Lviv in May

In May 2009, I ended up going on a 5-day trip to Lviv in the Ukraine (before the War it'd been a Polish city).  A couple of days before the trip, my wife told me that she couldn't accompany me to Lviv, because her passport had expired.  Thus, with a coach about two-thirds full of Poles, I set off from Warsaw; went through Lublin; and crossed over the Polish-Ukrainian border after paying a small sum for a visa.  At the time, this was the furthest east I'd been.

This is a shot from above Lvov which shows that it's a reasonably picturesque place.  The first picture below is of a Uniat (eastern rite Catholic) church in Lviv city centre, while all the others are of a much smaller (I think western rite) Catholic church also in the centre.

If you look at the wall engravings on the outside, and the decor inside, this small Catholic church is genuinely impressive.

Besides churches, Lviv city centre had a certain dynamic.  This was a sunny May, and, in the street, men were playing chess, and some other people were taking part in some kind of street theatre as in the picture below.

In general, the centre of Lviv seemed like a very vibrant and colourful place:

Inside the church in the cluster of pictures above, I got to see a part of a Uniat Mass (I love Slavonic chant).  For this reason, I lost track of time, and missed the coach back to the hotel which was in a more concrete, grey, 'communist-looking' part of the city.  Thus, I had to flag a taxi to get back to the hotel.  Back there, absolutely all the food seemed to be soaked in garlic, and this even included chips.  This is okay if you like garlic, but if you don't  . . . 

While in Lviv, we had a tour of the Opera House in the city centre which reminded me of a smaller version of the one in Warsaw.

Moreover, I met a new friend, a (Vietnamese I think) pot-bellied pig.  This creature looked incredibly tired and was enjoying a mid-afternoon nap.  When its owner saw me taking these shots, I was 'encouraged' to hand over a few coins, of course.

Finally, my last shot from Lvov city centre is an eye-catching one from a Catholic church that was in the process of being restored:

I'd never seen a picture like this on a church wall before, and it had a certain type of charm.