Here is a short story about a pre-New Year trip to Lviv at the end of 2014.
Lviv is an old city with a strongly defined character, the kind of place you want to return to again and again. For me, Lviv is a kind of model Ukrainian city, the kind every regional center in Ukraine ought to be, with that kind of architecture, landmarks, and food culture.
You can get to Lviv from Dnipropetrovsk, as well as from most other big cities in the country, in several ways, each with its own pros and cons:
- by plane: fast, but very expensive, around 2000 UAH one way per person
- by car: long and expensive, about 1000 km
- by train: long, but inexpensive
A convenient option was added to train travel not long ago: the Dnipropetrovsk-Lviv train includes a car carrier wagon, so you can take your own car with you too.
We went by train. Even though I bought the tickets almost a month before the trip, there were still complications, which is predictable around the holidays. We managed to get only a standard compartment. Luckily, at the last moment one luxury compartment opened up, and with an extra payment the trip to Lviv became a little more comfortable.
The train arrives in Lviv at 6 a.m., while we could check into the apartment only at 11. What do you do early in the morning in a barely familiar city when you need to spend 4-5 hours somewhere? Naturally, go to McDonald’s, since it is the only place you know that seems like it should be open around the clock. Later it turned out that McDonald’s opens at 7 a.m., while the excellent place called Kumpel is actually open 24 hours.
By the way, in winter in Western Ukraine the sun rises very late, a little after eight, and it starts getting dark at around 4:30 p.m.
There is no point in describing every cafe, restaurant, coffee shop, and brewery in Lviv. Each place deserves its own article. I will just list a few of the most memorable ones that I recommend visiting:
Kumpel
Great draft beer, good food. Better to book a table in advance.
Atlas
Good atmosphere, reasonable price-to-food ratio.
Cafe 1
A good place from the owners of Kumpel.
Mushlya
An oyster bar. Expensive and tasty, if you like oysters.
Chornyi Kit
An unremarkable-looking bar from the outside turned out to be a very good restaurant. Expensive, but very tasty.
You should approach the choice of accommodation responsibly on any trip, and I believe the apartment should match the spirit of the city or country. So, like Lviv itself, it should be small, vintage, and very cozy.
Ours was exactly like that. It had two levels in a 17th-century building, a five-minute walk from the city center. Upstairs there was a bedroom with a tiny balcony and a shower cabin hidden in a wardrobe. Downstairs there was something like a studio that included an entryway, living room, kitchen, and a 1x1 meter toilet. The two floors were connected by a steep wooden staircase. Under pressure it creaked reluctantly, exactly as it should.
Heating was provided by two electric convector heaters, one on each floor. Because of the apartment’s layout, the first floor was too cold while the second was too hot. That was probably the only drawback.
Lviv also gave us two wonderful musical events: concerts built around the repertoires of Sinatra & Armstrong and Edith Piaf. That kind of music fits Lviv’s pre-New Year mood perfectly.
The biggest impression from the trip was the castles.
Unfortunately, we did not manage to see all the castles of the Lviv region, only two of them, the ones that were easiest to fit into the route.
The first one was Olesko Castle, located near the village of Olesko. As a historical project it is quite old, dating from the 14th to 17th centuries, but as a structure it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout its history.
Inside the castle there is a museum, which we did not manage to see because we were short on time, and a restaurant, which we simply could not pass by because we were very hungry.
At the end of December it is quite chilly near the castle, which stands on a small hill. In the restaurant we tried nalivky for the first time in our lives, Western Ukrainian fruit and herb infusions.
The next castle was Pidhirtsi.
It is a bit harder to get to than Olesko. If for the first one we only had to walk 20-25 minutes from the minibus stop, then Pidhirtsi is about 10 km from the highway, and half of that road goes uphill.
The place is even more interesting because of the later architecture added to the castle.
The overall condition of the buildings is unsafe, and some areas are closed off. You cannot get inside either.
Besides the castles, we also managed to visit the small town of Zhovkva. It feels like a tiny provincial version of Lviv, though apart from a few landmarks there is not much to do there.
Plans for future trips to Western Ukraine:
- see all the castles in the Lviv region
- spend a few days in Uzhhorod
- spend a few days in Kamianets-Podilskyi
- take the Lviv-Uzhhorod railway route