Jill Will Go...

We arrived early in the morning in Lviv. I kept struggling with how to say a word with so few vowels. You sort of have to insert the vowels yourself. Luh-veev.  This charming, very western (both figuratively and literally) Ukrainian city used to be part of Poland and it has retained a very European feel, in contrast to Kiev's big Soviet facades. Our hotel was the Hotel George, a lovely 1901 art nouveau building with a distinctly peach-colored exterior and a lovely sweeping staircase inside. The rooms boast very high ceilings and were huge. It was lovely. Lviv is not a huge Putin fan, obviously. Yes, that's toilet paper. And that is a mat to wipe your feet on. When two book people are traveling, a book sale is a must see. This one had a striking mascot. We visited the Armenian Cathedral which had signs up commemorating the Armenian genocide. These were the same signs (but in a differe...

We wandered Kiev for our last day, waiting for our night train. Yesterday, J had shown off his extensive linguistic skills by purchasing us two night train tickets to Lyiv - in Russian. The guy never fails to impress. He did such a good job, even if Russian "hurts his brain sometimes" as he claims.  We stopped in at a Contemporary Art Center that had interesting photographs and weird avant grade film pieces. But the best part was the...bathroom. We decided to use the facilities before we left, so we each went into the proper gender door, only to find ourselves looking at one another - again! This time it was a clear glass portion separating us, but it was still hilarious. Who knew that Ukraine had such a sense of humor about their washrooms?!   We arrived at the train station to find it closed and surrounded by security and police. It was nearly midnight and everyone was milling about in the dark and ...