The 16-Hour Trip In Lviv

Mastering only a bit of Russian and Cyrillic, I must say that my decision to visit Ukraine during the Euro Cup was perfect. With tourists and football fans coming to the cities, the country has employed English-speaking volunteers at the train stations, airports, stadiums and other public spaces. The volunteers are like heaven sent angels.

After almost a week exploring Kiev, I stopped by Kiev Vokzalna Central Train Station and did what a crazy tourist would do: order a roundtrip train ticket to Lviv, one of the host cities for the 2012 Euro Cup. I had previously asked Mas Haris about the city and he said that Lviv was unlike the rest of Ukraine.

"Lviv is like Western Europe. You'll see what I mean when you reach the city. Also, Lviv has many street signs in English. I think it's safe for you. But are you sure you want to go there on your own?" he asked.

"Sure," I said.

"How are you going to order the tickets?" 

"There are volunteers at the train station."

"Ok. The night train should be safe for you. Don't worry."

I think he is more worried about letting me go alone than I am :). Now that I'm writing this back in Jakarta, I could not help thinking what if something happened to the solo Muslim (and hijab-wearing!) female traveler who did not even speak Russian. Alhamdulillah, everything went well. 

The train to Lviv departs from Kiev at 10:40 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive in Lviv at 06:35 a.m. With the 2012 Euro, all types of accommodation have been fully booked. But that is allright with me, for I planned to explore the city in just 16 hours, then took the overnight train back to Kiev.

By the way, can you guess how much I paid for the roundtrip tickets to Lviv on a sleeper train's third class? Only around 145 Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH), or Rp 145,000! Lviv is located at 480 kilometers away from Kiev, it's like going from Jakarta to Semarang. But if you go from Jakarta to Semarang by train, that money can not even cover one way. Oh, Ukraine, the land of cheap trains, how I love you so!

I left the house at 9:30 p.m., hopped on a marshrutka (a kind of public minivan) to Kiev Vokzalna Central Station and checked out the big screen at the station's lobby. The volunteer who helped me ordered my tickets said that the platform number would appear on the big screen at the station's lobby 30 minutes before the departure. Once I read that it was platform 1, I immediately went there.

The Kiev-Lviv train

My train came and stopped with a screeching sound (made me imagining the trains in Harry Potter series). I hopped on to my wagon and tried to find my berth. The third class has no doors between the cabins, so people walking through the aisle can look at you. Each cabin has six berths, with four on one side of the aisle and two on the other side. Three berths are on the lower side and three on the upper.

The aisle

My faithful backpack on my berth

I was the first coming in the cabin and I got the lower berth. Yay! The train started its journey and everyone made their mattresses for sleeping. Besides the mattress and a pillow, each person gets a sheet, a thin blanket, a pillow cover and...a towel! Oh wow, there I was taking the cheapest train in Ukraine and I felt like a queen already. Indonesia's railway company PT KAI should learn something from Ukrainian railway company.

Inside Lviv Central Train Station

Accessibility

Lviv Vokzal Central Train Station

The train reached Lviv at 06:32 a.m., three minutes earlier than planned. I asked an officer how to get to the city center. He said in broken English that I should take a tramway number 9. I said thank you and started my exploration in Lviv.

The tramway that goes to City Center. Only cost me 1.5 UAH, or Rp 1,500 :)

A photo shot during the tramway ride

Lviv is known by many names, with Polish calling it Lwow, Russian Lvov and German Lemberg. Unlike Kiev, which has Soviet-style architecture (that is how Mas Haris and Dima call it, hahaha), Lviv has beautiful architecture that reflects various European styles and periods. Strolling along the streets of Lviv, you can get a feeling that you're in Rome or Vienna (I'd like to say Paris, but I've never been there :P).

Now, did you remember Mas Haris said that the city had English-language street signs? It's not completely true. I still found signs in Cyrillic, even in the Lviv Vokzal Central Train Station. Fortunately, after a week in Ukraine, I've mastered basic Cyrillic words. So I survived the streets of Lviv :).

The top line reads "Center". I don't give a damn about the ones below :P

I brought Lonely Planet's Eastern Europe edition with me. I opened the Ukraine chapter, read the Lviv part and started walking around the city center. The great thing about European cities is all tourist attractions are in the city center and within walking distance.

All museums, offices and shops open at 10 a.m. in Ukraine. So I kinda explored the city before it's opened for public:). Below are the pictures I took there.

 

The weather was cold when I visited Lviv. Probably around 15 degree Celsius (for a tropical animal like me, 15 degree Celsius is cold!). I had to wear my jacket and constantly went into a building to warm up. Brrr. The crazy thing was I made it to Lviv Stadium, which is in the city's periphery, amidst the chilling weather.

This has got to be the highlight of that day: hot chocolate! And the waiter could speak English! Yay!

During the train ride back to Kiev, I met two Russians and an Ukrainian. They spoke English and were quite chatty (perhaps because they were drunk, but thank God they did me no harm). They said they had just visited Odesa, a port city in southern Ukraine, before going to Lviv and even recommended me to visit that city. This must be a sign :).

Newlyweds Tradition In Ukraine

The attack of the newlyweds. Taken from the top of St. Michael's bell tower

Come Saturdays and Sundays and the streets in Ukraine will see many newlyweds couples in the churches, parks and other public spaces to get their photos taken by their wedding photographers.

Instead of having pre-wedding photo session, the couples hold post-wedding photo session. They go from one place to another in their dresses and suits, seeming oblivious to the damage they cause to their outfits.

They are just everywhere. Taken in St. Sophia's complex

In Indonesia, most couples usually take pictures during the wedding reception, where they would stay on a stage and the guests would queue to take pictures with them. Recently there has been a trend to do the pre-wed photos.

When I took a trip to Odesa, I found them too. Or perhaps it was them who found me :P

But this Ukraine tradition is so cool, definitely something I can try on my wedding day (whenever that is) :).

I asked Dima about wedding tradition in Ukraine, the size of the wedding party etc etc. He said that it usually depended on the couples, whether they wanted to have a big/small wedding. 

"Recently, I hear many couples are taking honeymoon abroad, such as to Indonesia's Bali," he said.

Inside St. Michael. This couple remind me of my colleagues Adt and Esutoru:)

I love seeing how the couples' faces lit up with happiness. I hope the photos taken on that day will always be a reminder to them on the merry beginning of their marriage.

My friend Fani kindly asked a couple if I could take a picture with them. They said yes. If anyone wondering why I went to Ukraine, I could always say,"Oh, I attended my bestfriend's wedding Sasha and Elena." :)

 

Anyway, do you have any plans this weekend? There won't be any newlyweds walking on the streets of Jakarta for you to snap pictures of, but here are a few ideas on things you can do:

-- If you like string instruments, go to the concert of Taman Suropati Chamber on July 7 at 7:30 p.m. at Jakarta Playhouse. I've written several articles about them, so I'm very excited to hear about the concert. I might go if I got the ticket today.

-- JakCloth 2012 will feature more than 200 indie clothing brands, five music stages, BMX - skateboard, fingerboard. July 5-8. Parkir Timur Senayan. 

Have a lovely weekend!

A Guide To Basic Cyrillic And Russian

When I was a kid, D told me that his father (my paternal grandfather) could read Russian Cyrillic. I remembered feeling curious about the alphabet system, but since there was no courses on Russian, I just let it pass.

The keyboard at Amr's home uses two alphabet systems: Latin and Cyrillic. And yes, it needs some cleaning too.
 

Learning new alphabet system is never easy. I've taken a course on Japanese hiragana-katakana during college and also tried to decipher Korean hangeul during my three-week stay in Seoul in 2010, all failed miserably. But when I landed in Ukraine, I was really captivated by the Cyrillic alphabet. 

The thing is although Cyrillic is different to Latin alphabet, it actually has letters that look familiar to people using the Latin. There is a mystery in Cyrillic, which looks like some kind of a code we need to break. Oh well, it's just me and my silly curiosity :).

Prior to my departure to Ukraine, I knew that in Cyrillic system, P is R, C is S, H is N and T is still T. Phew. At least, my initial is still the same. But of course there are other letters I did not know yet.

So when I had the city tour with Dima, I asked him about the Cyrillic letters that I had not known yet and started practicing it. He was pretty impressed to see my progress as I could slowly read some words on the building and the street signs (I felt like a four-year old again, hahaha).

During our way home, we passed a street sign that had Latin script. 

"Oh, we're already on Zhylianska street," I said. 

"Yes, we are," Dima said.

Then he talked in Russian with Sasha, who calmly said,"English."

Hahaha. I don't understand any words they said, but I could guess that Dima expressed his surprise that I could read "Zhylianska street" to Sasha, who could tell that I was actually reading the Latin version. In Cyrillic, Zhylianska does not even look like Zhylianska. It looks like this >> Жилянская  

"Hey, I can read some words in Cyrillic. But I'm not that good," I said, laughing. 

Anyway, once you remember the letters, reading Cyrillic is quite easy. Now, if you don't know Russian, then what good does it make? You can read it, but you don't know what it means :D. Here are some basic Cyrillic words.

Presa/Pressa. News stand. 

Notarius. Notary.

 

 Apteka. Pharmacy.

Posta. Post office.

Restoran. Restaurant. This is actually one of the first words I mastered. Either I made progress in foreign language or I was hungry. Oh well, it's probably the latter :P

Peron. Platform. In Indonesia, we also call platform as peron.

By the way, mastering Cyrillic will be an act of survival because not all street signs in Kiev use Latin alphabets. If Kiev, which is the capital of Ukraine, does not have street signs in Latin, then you can imagine the condition in Ukraine's big cities. It's mostly Cyrillic!

This is an information board in Lviv Central Train Station. I can only read the first two-line: Informacia automatichni kamery skowu. I don't have a slightest clue what that means. Must be something about information and automatic camera :P

The first Russian word I learned was spasiba (thank you). It was definitely a must-know word, for everytime I said it people would smile and replied back (perhaps saying "you're welcome"?). Then of course, other basic words, such as skolka? (how much?) and numbers, like one to ten. Oh, by the way, two in Russian is dwa, sounds like dua in Bahasa Indonesia and eta means this/that, sounds like eta in Sundanese (also means this/that). 

Trivia Time: Did you know that Sundanese traditional song Panon Hideung (Black Eyes) is actually an adaptation from Russian folk song Ochi Chernye (also means Black Eyes)? With my paternal grandfather also came from Sunda and could read Cyrillic, I wonder what kind of relationship Russia and Sunda had in the past.

Anyway, I enjoy learning Cyrillic and Russian. I hope I can learn more about the language and the alphabet system because now I'm interested to visit Кыргызстан.

Can Someone Tell Me Where To Buy This T-Shirt? LOL

Found here

Never Like The Twilight Series, But Love The Song

Ga to the lau. Oh yeah!

Between Andriyivsky And Mariyinsky

After a very packed city tour with Dima on June 9, I looked forward to a more relaxed tour the next day with Fani. The day kicked off with bright sunshine, but then thunderstorm came, followed by a blackout. When Fani came, we decided to wait for the rain to stop and played domino. Hahaha. 

Oh well, it's a holiday anyway. Just enjoy the moment.

When the rain was cleared, we went to Andriyivsky uzviz (Andrew's Descent), a street often dubbed as the Montmartre of Kiev. Not really sure what it means for I've never been to Montmartre :P. Anyway, below are some photos I took. Enjoy!

A few days ago I found photos of Andrew's Descent in infrared. Below is just one of them. You can see more by clicking on the link 

Found here

From Andriyivsky uzviz, we headed to Mariyinsky Park. We simply sat there and enjoyed the greenery. Ahh, c'est la vie :).

One of the perks of traveling to Europe in summer is you can stumble upon festivities everywhere. This musical festival held in Mariyinsky Park was titled Euro Pischeny Vernissage.

 The Love Bridge. Read more about it here. By the way, the girl in white shirt and baseball hat is Fani.

Along The Dnieper River

Hi there! This morning the traffic was a bit relaxed. Perhaps everyone was watching the Euro Cup finals and woke up late? This week, I'm going back to my posts on Ukraine.
 
During the city tour the other day, we often drove along Dnieper River. We even crossed the bridges that connect Right Bank and Left Bank.The Right Bank is where the old town and cool things are, such as the St. Michael, St. Sophie and Kiev Pechersk Lavra. So what's in the Left Bank? It's just a residential area.*Yawn*

Sasha was speeding as we crossed the bridges between Right Bank and Left Bank. But it still took us some time to reach the other side. When I asked Sasha how long the bridge was, he just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Probably 3 kilometers."  

"Your favorite writer, Gogol, once wrote that 'it's a rare bird that can fly to the middle of Dnieper river',"  Dima said. Gogol is not exactly my favorite writer, but I get the point: Dnieper is a big river!

Dnieper River is the fourth longest river in Europe, after Volga, Danube and Ural. Flowing from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea, Dnieper River spans at 2,285 kilometers, with 1,095 kilometers lies within Ukraine.

A few days later, when the weather was bright and sunny (I experienced a thunderstorm and a blackout on June 10, quite scary), I decided to board a boat cruising along Dnieper River. This time I went with Mbak Ida and Mbak Sul, Mbak Ida's friend.

A one-hour boat ride along Dnieper River usually cost around 50 Ukrainian hryvnia. But we got lucky for we had one hour and forty minutes boat ride for the same amount of money. Here are the photos.

 St. Andrew

Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Graffiti along the riverbanks

  

A plot of sandy riverbank where people lay under the sun and get some sun factor.

By the way, if you check in the Internet, most capitals of Eastern Europe countries are located near rivers. Warsaw of Poland is located on Vistula River, Prague of Czech Republic is on the Vltava River, Minsk of Belarus is on Svislach and Niamiha River, Vienna of Austria and Bratislava of Slovakia are on Danube River. Rivers are indeed the cradle of civilization.

After the boat ride was over, I asked Mbak Ida if she'd like to accompany me to the sandy riverbank. She said yes. So off we went to the other side of the river by crossing the pedestrian bridge.

Crossing the pedestrian bridge

We got there, found ourselves a spot under the trees and just enjoyed the shirtless bodies euh I mean the river view XD.

Hope you have a sunny day too!