Day 6

I will type fast today because I have no idea who’s network I am on. The secret police could be at my door any moment! LOL…. Well, just kidding…. I hope!

We started out the day today with a quick breakfast at the hotel, then packed up and headed out for Zamość, to see the Zamoyski Palace. We made it in about 70 minutes, not too bad, though we had some traffic and some road construction. Eventually, the road from Lublin to Lwów will be four lanes, but they are still working on it…and we had to turn off to Zamość.

After arriving at Zamość, we parked at the town square (rynek) and then walked around for a while. It really is a very beautiful and wonderful city, not quite like old town Lublin, but still very quaint. We saw the Zamoyski palace, very impressive. It was built by Hetman something Zamoyski, basically the leader of the military in times past. I surmise the job paid well–if you did a good job and lasted (i.e. did not get killed in battle….unlike today’s military leaders, long time ago leaders actually led–in front of the troops! But I digress….) . Anyway, Zamosc was very beautiful. We left the downtown around 10 AM and started to head out.

On our way, we stopped at Kaufland, a supermarket. It is a very nice store. I cant’ wait to post all the pictures I took on my blog, as you will find it very cool. It was very clean and very nice, and I thought the prices seemed low by American standards. Eventually, we hit the road, headed towards Lwow.

The distance to Lwow was about 126 Km, but it took us a good 3 hours to make it. Part of the delay was at the border. Stop and go, see this offical and then that one. My passport was looked at by probably at least four different people and got three different stamps. Fortunately, they took pity on children and because we had Filip with us, we did not have to wait in the really, really, really long line. Just the really long line. It really only took us an hour or less to get through the border though we had to go back one time because we were missing some stamp. As an American, they barely glanced at my passport. It seems like they were more suspicious of their neighbors in Poland…. Quite interesting!

Eventually we were on the road to Lwow. Oh my. Ukraininan roads could take some hints from cowpaths. At first, the road was really bad. Then it degenerated. But eventually, we got on a new road….that they were building…..and only one lane was open. Well, after lots of waiting and moving forward 1o meters (if that) at a time, we got past that construction and got on our way. We arrived in Lwow about 2:30 Poland time (we later discovered that Lwow is in a different time zone!).

After finally finding our apartment ( it’s really nice with a kitchen, a sitting room or parlor–mine–and a bedroom–along with a toilet and a bathroom) we struck out to walk along the downtown. It is really nice, but very old and in need of repair. Ukraine seems to be a very poor country. We eventually ended up having a so-so dinner at a high price, but the beer was cold. Then we headed back to our apartment for a bit.

After a short respite, we went to the train station about 3 or more km away, quite a walk. But it was worth it. Very cool. We walked around it a bit and saw it all, then took a taxi. The drive took us to the highest spot in the city, overlooking the city, formerly a castle, I think. And all around the old town. Eventually he left Wojtek and I to fend for ourselves and Alicja and Filip (who was very tired) went back to the apartment.

Wojtek and I had exactly one beer (and two nice sized shots of Vodka) at a restaurant, then headed back to the apartment, stopping for some Vodka on the way. Once we got back here, we had some vodka with Alicja and stayed up and talked in Ponglish for quite a while. Wojtek eventually went to bed and I stayed up and talked with Alicja for a while.

Lwow, is a very interesting city, and was for a long time a very Polish city. A lot of that history survives. Tomorrow we will explore more of it. And I will tell you more about it tomorrow.