Lviv

Lviv is a few hours away from Kiev by train and often called the Prague of Ukraine. I know lots of people who have been and recommended it so we spent a few days there.

Our Airbnb in Lviv was a lot cheaper than Kiev but the decor was very, Slavic.

Toilet roll in Ukraine doesn’t have a hole!?

We were never up in time for the 10am walking tours so we found one on Google and did our own.

The city is really pretty with lots of nice architecture, fountains and displays. We didn’t go to any museums but the Folk Museum is meant to be good.

We walked up to the High Castle and viewing tower (which nearly killed me) but the view was nice so I guess it’s worth it...

The main thing we did in Lviv was eat and drink.

Champagne and katchipuri (Georgian break with cheese and egg yolk) breakfast was amazing

Dogs Like Ducks is a vegan hotdog shop (apparently 107% vegan but I don’t get the reference) which were really good. Being veggie I think the only other hotdogs I’ve had have been in Ikea so not much to compare to, they’d have been better with a bit of crunch.

Carrying on the vegan theme we went to Om Nom Nom for dinner, more hotdogs and burgers. The ‘cheese’ sauce was rank so I think get two hotdogs/burgers and skip the fries/wedges!

And finally because we were fed up of meaty Ukrainian food we went for a massive pizza

The Craft Beer and Vinyl Festival happened to be on the weekend we were visiting so we went along. You have to buy a 330ml glass and put tokens on a card but it meant that we got to try beers from loads of breweries. There were loads of food trucks but all very meaty and BBQ’y with hotdogs and ribs so I struggled to find something - the only thing was a caprese pitta bread thing which was decent.

I got a sleeper train from Lviv to Uzghorod which cost £4.47 and was old but fairly comfortable, I slept the whole way so that was fine.

From there I got a bus from Uzghorod to Košice which should have taken about an hour and a half. We got to the Ukraine-Slovakia border and there we sat for 8 hours... Slovaks are renowned for taking their time but this was a joke.

We were sat on the coach inside the border compound just waiting for Border Control to check our passports, I brought some Pringles for the journey but as it wasn’t meant to take long didn’t bring a drink. First world problem I know but annoying all the same.

I got off the coach in Košice and went straight to McDonalds for a drink (and 20 nuggets).

All in we had a great eight days in Ukraine and I’m sure I’ll be back again...