Faye and Peter in Lviv

Peter's parents are from the western Ukraine and we decided to visit Lviv. Personally I consider Lviv the most beautiful city in Ukraine. It's 540 km from Kiev and I drove there.  Last Xmas I drove to Zhitomir (130 km from Kiev) which is on the way to Lviv.  This 130km of the road was under construction in Dec and driving was a challenge. I expected that in four months the road will be finished. I was wrong. Four months later I have not seen much progress on the road since last December. Fortunately we drove when the traffic was (kind of ) light. From Zhitomir the road to Lviv is best one in Ukraine. It would be a pleasure to drive if the road would not be so crowded by horse carts, bicycle riders, people walking and crossing the road. It is unclear what is the speed limit on the road and I did not want to waste my time by negotiating a fee for over speeding with the road police. Thus I drove with moderation (some can call it slow). With few stops along the road we made to Lviv in 7 hours. I am sure some would drive faster. But I put a safety first.
The road was flanked by charming storks nests and these gracious birds were adoring almost each nest. Guess they brought a lot of babies along the road.

Lviv is wonderful. Cozy. With typical European cafe culture. We took a small "Thomas-like" train for a tour around the city. Walked around. Checked all the tourist spots. Had great meals - but still rated Yulia's food much higher. Tops.
We visited the tourist center to inquire about possible trips outside Lviv. A friendly young lady gave us names of all interesting towns in the region. She was really nice and excited to be both helpful and speak to us in English. She asked Peter and Faye what is the difference between a travel and a journey. She got an excellent explanation that a journey has an element of adventure, something unknown and unexpected. She told us she want to hitch-hike through the Europe. Three of us looked at each other and silently agreed not to be patronizing and destroy her dream. But three of us truly hope she will never hitch-hike to Europe. She is way too nice.

The major problem for us in Lviv was absence of Coca-Cola light. This is Faye's and Peter's most favourite beverage. In all Lviv's cafes, restaurants, kiosk and shops we found only three bottles of Coca-cola light (0.5l) in a very small local shop. Faye cherished them during our Lviv visit.
Not being able to order Cola light Faye was drinking a local sparkling water with lemon. When lemon was served without a strainer Faye wondered were it is. I tried to explain that a strainer served with lemon does not fit the profile of the country at the frontier of emerging markets.
We stayed in an excellent hotel. With the buffet breakfast included. The omelet station was handled by a big women with sour, angry face expression. Her expression was so intimidating Faye and I skipped an omelet the first morning. We later relaxed a bit after we reached a conclusion "the angry face" is possibly her strategy to avoid being too busy making omelets. Our wish to show her this (possible) strategy does not work with us gave us courage. We called a women "the Angry Face". On our last morning in Lviv when we arrived for a breakfast - the omelet station was empty. A waiter approached and asked "tea or coffee?". We answered and than Peter asked him "The angry face does not work today?" The waiter smiled and replied "Oh no. She will be in a minute". True to his words the "angry face" took our omelets orders few minuets later. It was good to see we are so easily understood.