Hi. I just wanted to talk about the wonderful hotel where we stayed in Lviv. My mid-winter meeting with other English Language Fellows (ELFs) from our region (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Kosovo) was held at the hotel for 3 days, and then we moved to the University of Lviv for the Midwinter Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) conference held for English teachers in the region. all of the ELFs gave presentations at the conference.
Our room at Hotel Nobilis. Every evening we could go to the beautiful bar room on the top floor and have one complimentary drink and some snacks (four individual different fancy hors d'oevres brought by the waiter). The second night we went to have a drink with a couple of friends before dinner, but the waiter didn't bring our "snacks" as they called them. We noticed that the other tables had been served "snacks," so we didn't think the waiter understood when we asked for our "snacks". When another ELF joined our table, I made a point of asking politely once again for our "snacks" and I showed him our little card that said we had a free drink and snacks. The waiter looked at me directly and just said, "You, no snacks!" and walked away. It was a little shocking at first but then we just started laughing about it (quietly, of course). It seemed that I was not allowed to have any more snacks in the bar, but after thinking about it, I realized that we had come for our drink rather late and the bar had probably run out of "snacks". Also, the waiter's English was very limited, so he just blurted out the easiest thing he could think of to say and seemed to direct his comment to me exclusively. You will be glad to hear that I wasn't banned from having snacks for the rest of our stay. The next evening, our table was served the snacks which were a few small beautifully presented appetizers (like a piece of cheese with a tomato and lettuce on a toothpick or small puff pastries).
Another view of our room. We had a complimentary breakfast every morning and it was quite the spread. It included a table with fresh fruit, meat, cheese, fish, and breads and another table with fresh fruit, yogurt, juices, and pancakes. You could also order anything you wanted from the cook - omelettes, eggs, hot cereals, meats,etc.) The best thing was that you could order as many macchiatos or cappuccinos that you wanted. My favorite thing at breakfast was the creamy oatmeal that they served.
Unfortunately, the first two days at the hotel, the ELFs were also served a lunch which was great, but most of us weren't hungry enough to enjoy it after our big breakfasts.
We also had full use of the spa and exercise room during our stay. I was so busy the first few days that I didn't have a chance to even think about using the hotel amenities. I heard that a lot of ELFs were booking the sauna, however, so the fourth night of our 6 night stay, I booked the sauna for me and Frank. It turned out that by booking the sauna, we had the use of the entire spa for one full hour. That included a huge jacuzzi, a steam sauna, a dry sauna, two showers, and a lounge area with cable tv. The area was almost as big as our home in Pueblo! It was great...wish we could have used it more than once, but we were too busy the rest of our trip.
Me with two other ELFs at the cinema restaurant - Cleyara in the middle who is from Texas and is working in Nis, Serbia and Danielle who is from Pennsylvania and working in Tirana, Albania.
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