The Soul of a Nation

Before leaving for my trip, every article and review of traveling in Ukraine recommended that if I did nothing else, I had to visit L'viv and Kyiv. So, naturally, that's what I did. Starting in L'viv, I learned over the course of a week that these cities were vastly different but yet both seem to be good representations of what makes up the cultural soul of today's Ukraine.

Welcome to L'viv

L'viv makes a strong first impression. The closest comparison I can make based on my experience is with Krakow, and that probably makes sense because L'viv was once a majority Polish city and isn't really very far from Krakow in southern Poland. The city was named after Lev (meaning 'lion' in Ukrainian), the son of the king of Halych-Volhynia back in the 13th Century. It was conquered by the Polish Kingdom in the late 14th Century, and from then until the Austrian Partition in the 18th Century it steadily became more Polish in character and ethnic composition, while at the same time maintaining one of the largest Jewish populations (over 100,000 by the late 1930s) in Eastern Europe. Like many other cities in Poland and Eastern Europe, WWII completely changed L'viv, and by the late 1940s the former Polish inhabitants had been largely 'relocated' to the city of Wroclaw in the new Polish Communist state, while the Jewish population disappeared completely due to the Holocaust. From 1945, L'viv became a cultural hub for western Ukraine and the overall Ukrainian national identity.

Today, L'viv has a well-preserved and/or restored old city filled with many narrow, cobblestone-lined streets where you can just wander around for hours, along with impressive museums, old churches and cathedrals, and some of the best coffee shops I've seen in Eastern Europe. They are truly obsessed with coffee in L'viv. For a visitor, it is a bit of challenge because you have to pick and choose (I set a limit at 3 coffees per day) and there's no way you can visit them all. As a testament to that, my hostel near the main square was called Coffee Home Hostel.

A particularly creative coffee shop/souvenir store, says something like "Here L'viv Coffee was born"

A really big coffee machine...says something like "here the coffee is made (cooked)"

 I never would have thought a city in Ukraine would have potential for 'coffee tourism', but L'viv proved me wrong. Besides the coffee, there is a whole range of interesting restaurant options (and cheap beer, I'm a fan now of L'vivske 1715). But given that I'm an American Peace Corps volunteer that hasn't seen Tex-Mex food in 8 months, this happened:

These enchiladas look good and they WERE good. 

For most of my time in L'viv, I just walked around for hours, taking in different sights and letting my curiosity guide me...along with the help of one of the best Iphone apps I've found for traveling. It's called Lviv Places. For free, it provides a comprehensive GPS-enabled map of the city, so basically you can wander around the city and just click on the next landmark you run into, and it provides a detailed description of each church, museum, statue, etc. It also includes restaurants and bars. Thanks to the app I actually had a clue what I was looking at without having a physical tour guide. So download it before you visit L'viv.

So what was the highlight of L'viv? Probably just the atmosphere in general. It had a very laid-back vibe, and it was very easy to get around. I took tons of pictures of old historical buildings just because they looked neat. It's a beautiful city. There's an old fortress up the hill where you get an incredible panoramic view of the entire city. The people are friendly. Food and drink are cheap. I met really cool staff and travelers at my hostel. It has a beautiful city park called Stryisky with miles of wonderful running paths. To be honest, there isn't much not to like about L'viv. I wouldn't be surprised if it is the next big 'discovery' on the tourist map for Eastern Europe if transportation options are improved and people lose the unfounded fear of crossing into 'dangerous' Ukraine. I don't usually visit places twice as a traveler but I'd give serious consideration to L'viv. I think these pictures do it some justice:

St. George's Cathedral, the largest in L'viv. Unfortunately I came at bad time of day so it was tough to get a good angle thanks to the sun.

L'viv Opera House

around the main square

Walking around after a brief rain shower

L'viv town hall in the main square

View of the main square from a window in the L'viv City Museum

The beautiful old streets of the city. B/W filter seemed to make sense

Dominican Cathedral

I think the only Gothic-style cathedral in the city

Old Soviet-era water machine near a bus stop

Main square at night

Outside a church I can't remember the name of....so many churches!

A small monastery in the city

The view from the Vysoki Zamok (High Castle)

Looking to the main square

My beer of choice in Ukraine, at a beer house. Wanted to go to the Beer Museum but it was unfortunately closed that day. 

So with some sadness I had to leave L'viv after three wonderful days in the city. To my next destination, I booked an 'express' train, and I was curious to see what that meant other than saving about 5-6 hours of time. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the L'viv - Kyiv train is nicer than any train I've been on in the United States. Granted, that probably does not mean much given the sorry state of our passenger rail infrastructure. But honestly, free wifi throughout the trip? Lots of leg room, nicer bathrooms than most airplanes (train bathrooms don't exactly have the best reputation anywhere in the world, so comparing favorably to airplanes is a step up), and traveling practically the distance from DC to Boston in 5 hours? Oh and the best part: 25 euros.

After the delightfully fast and comfortable ride to Kyiv, I made it to the city around 11am. My first impression of Kyiv: it's big. Like, L'viv and Kyiv have nothing in common. L'viv would be a large neighborhood in Kyiv. There were people everywhere upon exiting the train station, and I had no clue where the metro station was (it was right behind me as I walked out). So I wandered around a little, got hassled by taxi drivers and other random people, before I realized where I was supposed to be going and got to the metro station. So yes, Kyiv has a metro system, and a rather extensive one. One of the stations, Arsenalna, is currently the deepest station in the world at over 100 meters, and I learned on my 2nd day in the city that it really feels like it too. I felt like I was taking a journey to the Earth's core given how long I was on the escalator.

And hello Kyiv (at Maidan Nezelezhnosti, Independence Square).

Once I figured out the station and bought my metro tokens (they really belong in some kind of board game), I took a few stops and got off at the Khreshchatyk station, and from there it was a short walk to my hostel. Khreshchatyk Street is the equivalent of Kyiv's 'main square,' and despite the fact they also have Independence Square sort of connected to it, I didn't get the impression that it was the main artery of the city. At any time of day, Khreshchatyk is teeming with people, some going to work, some just going for a stroll, many for an ice cream or coffee, and it's the best place in Kyiv for people-watching. Another thing I noticed on Khreshchatyk is that I was hearing Russian much more than in L'viv. As a much  more ethnically and culturally mixed city, it wasn't surprising, and it actually made it easier to get around because I didn't have to try to recall the handful of words I knew in Ukrainian and just stuck to Russian. Or at least, the current Russian-Macedonian hybrid language that I speak. Understanding Russian was not particularly difficult, despite using it sparingly over the last two years. More complicated conversations or rapid-fire speech were a challenge, but they always are and probably always will be that way for me. Russian is just a really tough language. However, when I opened my mouth to speak, out came Macedonian like a reflex. I'd then stop myself, and stammer something partially intelligible in Russian, and sometimes they'd just switch to English if they knew it. Definite fail. At least after a few days I started to get a little more comfortable, and I think if I had another 2-3 weeks in the country I would have at least minimized the Russidonianisms.

Since my hostel was right on Khreshchatyk, I didn't have far to walk, and I checked in at the small but comfortable TIU Khreshatchatyk hostel before I started some wandering around Kyiv. Thanks again to the Kyiv Places free app, I was able to do the whole self-guided tour like I did in L'viv. Some interesting places on my initial stroll:

Independence Square

'The House with the Chimeras'

Taras Shevchenko monument- every Ukrainian city seems to have one. Ukraine's most famous and celebrated poet. 

St. Volodymyr's Cathedral

Zoloti Vorota (Golden Gate)

Just a nice building near the Zoloti Vorota

On the square across from St. Sophia Cathedral, facing St. Michael's

statue of Bogdan Khmelnytsky, somewhat controversial national hero

St. Sophia Cathedral

Love how the camera filter setting brings out the green here. 

St. Michael's Cathedral

Looking down at the Dnipro River

The Dnipro reminded me a smaller version of the Bosphorus in Istanbul. 

Pedestrian Bridge crossing the Dnipro

My walk through the city made it clear that it is a completely different from L'viv, with its own unique and storied history, and the confidence of a place that knows its been around for over 1,000 years. Coincidentally, Kyiv celebrated the 1,025-year anniversary of the creation of the Kievan Rus state a few days before I arrived in the city, so I watched the celebration/concert held in the middle of Khreshchatyk Street on TV while I was in Chortkiv. The golden-domed cathedrals in the photos are even more impressive up close. Just absolutely stunning. Another interesting aspect to Kyiv is the Dnipro River and how it divides the city into the 'Right Bank' and 'Left Bank'. I was able to explore this more through morning runs across the bridges, and in particular the route to the 'Hidropark' island allowed me to really appreciate the vastness of the Dnipro, one of the largest rivers in Europe, along with getting some great views of the famous Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra (Cave Monastery). Off all the places I explored on this trip through my running shoes, Kyiv easily took first prize.

For the rest of my time in Kyiv, I made sure to see the Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra, the Great Patriotic War Museum, and hopped on a short river cruise on the Dnipro on my last day. If I have one complaint about my time in Kyiv it was that my hostel did not really offer a chance to meet people. At least, people I consider normal. It was generally quiet as a morgue, and most of the travelers who stayed there only wanted to enjoy the nightlife and so were often still asleep into the late afternoons when I returned from sightseeing. I did meet one person who I would not say is a traveler, though I'm not sure what to call him. Maybe just an expat from Mexico, since he owned businesses back there but largely lived abroad. But wow, what a piece of work! We went out for beers one night and proceeded to tell me all about his women problems, how his one lover from Poland didn't appreciate him having a lover in Ukraine, and how he was still in love with some other married woman in Ukraine (he's married too), and how miserable all that is. His wife is clearly a lucky woman. On the other hand, beyond my fascinating Mexican friend, I did get a chance to meet some RPCV expats living in Kyiv and I enjoyed learning about their lives in Kyiv. It seems like a good city to be an expat, and I might see whether are any options sometime in the future, once I'm back at Monterey to finish off my MPA.

Before I veer off on another tangent, some photos from my last few days in Kyiv:

The Kyiv Obelisk of Glory - dedicated to those who defended Kyiv during WWII

Monument and museum to the victims of the Holodomor - the man-made famine (many say genocide) perpetrated upon the Ukrainian people during the 1930s, killing millions

Entrance to the Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra 

Map of the monastery grounds

View from the lavra

This was near the entrance to the 'Near Cave' where you buy a candle and walk down some steps through some narrow passageways that constitute a cave church. Within the church, there are chapels and coffins from some of the most revered saints from Ukrainian Orthodoxy. I would have lingered longer but it was so crowded I could hardly breathe or move. 

I believe a MiG-17, part of a small exhibit of WWII and post-war Soviet military gear near the war museum

The colossal Rodina Mat (mother of the motherland, it's a Soviet thing) near the Great Patriotic War Museum. Definitely makes an impression. 

Some interesting sculptures depicting the war outside the museum

The view from below the Rodina Mat

Outside the Great Patriotic War Museum

St. Andrew's Cathedral -  by the same architect who designed the Winter Palace and Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg

A shrine/church dedicated to sailors along the Dnipro

On a Dnipro river cruise 

The waterfront

Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra from the water

So this has become sort of an epic blog (at least one with an epic number of pictures), so it's about time I wrapped things up. Going back to my original thoughts, I feel like I did briefly get a chance to glimpse the character, at least on some level, of what makes up Ukraine today. Not only in L'viv and Kyiv but also in the rural areas of western Ukraine and the smaller town of Chortkiv. There are a lot of contrasts between every place I visited. I don't know which one is the 'real' Ukraine, but after visiting Kyiv I get the impression that it is the appropriate capital and cultural center for a nation that is still striving for that next level of progress. It is a symbol of what was possible in the past, with its role in establishing the first Eastern Slavic state, as well as a symbol of its future potential after 22 years of independence.

With my time in Ukraine at an end, I made my way to Borispol airport for the last leg of my trip - Polska.