Lviv, Ukraine continued

I just wanted to add a few things about Lviv and will let Frank add photos and information about Olesky Castle, the excursion we took one afternoon.  As you can see from the already posted photos, Lviv is very beautiful, and it is considered to be the cultural center of Ukraine.  During its long history, it was often part of Poland.  The tour guide talked about the differences between Western Ukraine (where Lviv is situated) and Eastern Ukraine.  Lviv is very western in its political leanings and the people in the area align themselves with Western Europe whereas the eastern sections identify more with Russia and socialism.  Lviv has a very European feel to it in its architecture and the Viennese pastries that fill the bakeries. I didn't get to explore Lviv as much as would have liked because I was in meetings most of the week and because the weather made touring difficult.  Luckily, the first 3 days in Lviv, I had meetings with other English Language Fellows (ELFs) in the hotel, so I didn't have to walk much outside to get to my meetings.  When I did go outside with Frank in the late afternoon, the sidewalks and streets were treacherous and very difficult to navigate.  There didn't appear to be any form of snow removal on the streets and no one seemed to bother with shoveling the sidewalks, even in front of swanky hotels and restaurants.  As a result, the sidewalks and streets were a mix of icy mounds, big deep puddles, and crushed down slush. It was very cold in Lviv and the sky was gray every day except the last one.  Driving to the airport, the trees looked magical.  The ice was melting from them and they sparkled like Christmas trees.  They all looked like trees that had been strung with white holiday lights.  I wish I could have walked around and could have taken closeup photos, but I had to settle with photos from the cab as we were driving to the airport.

 

Views of sparkling trees as the sun melts the ice as we traveled by taxi to the Lviv airport.