find an Episcopal church in Krakow, Poland.) The service was in Polish and I didn't understand well any of it, but I got the point of it. After that I walked up to the big castle in Krakow and wondered around for a bit and then decided that I should just go to the movies as it was super cold out for being in leggings and frankly I had seen enough of the castle the last time I was in Krakow. I went and found my favorite theater and saw The King's Speech. I highly recommend it.
After the movie got out I wondered to the train station to get my ticket to the border of Poland to go to Ukraine. (I'll explain how that all works in my next blog.) I also stopped and got a kebab for lunch and went back up to my hostel room to eat it. My hostel floor was deserted when I got up there and I thought excellent I can get some blogging, packing and maybe even some reading done. Well then in walked this Aussie guy that I had seen around the hostel and he starts talking with me. Let me stop and explain the first time I saw him because its worth explaining. Two mornings ago I was getting ready for the day and I needed to dry my hair but someone was in the bathroom and I didn't want to wake my roommates up so I went into the common room and there is this guy just passed out. My first thought was He's kind of cute then Crap, where am I going to dry hair now? then it came to Wait, why the hell is he sleeping on the couch? Its against the rules. He clearly belongs here though because he's got a wrist band on. and then Oh, shit I don't want him to wake up and see me just standing here with a hair dryer in my hands and just a tank top on. For the record I also had jeans on. I wasn't just walking around in my knickers.
Anyways Scott and I ended up talking for pretty much half the day about random stuff. It was a really good chat I must say and was given an assignment of Aussie tv shows to watch when I get back home. I think I need to brush up on my mash too because I guess one of the characters is from a fake town in Maine?
Also Scott insisted that I put his picture in my blog. He wants to be famous in Maine I guess :)
Now its time for Sunday Questions!
These grand one are from Becca who I work with at JLCoombs.

Question 1 - How many times have you been arrested so far?
None that I know of. Had a few close calls. I really wanted to try to take a picture of the US Embassy again but thats not allowed and I wasn't in the mood to yell at a police officer that I was a tax paying American and if I want my picture taken in front of the Embassy it was my right to be able to do so.

Question 2 - How many european hipsters have you oogled at?
I was in Poland so most of the guys aren't up to par it was more the Aussie guys I was eyeing.

Question 3 - Do you have a Short Chestnut Ugg in size 5? Do I need to waterproof these? WHY ARE THEY SO EXPENSIVE?!?!
Nope, but I have a pair of broken in Emu Alba's in a size 10 that come water resistant, and for you I can sell them at a very nice price, yesss veryyyy nice.

See now wasn't question time fun? You still have time for next Sundays round!

Day Four In Europe: Auschwitz

Yesterday I went to Auschwitz for my second time. I took a small bus from the main bus station in Krakow through the snow and ice covered country side, past farm houses, run down parts of towns to the Polish town of Oświęcim. I was dropped off in the parking lot of the museum and from there I got my ticket for the tour and watched a fifteen minuet film on a brief history of Auschwitz. I left the theater and went to go find my tour guide. She turned out to be a blond Polish woman who reminded me a lot of one of my Polish friends from back home and it made me want to give her a hug a bit. The tour started with us going through Auschwitz One which was the first camp that was built. We went through different old barracks and had the history of the camp explained to us and what happened there. It took about two hours for this and after we went over to Auschwitz-Birkenau which is the bigger of the two camps (there was also a third called Monowitz that was an industrial work camp) and was the one where also most of the killing of innocent people took place.
The grounds of the camp are massive and seem to stretch on into the mist forever. All that is left for the most part is the main entrance building, rail way tracks, some barracks, a memorial, twisted ruins, and rows and rows of crumbling chimneys. The place has an eery calm about it.
Since it was my second time visiting it wasn't nearly as emotional as the last time, but the thing with Auschwitz is that it messes with your mind for a bit. It may not completely hit you right away. It needs time to sink in...

Day Three in Europe: Relaxing in Krakow

Sorry to all my devoted fans that I did not post anything yesterday, but life happens when you travel. But onwards to yesterday! I was more then slightly tired because the other night (night two people, keep up now) a group of us from my hostel decided to go out to some pubs and such. Don't you worry your favorite globe trotting traveler did not get drunk, but I did have some vodka and a few beers and this was also after a huge delicious Polish dinner of dumplings. All of the places we went too were underground which was awesome. There was exposed rock every where which gave it all a nice feel and look. Now for the beer drinkers in my life I know this is going to make you super jealous so if you turn away now its ok. Beer was brought to us in these plastic tubes which were at least four feet tall and had 5 liters of beer in them. No, I did not attempt to drink it all, unless my pint glass magically held 5 liters. There was one other American in the group, two British girls, two Turkish guys, one guy from Spain, one guy who use to live in San Paulo, Brazil but that wasn't crazy enough party wise for him for he moved to Ibiza, Spain (for those of you who don't know Ibiza may just be the party capital of the world.), and then there was "Angry" James from Canada, just why he is angry who knows.(He's really not at all.)
The next morning I got a late start and decided to wander around the Old Town Square. I had seen most the the square before and when I was walking a poster for Black Swan caught my eye and I went and saw it. Great movie and sometimes you just have to take some time out for yourself to relax. I ended up coming back to my hostel and taking a nap. I then had another great dinner, this time it was hotdogs Polish style. The hotdog itself is the same, but it is on a french baguette and there was lettuce, pickles, and raw onions involved. I was boring and just had good old ketchup.
After dinner some people were going to play flip cup and I really did not want to be dragged into that so I went over to the huge mall that is right across the road to get gelato. I went for the waffle cone with three flavors, Nutella, Cookies and Cream, and something that was vanilla based with like a butterscotch caramel sauce thing. It was super tasty. After that was over I wondered around the mall as it was warm and there is so much to see with its 3 giant floors. I ended up deciding that it was time for a hair cut. Nothing too drastic, or was it? After that I went and bought a hair drier, its just too cold to mess around with wet hair and it was like $6 so it works.
After I left the mall I was going to go back to my hostel, but the city was so amazing looking at night that I ended up talking photos for a bit. I still have to post those photos but I'll get around to it.
Also tomorrow is Sunday so get your random questions in!

Day Two In Europe: Exploring Jewish Krakow

Its only 4:15 pm here, but it is already dusk and the cold is finally getting to me as I sit here typing this. My day started off with me eating a nice hostel breakfast. I've forgotten how much I've missed these. They are normally pretty simple with bread, cereal, tea, coffee and such, but at Greg and Tom's (my hostel) they do a traditional Polish breakfast that has all of that, but some meats and oddly enough there were pickles there this morning too.
After breakfast I took the tram to the Jewish Museum to start my day of exploring Jewish History. To my pleasure and surprise they were having an exhibit on the Jewish population in Lviv Ukraine, which use to be part of Poland. It was really informative about the city and its Jews past. It was kind of freaky looking at the old pictures of Lviv and seeing how it really hasn't changed much. They also had quotes from Jews who had lived there during the time of World War Two about their experiences. It really made it a lot more personal and I had also read a book called "The Girl With the Green Sweater" which was about living in the swears in Lviv during the war, and she had contributed to some of the quotes so that really made the exhibit hit home. At the end they had pictures of everyone and their families. It was good to put a name with the face. In the rest of the Museum they had pictures and captions of all the old Jewish places in Poland and what they looked like today. They also had a little bit on concentration camps like Auschwitz.
I then wondered around for a bit until I ended up at Isaak Synagogue. It is one of the oldest synagogue in Krakow and was built in 1600s or something like that. I am not a tour guide I can't keep track of dates. A lot of the frescos on the walls have faded or are gone all together. There wasn't too much to see really, but I enjoyed it all the same.
I then took off wondering around again and this time I ended up at the Old Synagogue and let me tell you its really old, like 600 years old. This one had more to it then Isaak which was more like showing you a synagogue in its natural state and this was more like a museum on the history of Jews in the Krakow area and in general that happened to be in an old synagogue. I learned that you have to wait an hour at least in between eating meat and dairy for kosher food. I had always wondered how that worked out. Now I know and you know too.
After that it was time for me to wonder home. I had taken the tram there and thanks to my expert since of direction I just walked back as it wasn't too horribly cold out. I stopped and got a lovely pastry filled with some kind of red fruit jam, it wasn't raspberry that's all I know and that it was tasty. When I got back to my hostel I couldn't find my keys to get in and thought I had lost them, but no they were just in one of my other pockets. Good to know that I am nice and organized here too.
Now I am just sitting patiently waiting for my Polish dinner of dumplings. I hope they are good or I am going to have to go out in the cold and forage for food.
Also here is a link to my photos from today on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2082364&id=1218690440&l=2ac6ef6627