Tuesday

Berika and I went shopping and ate at we all call “The Luby's of Ukraine” but we had no luck finding what we wanted. She was looking for a dress and I was looking for shoes and we found neither! We did note how much was imported and one of our tour guides told us later that Ukrainian women like to wear dresses and shoes like that as a sign of emancipation. I did take some really cool pictures on the way back of St. Vladimir's and our hotel at night.

Holy Trinity Day

So we had to go to work on Monday (5/24) but some people in the city did not. We did find places to eat and even some of the stores in the mall were open.
Also known as “Green Sunday” is 50 days after Orthodox Easter. This holiday is dedicated to the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles after Christ's Resurrection. On this holiday people decorated their houses and apartments with Calamus and assorted green branches. This tradition comes from the ancient Judaism, in which Pentecost, the Feast of the Harvest was celebrated outside amongst flourishing Nature. People also go to a cemetery to visit the tombs of relatives and friends who have passed away. There is a custom of leaving bread and vodka on the burial tombs and it is considered a good sign to find that the food and drinks have disappeared upon your next trip to the cemetery. It is a very important religious holiday in Ukraine.

Public Toilets

So I have yet to have the pleasure to use these toilets that Joy, Lisa and Berika have but one of the first nights we were here they basically had to squat over a whole in the ground. Luckily if you go in a restaurant they usually have a pretty decent toilet. Well now I've had the pleasure of paying a grivna to squat over a hole in the ground. We mostly all have on one of are potty stops on the way back the Kyiv! Yes someone in our group did pee a little on their pants and it definitely made me appreciate toilets back home!!

The Road back to Kyiv

We saw beautiful country side and a stork in her nest on a water tower.

Gunpowder Tower

St. Andrews

In my picture all you can see is the bellfry but I'll give you a little background. There is the state emblem of the Polish Republic and the Lithunian emblem of the “Pogon” on the church. The first written evidence about the church goes back to 1460. It was reconstructed in the 1600s. In this church Hryshka Otrepiev nortoriously known in Russian history as the traitor Psuedo-Dmitri I, was married to Maria Mnishek. After the wedding he led the Polish Army to Moscow. Today it is a Greek-Catholic church.

Holy Trinity Church

Outside our Lviv hotel just across the street was this church.

Monument to Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko

He was a Ukrainian poet, artist and humanist. He is regarded as the founder of modern Ukrainian literature and some what to the modern Ukrainian language.
An Example of his Poetry:

Testament (Zapovit)
When I am dead, bury me
In my beloved Ukraine,
My tomb upon a grave mound high
Amid the spreading plain,
So that the fields, the boundless steppes,
The Dnieper's plunging shore
My eyes could see, my ears could hear
The mighty river roar.
When from Ukraine the Dnieper bears
Into the deep blue sea
The blood of foes ... then will I leave
These hills and fertile fields --
I'll leave them all and fly away
To the abode of God,
And then I'll pray .... But till that day
I nothing know of God.
Oh bury me, then rise ye up
And break your heavy chains
And water with the tyrants' blood
The freedom you have gained.
And in the great new family,
The family of the free,
With softly spoken, kindly word
Remember also me.
— Taras Shevchenko, 25 December 1845, Pereiaslav.
Translated by John Weir Toronto, 1961.

The Black Mansion

The main part of the building was designed by Italian architects Peter Barbon and Paul Rymlianyn in a Renaissance style. It was the first pharmacy in the city (the Pharmacy museum is just a few buildings down). The sandstone brick exposed to the wind and rain have gradually acquired a darker tint. The mansion is more of a dark gray rather than a black but it was finally painted black. The little bench is where the security guard use to sit.

Pharmacy Museum

This is the only place in Lviv where you can buy “Iron Wine” which we didn't. It increases the content of hemoglobin in blood. The museum is an operating pharmacy.

Building No. 23 Virmenska Street

This building is decorated with the “seasons”.