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.

Lviv, Ukraine

An administrative building in Lviv

The auditorium in the University of Lviv where the plenary session for the teacher's conference was held.  This university building was gorgeous and was originally the parliament for the Ukraine province when Lviv was under the rule of the Austrian-Hungarian empire.  The classrooms in the building were up-to-date with projectors and computers for presentations and classroom lectures.

One of the lecture rooms at the university of Lviv.  The oval seating arrangement accommodated abount 30 people and each participant at the table had a microphone.

Lviv

Ice sculptures in Lviv



The Lviv Opera House

City street in Lviv

More city views of Lviv

More ice sculptures

The interior of the Strudel House in Lviv. (In an earlier post, Frank shared a photo of the exterior.) 

Poppyseed strudel with ice cream served at the Strudel House in Lviv.  Frank and I shared it, and it was as delicious as it looks.  Strudels in this part of the world are different from the ones in Slovenia.  There is only crust on the exterior.

Ceiling in the Strudel House with Christmas decorations

This was a Tex Mex restaurant in Lviv owned by Mike from Denver (really Castle Rock).  Considering the lack of availability of supplies and Mexican food staples, the food was surprisingly tasty.

University of Lviv - Annette giving her presentation - the poster for the room is below.

The Lviv Opera House interior.  Our last night in Lviv, Frank and I went to see The Elixir of Love.  It was a great production with a wonderful orchestra and high quality singers.  The set was exquisite even though it was obviously accomplished without much funding.  It looked like a Monet painting.

Lviv Opera House - it is modeled after the Opera House in Vienna.

Lviv Opera House

Ceiling of Lviv Opera House

Frank and Annette at the opera

Lviv, Ukraine

Dinner at the Cinema Restaurant in Lviv.  They were showing a documentary about George Harrison.  The apple/cherry strudel was yummy!

Views from the bus ride on the way to the castle.

This it the view of snowy Lviv, Ukraine from our 5th floor room in Hotel Nobilis

This is the University of Lviv and is a good example of the walking conditions I described previously.  All the shiny surfaces are ice, or some  combination of ice and slush and very slippery.  The rest of the photos below are just random shots of the city while I was roaming around.

So I hope those photos give you a feel for downtown Lviv.  I'm sure all the churches and buildings have names, but they are in Ukrainian on my map, so I'm not too sure what they are.  And since they are written with a Cyrillic alphabet I couldn't write them anyways.  I believe the church with the big dome and the statue in the foreground is the Dominican Church.

It wouldn't be the charronfamilykosovo blog without some reference to food, so here is the cute little Strudel Haus where I stopped for a snack.  I ate the mushroom and potato strudel before thinking to take a photo of it, so all I can show is the menu.  It was good, the mushroom sauce was marvelous!

We are off on a bus tour this afternoon to a castle 75 kilometers away from Lviv, so hope to add pictures of that soon.

Strolling around in Lviv, Ukraine

It has been cold and icy since we arrived in Lviv, which isn't surprising since we are in Ukraine and it is mid-January.  While Annette has been attending her ELF conference in our hotel I've ventured out to explore some of the city.  Monday morning the streets and sidewalks were treacherous as a result of freezing rain on top of existing snow and ice.  Everything was like an ice rink, and I slipped and slid my way around the downtown area for a few hours until I was totally exhausted.  The ice didn't seem to bother the locals however; I just had to swallow my pride as old babushkas and young women with 4" high heels zipped past me on the sidewalks.  I didn't take any pictures, but I managed to stay upright the whole time, which was my primary goal. 

This morning I looked out the window of our hotel room and it was raining, and with a bit warmer temperature it wasn't freezing.  I hoped that would make the walking a little easier, so after breakfast I grabbed my camera, umbrella, walking pole and backpack and took off to explore more of the city.  I couldn't have been more wrong, since the rain added additional hazards to navigating the streets and sidewalks of Lviv.  For the most part everything remained icy, the new rain just shined it up and made it even more slick.  In addition, massive puddles were everywhere, so crossing a street required extensive planning to pick the high points to avoid ankle-high pools of icy water.  Then the cars would go by and splash everyone on the sidewalks.  To make the stroll even more fun, everything was melting from high on the buildings so everyone was zigging and zagging to avoid the cascades of dripping water from above.  It was really quite an experience and after 4 hours I was totally pooped and wet and was very happy to return to Hotel Nobilis.  I am still having flashbacks of fear over one 3 block portion of my walk today.  It had all the ice and puddles and drips described above, but was also slightly downhill and for some reason extremely icy, and the sidewalks were large round cobblestones, which are pretty slippery even when they are dry.  I basically tried to skate or shuffle my feet the whole 3 blocks - not fun!  But no slips or falls, so a good day after all. 

I seem to be having the same problem Annette was having the other day so I apparently can't post any photos right now.  But, I will go ahead and post this narrative to the blog now and add the photos of Lviv as soon as I can, so check back soon.

Hi.  Annette here.  Just wanted to show you the view of Pashtrik from my classroom at the University of Prizren.  As you can see, this is a beautiful country!  The ridge of Pashtrik forms the border between Albania and Kosovo. 

Frank and I are in Ukraine.  Photos of Zagreba and our time in Ukraine will be posted soon!  We're going to brave the icy streets and go out to dinner now.

Last week Frank and I took a Friday daytrip to the town of Gjakova which is about a 45-minute bus ride form Prizren. This this the Bektashi Tekke, which was rebuilt after being leveled by the Serbs in 1999.

 

The Drini Rive runs through Gjakova.

 

Here is Frank in the Carshia e Madhe - the Grand Bazaar, a large marketplace which attracted traders from all over the region for centuries.  The buildings in the bazaar were heavily damaged during the 1999 war, but most have been completely renovated.

 

 Another view of the Grand Bazaar

This is an old han (inn), Hani i Haraqise.  The building is one of the oldest in Gjakova dating from 1562. Frank and I had coffee in the pleasant traditional restaurant just inside the windows that you see.

 

 We found this fish painting(?) interesting inside of the restaurant in Hani i Haraqise. It had actual fish carcasses incorporated into the art work.  You could fish bones and scales on the fish.

This is the main Catholic church in Gjacova.  It was on a hill and difficult to capture in the camera lens.  A nun who walked by said that services are only on Sundays at 11 and that daily Mass is in a smaller church down the street.  Gjacova has the biggest population of Roman Catholics in Kosovo.  

A side view of St. Peter and Paul Church

 

Across the street from the church was this butcher shop, and Frank noticed the depiction of a pig on the window.  He went inside and was able to buy some pork loin which he made into a delicious carne adovada sauce for burritos a few days ago (with the Chimayo red chile powder that we brought from New Mexico).  We cannot buy pork anywhere in Prizren, and it is not served in any restaurants since Prizren is the most traditional Muslim town in Kosovo.  We were happy to find pork for a change in our usual menu at home.

After buying pork and viewing the exterior of the church, we strolled in the surrounding Catholic neighborhood and came across this lovely view of Montenegro.  It was cloudy that day, so it is hard to see the high mountains of Montenegro in the distance, but the view was wonderful.  A older man who lived in a house with a large area of empty land where we stopped to take the photo came outside and pointed to the view and kissed his hand with his lips relating that the view is spectacular and he is thankful to have it.

 

We probably walked 7 miles throughout the day while we roamed around Gjacova. This photo shows and area known as the wood artisans' section of the city.  The doors and windows in most dwellings and buildings in Gjacova are made of this beautiful wood.  

A wood artisan's shop in Gjacova.  Cradles and a table are displayed in front.

 

Another shop in Gjacova selling wooden items crafted in Gjacova.

 

This is an alley way filled with wood artisans' shops.  It had a Santa Fe feel to it.

 

This is Hadum Mosque in Gjacova and dates from the 16th century. The mosque is famous for its colorful interior and exterior, but unfortunately it was not open when we visited.  The mosque was seriously damaged in 1999, but restoration work is almost complete.

 

The front entryway of teh Hadum Mosque

 

The area near the mosque still had many buildings which show the heavy damage sustained during the 1999 war.

 

Another war-damaged building in Gjacova.

 

After a long, cold day walking around Gjacova, this is me looking at the menu at Carshia e Jupave restaurant in Gjacova. The exterior of the restaurant is pictured below, and it displays aspects of traditional local kulla and citizen architecture. Frank ordered an item on the menu listed as "Sesame Chest" which was a chicken breast with sesame coating and quite good.  I think some of the menu translators could use some help in the English translations!  I had a Mexican steak which was also tasty. It was nice to have some food that was different from the traditional meals that are prominent in Prizren.