On Saturday, May 15, I went to Lviv for a weekend trip. My friend Ira was driving to Lviv to bring an office chair to her friends Anna and Alexandra. She invited me along on the trip and I am so glad she did because it was awesome. Lviv is a beautiful city full of history, culture, and beautiful old city center filled with great cafes and restaurants. It turns out there was also a craft beer festival the same weekend that we were going to be there.
Ira drove her car, so she and her friend Nina picked me up at 6:30 am. This is the earliest I have woken up in a long time, but it would be worth it. Plus, I could sleep in the car. And I did. I slept the first few hours until we stopped in a Halych to stretch our feet. There is an old castle in Halych, so we walked around and got some fresh air. The castle wasn't as big as Kamianets-Podilskyi, but it was still pretty cool. There are a lot of old castles all over Ukraine, something that I wasn't aware of before visiting.
We begin driving again, fast forward about 3 hours and we make it to Lviv. We stop at Anna and Aleksandra's house for some of the best cheesecake I have ever had. They picked it up somewhere in Lviv for us to enjoy. It was a pistachio cheesecake with some raspberry in there. The cheese flavor was strong but it blended with the sweet and nutty flavor in a sweet and savory satisfaction. We spent some time telling stories and drinking coffee around their dinner table. It was very nice that everyone was speaking in English. I felt very included.
We drive around Lviv on our way to the apartment. We rented like an Air Bnb thing. Around 4pm we arrive at the apartment. It is about 20 minute drive from the city center. After we checked in to the apartment we drove downtown. I noticed in this city there is not a lot of spaces to park. Often the cars will be encroaching onto the curb, if not completely on the curb themselves. There was trains and trolleys, cars and bikes, and people walking around to give the city a busy heartbeat. We found a parking spot, I don't know if it was an actual parking spot but we will let it be, and then we began to walk to the city center.
Lviv is a cool city rich with history. The city was named in honor of Leo, the eldest son of Daniel, King of Ruthenia, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. There were a lot of statues of lions around the city too. The city center is a beautiful historical district with all kinds of old buildings. There are shops and cafes and restaurants and street performers. There is a little market where you can purchase all kinds of souvenirs.
Around 5:30 pm and we finally get to a restaurant. All I had to eat that day was some bread and a cheesecake, and although the cheesecake was delicious, it wasn't exactly fulfilling. Throughout the previous week, everyone has been recommending different restaurants for me to try, so I was excited to see which one we were going to. To be honest, at this point any place would be fine I was so hungry. I was led to a cool building with people standing outside in dark hooded robes. They said something to us in Ukrainian as we walked in, and instead of going up, we walked down into the basement. It was a themed restaurant, set in the 1400s. The basement was made of stone and there were swords and medieval themed decorations everywhere. There was a throne with a crown.
We sit down in the corner and look at the menus. Luckily there was an English menu! There were a lot of delicious choices. I decided on the trout. It was cooked over a fire with such delicious spices. Sasha shared her bread with us, it was full of herbs and warm and delicious. We all got a beer. It was served in clay mugs with two handles. I also got a spicy soup and it was so delicious. Not too spicy, but there was a kick. This experience makes me want to live in medieval times and fight dragons. In the middle of dinner there was a lutist and violinist that started playing songs for each table. They played a beautiful duet in the most medieval fashion.
After dinner we went for a walk to the popular destination High Castle. It was a nice park with a winding path to the top of a mountain. There was a castle there back in the day, but now its a tourist destination. It is the highest point with a cell tower next to it. The platform on the top was full of people taking selfies and pictures with families and friends. The city stretched in all direction. We looked out in the direction of our next destination; beer festival. We were able to see a building that looked like it had a gathering of people on the roof. That was our destination.
We arrive at the beer festival. Alex and Anna go home, so it is just Ira, Nina and I. We get through the entrance and there is a sound of music playing. People are smiling and drinking beer and having a good time. There are tents set up all around with people selling beer. We meet up with some of Ira's coworkers and they show us where to buy some cups. Once we get our cups, we start tasting different beers.
When the night was coming to an end, we went to a restaurant that was located in within the festival grounds. The name of the restaurant is translated to "at Arsenal". It was packed. Everyone had the same idea as us. After a long night of drinking to get some ribs. That was the specialty of the place, and the ribs were fantastic. We each ordered a rack of ribs and we were silent as we went to town eating all of the meat off the bones. There was a table next to us that were singing songs and apparently celebrating one of there friends birthdays. After the food, we called a taxi and went back to the apartment. We all crashed soon after we got back.
In the morning we packed our bags. We went for a walk in Stryisky park. It was a really pretty park with a lot of people walking around and enjoying nature. We got some food, walked around a little more, and then drove back home. It was a good trip
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