A Weekend in Lviv

28 Sept, 2015

Peace Corps volunteers are awesome people. Really. They are just everyday Americans who decided to take time out of their lives to do something good in the world. And they work really hard at it – for basically the cost of living wherever they’ve been sent. Volunteers are also really supportive of one another so when I was invited to join a small group of them meeting in the city of Lviv for its annual Coffee Festival I felt like I was just asked to hang out with the cool kids. Naturally I jumped at the chance….nice people…English speakers….coffee… what’s not to love about that? They had me at ‘coffee’!

Celyse is another volunteer from my region and she was part of the original Peace Corps group that was evacuated during the start of the war here. Like many others, Celyse wanted to come back to Ukraine to finish her service and support the people here during a time of great hardship.

Because she originally began her service as a traditional 2-year volunteer, she was given the benefit of three months of intensive language training at the start of her work. As you might imagine, I am both envious of and highly dependent on her skills when we are together. Being able to go away for a full weekend with someone like that made the trip much easier for me to navigate, and way more fun in general. She’s not only smart, she’s fun to be around. She works at a NGO/non-profit org focused on the prevention of human trafficking…how cool is that?

Our train left Ternopil at 6am. It was a third class sleeper car, coming from somewhere in the east and most of the people on the train were in fact, still sleeping. It felt a little bit like the night bus in one of the Harry Potter films, with loud snoring and stinky feet sticking out in all directions. The train was very crowded and Celyse and I weren’t able to book seats together – we were in the same train car but at opposite ends. So in the semi-darkness she helped me to find my ‘seat’, which in fact was an upper bunk. I stared blankly at her and asked how I was supposed to get up there without disturbing anyone. She suggested I step onto the bed below me being careful not to step on the person sleeping there and launch myself up as fast as possible. So I threw my bag up, vaulted over the edge and built myself a little nest.

About an hour later, the lights came on in the train and everyone started to get up and undress (literally) and wash up next to their bunk. Here’s a shot of the bunk across from mine. Note the roll of toilet paper… one learns very quickly to always carry some with you because there is no guarantee any will be available when it’s needed…especially in a public place. I’m convinced that’s part of the reason why women carry such large purses here.

We arrived at 8:30am to a gray and drizzly day but didn’t let that permeate our mood one bit. Celyse had been to Lviv once before and knew the general direction we needed to go to get to our hostel.

 

 

Check out their website… I am in love with the chicken logo!

A few other volunteers had arrived the evening before and were already in the hostel so we nudged them up and out for a morning round of coffee. There was, after all, a coffee festival in town.

My first cup of coffee was referred to as “Lviv-style” and was presented as a small, strong cup of dark roast coffee with a slice of lemon (sprinkled with sugar) and a shot of honey liquor. It was delicious…and the alcohol gave a nice boost to the strong coffee without punching you in the face or making you feel boozy. It’s all about the balance of flavors here.

Moving in a large group is always a challenge because you end up spending a lot of time standing in a loose circle trying to decide where to go. And by the time a decision has been made at least one person (usually two or three) has wandered off and we need to do a scouting expedition to find him/her. It’s a bit like trying to herd cats, but I was more than happy to be pulled along by others. Everything I saw was new and interesting and I used my standing around time to snap photos and people-watch and just take in the lushness of the city.

We found our way to a local arts & crafts bazaar where I was mesmerized by women hand-embroidering Vyshyvanka, the traditional clothing of Ukraine. Like snowflakes, no two appear the same. There are local symbols embedded in each design, and certain colors are used in different parts of the country to reflect their region as well as national pride. It’s a beautiful custom and the women I saw stitching were true artisans. The shirts are somewhat expensive by local standards but given the amount of hand work that goes into each of them, I think they are well worth it. I’m sure before I leave this year I will find one that suits me.

We had lunch outside at a Georgian restaurant, tucking under the awning to wait out a rainstorm. I had never had Georgian food before so relied on others for recommendations. Celyse and I ended up sharing a traditional dish called adjaruli-khachapuri, which looked kind of like a bread shaped into a canoe, filled with cheese and with an egg on top. The heat of the melted cheese cooks the egg slightly so that it’s warm and runny. To eat it you pulled a piece of bread from the outside and dipped it into the gooey insides. It was heavenly and we both agreed that next time we would each order one of our own.

 

  

 

Bellies full, we went off in search of the festival.

The main arena for the coffee festival was in an enclosed outdoor area with vendor booths selling both coffee and sweets. (And no, there wasn’t a Starbucks in sight). There were lots of coffee roasters there and options to try different types of beans. There were also a lot of different coffee drinks that I hadn’t seen before (coffee and orange juice with Irish Cream liquor, for example…better than it sounds).

We each tried a variety of coffees and wandered into an attached building to watch the barista contests that were held on a stage inside. These people take their coffee making skills very seriously but also seemed to have a lot of fun ‘one upping’ their competition with a few crazy moves thrown in. We mostly just milled around and enjoyed the atmosphere, while over-caffeinating ourselves throughout the afternoon.

We counterbalanced the excess of coffee with more wandering about and eventually more food. There is also a new microbrewery in Lviv, which is the first of its kind here. And as it turns out, the brew master is from Portland Oregon so there was some familiarity with the urban industrial style of the place. And it seems to be going over big in Lviv, based on the crowd there. I’ve never been much of a beer drinker, but since that’s the custom here I have adjusted my palate to make room, and find that I actually enjoy most of the beers I’ve tried. We lingered there awhile and enjoyed sharing stories…and trying different types of beer.

And of course that’s pretty much where the age difference between myself and most of the other volunteers became apparent – at least to me. After two beers, I was feeling pretty much ‘done’ for the night, but for the rest of the group, that was just the warm-up. So I sucked it up and we headed out to a few costume themed bars (they have a lot of them in Lviv) -and explored a greater array of liquor combinations.  Mostly I just listened to the incredible experiences each person had to share and thought about paths not taken when I was their age.

I hung in there as long as I could manage and then left with a few others to go back to the hostel – while the rest of them enjoyed a rare opportunity to hang out with their friends for longer. PC Volunteers work hard and don’t often have the luxury of a gathering like this so when they do get together they try to make the most of it. Once winter hits, travel will become more difficult for everyone, but especially those living in rural villages. So I was lucky to have arrived just as one of these events took place.

We returned on the train Sunday evening and my heart was full.

I feel like my network expanded exponentially between the volunteers and their Ukrainian friends, and friends of friends. One week earlier my world was only a city block wide and now there’s entire community that I can lean on when I need to. And that has made all the difference. Here’s my favorite pic of the weekend, just a bunch of Peace Corps volunteers  enjoying walking in the rain on their way to nowhere in particular. It sort of sums the whole relaxing weekend.