Lvov, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kalush

Link to pictures from Monday in Lvov:
https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/LvovUkraine?authkey=Gv1sRgCLi8ioOFq8HNjAE
Links to pictures from Tuesday in Kalush: https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/KalushUkraine?authkey=Gv1sRgCIqN4JHAy-7v8gE
Links to pictures from Tuesday in Ivano-Frankivsk  https://picasaweb.google.com/nundabud/IvanoFrankivsk?authkey=Gv1sRgCNz2rZ_T3JvXUA


Monday evolved into a marvelous day. Lvov is a really beautiful city. Two friends went off in seach of the perfect dog, a new friend and I sat for a few hours in a really nice coffee shop while I repeatedly satisfied my caffeine cravings.  The shop came with its on hookah-boy, a youngster dressed in Persian style who provided water pipes for anyone who wished.  The smell of the smoke was pleasant and I found they weren't smoking tobacco but an herbal mixture filtered through milk, not water.  I didn't try it.

Our party started gathering (and I didn't expect it).  I started out with Igor, then Bogdan came, then Alexander, then Rostek and Denis.  Alexander (Sasha to his friends) ordered a bottle of champagne and we toasted whatever we could think of with endless clinking of glasses.  We then set out for a walking tour.  We visited so many places, they blur in my memory.  We hadn't gone really far when Sasha who is a professor of music decided we had to stop at a friend's tiny restaurant for green borsch.  So we did.  it only had five or six tables.  We took a trestle table and settled in.  More toasting, more clinking.  This time with vodka paprikash.  It's tea colored and spicy hot.  Another bottle bit the dust.  The green borsch was amazing and we then had meat and potato vareniky and finished with coffee.  Six of us ate a delicious meal which included a bottle of vodka.  The cost was about $32.  I forgot to say that on the way to the theater, we met one of Sasha's friends while walking.  I don't know her name but she is a famous actress in Lvov. She had red hair, a colorful outfit, absolutely beautiful skin and a suitably flamboyant style. She was lovely.  We continued walking seeing old churches and other buildings and monuments and finally took a taxi to the Greek Catholic Cathedral of St. George.  Then we went to the bus station for our bus to Ivano-Frankivsk.  It was a two and a half hour trip to go 75 miles.  The main highway from Lvov was a secondary road actually in bad repair.  Bumps and potholes and a few times cows in the road.  We kept stopping and picking up more passengers until we were stuffed to the gills with people.  In the bus station we met a woman named Tamara.  A very friendly, very talkative woman who whispered to me "my name is Tamara.  I am security"  Well, she certainly was VERY friendly.  When we arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk we immediately changed to another smaller bus/van to travel another 40 minutes to Kalush where we would spend the night at Rostek's home.  His mother is an Endocrinologist.  I got the pleasure of sharing a seat on the bus with Tamara.  A very warm woman.
We were welcomed like royalty by Rostek's mother and food started appearing as if by magic.  Potatoes and cutlets and salad and vareniky.  This was the first time I had vareniky stuffed with cabbage.  And a bottle of brandy.  More clinking, more toasting.  Another dead bottle.  It was loud and lively and fun.  Rostek's mother is a charming funny woman and we laughed a lot.

I suppose it was around midnight when we finally retired for the night.  I was awakend by sunshine streaming through the windows.  Oh, I neglected to mention that the season is a few weeks ahead of western NY.  The fruit trees and lilacs are blooming here and the tress are fully leafed out.

Today we will go back to Ivano-Frankivsk and visit an Orthodox monastery before catching our evening train to Kiev.  We entrain at 8 and arrive at 10am.  I hope I can sleep this time.  I will edit this blog entry in a while to give a link to some photos.