It has been a long day today, and we covered many kilometers today, both emotionally and in reality. It is nice to sit down for a bit and remember the day’s activities.
We started–as we always do–with sniadania, breakfast. Wojtek and Filip and I took a short trip to a nearby Sklep and found what we needed… bread, buns, butter, cheese, sausage, and juice. Wojtek was the chef this morning and he created quite a nice feast for us.
Eventually, it was time to get going on the first leg of our day, and for this one we took the car. We headed to a place that is very historic, but also very emotional for Poles–Cmentarz Łyczakowski we Lwowie. It is famous because in part the Communists tried to hide it by building a plant of some sort, and a road, over part of this. But Poles do not forget. And with the fall of communism, even though years ago under the communists Lwow was “cleansed” of Polish elements–those Polish elements still care, are still around, and are working on restoring the Polish part of the cemetary. It was indeed quite impressive. Though a long-time burial place for the city’s elite, it was also the burial place for almost 3,000 Polish soldiers who fought in the battle for Poland in 1919, along with a number of Americans. There is a long history of the cemetery, and I suggest you take the time to read it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lychakiv_Cemetery.
After, that, we headed back to the apartment and then Alicja and I set out to visit St. George’s Cathedral–truly exquisite–and the Church of Sts. Olga and Elizabeth–both truly exquisite.
Eventually we returned to the apartment to find Filip asleep, so Alicja and I went and had a wonderful lunch at a local place, loosely transliterated as Pushata Wata. It is a large buffet-style place with all Ukraininan food (and beer) and is very good. We had a good lunch there, for sure.
Eventually we connected with Wojtek and Filip after the nap, and then headed to downtown Lwow and the market square. We spent a good amount of time looking around there and visiting Churches and other historic buildings. You’ll have to wait for me to post some pictures to learn more–but I will eventually.
We did a lot of walking and saw a very lot of historic Lwow–it really is a very nice town. The roads could use improvement, yet the people are very nice and the streets and areas very clean. I like it here a lot.
In the morning we will get up and take off for the Karpaty, the Carpathian Mountains. That will be another wonderful trip. I don’t know if I’ll have any internet connection there, but we’ll see.
I am tired and it’s bedtime, but remind me to tell you about the Cymbala… the source of our common ancestors’ last name. We saw one being played tonight and I do have some video!
