Surprise!!!

I, for one, was nervous about this leg of the trip.  It didn't help that I received VERY little sleep last night.

While Alexis, on the other hand, was very emotional.  She was returning to the place where for generations her family had lived, and the last members of her family to reside in the Ukraine were her grandparents.  Both her grandparents were born in eastern Ukraine, so she felt great emotion about returning here.  (I'm taking dictation.)  There's also the thrill of immersing herself in a slavic culture and language, which is something she has done for all of her adult life.  She has many questions about what the political situation is like here.  Flipping through the TV channels, she got a flavor for what it's like here. While in Russia the Duma is a rubber stamp, here it seems members of the Rada debate, fight and form blocs .  There's a vital political life her which does not exist in Russia.

Our flights were fine.  It was noteworthy that the flight from Warsaw to L'viv was very short.  The stewardesses raced down the aisle trying to sell their wares before we started our descent.   Once on the ground, passport control was pretty easy.  We found our bags, and then sought a taxi.  Alexis had seen a sign warning visitors to drive only with cab drivers wearing a badge.  They must have seen me coming from miles away as they clustered around me.  I gave them false hope by trying to put them off with a murmured "Moment", only to take a left at the Ladies.

We found our badge-wearing driver and were off.  Alexis's Russian served us in good stead as she chatted with the driver.  He was giving us a history lesson, while we were  looking out the windows.  One of the first things I saw was a cow eating grass while standing on the sidewalk--just outside the city.

Our driver pulled up to a very nice hotel which looked great.  The door man grabbed our bags, the counter clerks wanted our passports, and the reception clerk started to look up our reservations.  This is where we encountered our first serious problem of the trip--we were in the WRONG place.  We had been left off at #20, but our hotel was at #12.  We made our apologies and rumbled down the sidewalk to our "hotel".  When we made our reservations back in August, we were amazed at what a bargain this was.  We were going to have to pay $23. Note:  If something sounds too good to be true, that's  because it is. We found the sign for our hotel--the Book Room.

Through those doors lurks a dark and smelly vestibule, with uncertain wooden stairs leading up eight levels.  We lugged our suitcases up to the second landing and then Alexis left her bags with me and continued climbing.  When she got to the spiral staircase, she was really unnerved because she could not see the end of it.  The only light came from the windows  in the stairwell, but those windows ended well before the spiral staircase.  Once she reached the top of the spiral staircase, she was almost nose-to-nose with the Book Room.  A barely visible sign indicated as much.  The doorbell was broken.  Knocking, ringing and calling  brought no response.  She placed her ear to the door.  There were no sounds coming from the behind it or anywhere else in the building.  It seemed the building was largely derelict.  She made her way down the spiral staircase with trepidation, stumbling twice.  We would never have make it up the spiral staircase with our heavy, overloaded bags.  Alexis could not have carried the suitcase, her backpack, or her bag.  She didn't have to say a word.  I said, "let's go back to the first hotel," and so we did.  We landed at the beautiful Swiss Hotel.

We announced we "were back" and begged them to find us a room.

It took some doing.  The head clerk took our reservation documents and then asked us how much we were interested in paying.  I told him we certainly expected to pay more than $23.  After making phone calls and consulting with one another, the head clerk told us to leave our bags in the reception area and to follow him to a room for our approval.  This is an old European building, so one has to meander up and down stairs and left and right turns down corridors.  We saw the room and turned to him with glee.  Of course we were going to take it!  The price was great!  The room is beautiful.  We have an en suite bathroom and breakfast is included in the price (plus they serve until 11).  We were thrilled!  Even better news:  We get 20% off dinner at the hotel restaurant.

We decided to take a walk around the neighborhood before dinner.  It was very interesting.

Alexis was excited because she thought this was a film museum.  It turns out that it's a coffee shop.  A really cool coffee shop, but a coffee shop (they even had French macaron).

Our flight arrived at 2:45 p.m.  We finally settled the hotel business around 5, and so were walking at dusk.  The light was really rather wonderful.

 We were headed to the central square when this street caught our eye.

It means old Hebrew Street.

This lion is guarding the street.

We saw a lot of these around town.

And, of course, we saw a lot of these.

This was kind of a shock:

But maybe it shouldn't have been.

Tomorrow, the real adventure begins.  The clerks recommended the World of Coffee, a famous coffee shop (apparently it's been around a long time).  We'll probably stop there for lunch.

The dinner at the restaurant was excellent.  The service was beautiful and the food was delicious.