Lviv

After a horrible night bus from Krakow with 4 hours of waiting at the boarder. I arrived at a place that was far from being a city. First I got barked at by a vicious looking street dog. Then I found out that nobody speaks English. Everything is written in Cyrillic, so I also couldn't read anything. Eventually I found a bus that supposed to go the center. After walking from the center to the real center I found an ATM and a hostel. Then I slept a few hours and took a look at the city. Even though the western part of the Ukraine is very much in favour of Western European culture, the city looks Russian. There are some tourists, but they are on the sidelines. No EU money has not flown in yet and this is visible. The city it self is far from being a bijou with a few exceptions.
The part I liked the most was the cemetery. Overgrown by the forest lie countless gravestones from the past centuries. Some gravestones are very elaborate while others are wooden. Ukrainian nationalists got furious, when the government decided to start repairing works on the cemetery, because many supposedly Soviet heros are buried here.

Also just a few days before I arrived, the pro Russian government celebrated Victory Day. A holiday in honor of the Nazi defeat at the hand of the Soviets. But Ukrainian Nationalists complain that at that point in history the misery didn't stop. There were clashes and the Russian consul was not able to reach the monument. It was in the international newspapers.
I met very cool people in the hostel and went out every night. A delicious pizza costs 1.5 USD and a beer 0,5 USD. The national dish is Borscht. The main ingredient is beetroot and a oily bouillon. Some varieties are very good.
The clubs are cool a mostly full. We had a lot of fun and ordered vodka by the bottle.
I also visited my first opera in my life - Verdi. It was all subtitled in Ukrainian, so I couldn't follow, but it was still a cool experience.
After several really happy days I took the night bus to Kiev.