LVIV FINALE AND HOME. EVENTUALLY

1st - 4th Aug 2023

Monument to the Victims of Soviet Crimes.

The monument above, to the south-west of the Old Town, is supposed to depict 'a brutalist, angular figure breaking out from iron prison bars'. Frankly, I couldn't work out which way up it was meant to be!

There are lots of museums around town and I failed dismally to visit all but one. This was the 'National Museum and Memorial to the Victims of Occupation' on a small street (Vul Bryullova) near the monument above. It sounded interesting. I went there on a Monday. It was difficult to find (not helped by the guide book giving the wrong address!) and was only marked by a small plaque above a metal door....which was locked. I rang a small doorbell and a wizened little man half-opened it and peeked out. He spoke no English but I gathered the museum was closed, but maybe open the next day. So I returned on Tuesday. It was open. The reception area was rather grotty and the same wizened little uncommunicative 'guard' was inside together with a rather dour looking woman. The 'museum' is a dilapidated ex-jail (Lonskey Prison, built in 1923) which housed prisoners from, in turn, nasty Polish, Nazi and Soviet occupations. 'Activist' Ukrainian nationals, as well as many innocent civilians, were brutally treated; imprisoned, tortured and many executed or just murdered,  by these occupying powers.

Left: A description of the museum/prison. All the other signs and wall-mounted descriptions were in Ukrainian which wasn't much help for a tourist. Click on to enlarge and read.

The museum was on two floors and was really rather untidy and not actually very interesting. I was the only visitor at the time.

Right: There were lines of, mostly empty, cells on the two floors. A few were ex-prison offices with photos of deceased 'nationalist hero' prisoners on the walls and descriptions in Ukrainian. In one cell a video, on a loop, was being shown. It was gruesome, with film of people being shot (executed) and piles of bodies, men, women and children, being carried on carts or dragged away, to be dumped in open pits. 

Left: These were the 'ablutions'. It reminded me of the 'facilities' in the Junior Officers' Block after a particularly 'boisterous' evening, involving 'thunderflashes' in the Mess when I joined the army. Luxury!

I think the place ceased to be a prison in 2009 and obviously not much refurbishment has been done since.

Right: There is another delightful watering-hole nearby; the Sim Porosyat Café. Very 'rustic' with a creaking, splashing waterwheel and small comfortable seating areas on two floors. The waiter and waitress were colourfully dressed in their Ukrainian Vyshyvankas (shirts).

Left: Another shop selling 'Vyshyvankas'. I bought one last year in Kyiv.

I think I have written enough about the sights and scenes around Lviv and still have many photos not shown. I can't stress enough what a pleasantly quaint (with modern facilities), clean, friendly and interesting place it is. It was, of course, bereft of foreign tourists but there were many Ukrainian ones, which was fine by me! The accommodation, local transport, eating and drinking facilities were first class and remarkably inexpensive (by UK standards). I was much impressed.

So, as mentioned in the blog on my arrival, I was booked onto a bus due to leave at 3.30pm on the 1st August and was told it would get to the Polish border town of Przemysł (pronounced 'puzhemsuw'. These Polish words are so 'difficult' to pronounce) at 8.00. I subsequently booked a cheapo hotel room for that evening and a Flixbus ticket  (the trains appeared to be all booked up) onwards to Krakow on the morning of the 2nd.

The bus departed on time and was full up. So far so good. At 5.15pm we pulled into a service station area, presumably near the Ukraine/Poland border. There were about 15 other buses parked up there. I tried to find out how long we would be waiting here. Unfortunately nobody, including the 'conductor', on our bus spoke English.  Everybody had got off their buses and proceeded to a) queue for the loos....there was a constant 50yards long queue for the 'ladies'. b) go shopping in the Supermarket c) got out rugs and picnics and relaxed on the grass areas. There was only very limited seating around the shop.

Left: The 'supermarket', which was well stocked with food etc. and even produced cooked meals. I suspect with a name like this it would attract some 'controversy' in UK? There were very long queues of shoppers here also.

Right: The picnickers. I eventually found a lady who spoke English. I asked her how long we would be staying here. Her answer was "about 10 hours, but it varies". What?!!!. Obviously my fellow travellers had done this before, or knew the form, and were unconcerned and well prepared! The road ahead looked clear so I couldn't understand what the problem was. Someone else told me, with a shrug of his shoulders, that there is a shortage of customs personnel at the border. My problem was (with the language difficulty) that I couldn't afford to lose sight of our bus in case it suddenly decided to set off. I could sit on the bus of course, but needed to get some rations and make use of the facilities. I hung around and kept my eyes on the bus. It did move occasionally as others in front of us left. There appeared to be absolutely no information broadcast as to 'departures'.

We pulled out at 00.30am. It had been only a 7hr15min wait! So, I naively thought, we would get into Poland soon. We travelled on for about 30 minutes, then another halt for about an hour before finally reaching the customs post. The process through here was straightforward if slow. OK, onwards again to the Polish customs. It wasn't far BUT the bus stopped with engine running and us on-board for a further 3 hrs before getting into the customs hall. The Polish customs insisted that we took in all our baggage and either hand-searched or X-rayed it. What were they looking for? Weapons? Illegal immigrants? I think we got going again at about 5.30am. We reached Przemysł town at about 6.00am Ukraine time and, conveniently, at the railway station. It had been a total of about a 15hr journey.....with no sleep. The lady who sold me the bus ticket in Lviv presumably meant arrival at 8.00am! We were early! Anyway, I had no need for accommodation (and fortunately I don't think I paid for it). I went into the station ticket office and managed to get a 1st Class rail ticket to Krakow (for only £15 equivalent). The train left at 6.00am Polish time (they are an hour behind Ukraine). There was an amusing Polish couple, unrelated, a young man and woman, in my compartment who both spoke perfect English. He normally worked as a 'financier' in London and she was a travel consultant working in Warsaw. We passed the time most convivially. It was a very comfortable journey, with breakfast, arriving at Krakow Central at 8.55am. 

I suppose the lesson I learnt, should I ever re-visit Ukraine, and I might well, is to make sure to book a return rail ticket at Warsaw!

I had booked (while on the train) a room in another 'cheapo' hotel in Krakow. As it turned out this was a very comfortable and well located establishment with a most helpful and jolly manager. It was also, by chance, within easy walking distance of the railway station. If any of you are interested I can strongly recommend the 'Old Time Residence' at 32 Szlac Street at about £40 per night. There is a laundrette nearby.

I was due to spend two nights here before flying back to London. I will not bother to publish much from Krakow as I 'did' the place at length in a blog in May 2022. Nothing much has changed and it remains a most pleasant (with lovely ye olde worlde centre) city. It is very popular with tourists at this time of year. A few shots to follow.

Right: A pub in the Krakow Old Town with a rather apt notice! There were still Ukrainian demos going on the the main Square...same as last year.

The Old Town and bars attract many British tourists and, similar to last year, several of them are the 'tattooed, bull-necked, fat, unshaven, knuckle-dragging, loud-mouthed football supporter types", and their menfolk! Football was on the TVs in some of the pubs.

Right: The lines of pleasant pubs and cafés which surround the Square. 

Left: A young lady in national costume who tried to get me to have my photo taken with her, for a price. I declined the offer. She managed to get families with children to pose and dressed them up in colourful headgear kept in her basket. She was doing good trade.

Back on a Wizzair flight from Krakow (rip-off cabin bag charge as normal) to a gloomy London Gatwick (LGW) airport. It was rather depressing re-encountering the scruffy, chaotic LGW with its grumpy staff (several of whom have difficulty with the English language) when compared to the much better, efficient and more cheerful facilities in the countries I have just visited. I arrived at 8.30pm, and caught a train at 9.30pm to the grotty town of Reading accompanied by some semi-intoxicated passengers. Arrived at Reading at 11.20pm and told the train to my next destination left at 00.17am. On arrival there there was no further service, not even any station staff present, to my home town. At 01.15am I was forced to get a taxi from outside a raucous pub (still open and playing loud music to a mob of inebriates). I was charged £45 for the 9 mile journey!

It's so nice to be home! 😒😠 Where next?

PS. I've now been back home for a couple of weeks. It is so noticeable, and depressing, to see how fat and dishevelled the local British people are in comparison to those in the  places (Portugal, Poland and Ukraine) I have visited recently! The women here are mostly flabby, if not hideously and morbidly obese; many with ugly tattoos and metal-work stuck through their noses and lips. The menfolk, nearly all of whom nowadays appear idly unshaven; not proper beards, just unsightly stubble, are ill-dressed and scruffy. Where is their pride? (Sorry I shouldn't have mentioned 'Pride'! That is now reserved for the LGBTQIA+ community).