Welcome to lovely Lviv in the west of Ukraine!
And welcome to what I consider to Ukraine's and maybe even Eastern Europe's most romantic city
So what you're going to find here that you're not going to find in other parts of Ukraine is
this stunning Old World architecture which is what you're going to find being very common in Central Europe
and it has a bit more of a Central European feel, that's because the previous rulers of Lviv were
Polish and Austrian, it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and after that it was part of Poland for a while
so you have a very big Polish and Austrian influence on the city in terms of the names of the former residents and
the architecture now you will find this in another city in the west of Ukraine called Chernivtsy
but that's quite hard to get to and it's a lot smaller so Lviv is definitely the best opportunity to see that kind
of architecture in Ukraine
Because it was part of actually the Austrian Empire at one stage, it has developed also a very strong coffee culture
here which I love because I'm a coffee addict
Greetings from Cat Cafe!
So no prizes in guessing what kind of place this is
I actually have an allergy sometimes to cats so far I'm lasting on this experience
definitely novel, not sure I would hang out here very often
And actually that's the thing to do in Lviv is really just to stroll around where there's lots of museums
a bit more than touristic feel to do here so if you're with someone for up to about a week
there's so much to do and it's just such a nice relaxed atmosphere after maybe the hectic experience of say a Kyiv
or Odesa Mama during the summer, you can come here and have a bit more of a relaxed romantic stroll
Savage place!
Delicious!
This is raw and very very tasty, hearty!
So you can see that this restaurant has a medieval theme, very popular, just because beside the Arsenal
it's also got a museum beside it
and I love to come here once, they have this kind of ridiculous bib with the breasts
I'm not quite at the level yet myself and yeah, it's just a place with a very simple menu, ribs
get a group of people together, so this is definitely a great spot to come to and have some fun
yeah, it's find of light-hearted atmosphere with good food so [Ukrainian] Bon appetit!
I'm not sure when my favorite time is, we're here in the autumn and of course, you get those lovely brown
and orange colors in the leaves as they fall and yellow colors but I think actually I find Lviv to be really
amazing in the winter when you have snow on the roofs of those historic buildings and it's very atmospheric and
they have their Christmas market, obviously the city has a lot of tourists, we're near the border with Poland
well I'm shooting this in 2020 with the coronavirus restrictions so there are a lot less Poles
but normally, it's a very big tourist city it's a big tourist destination in Ukraine, also for Ukrainians
This is the High Castle, the view right over Lviv, you can see of Lviv here, you get a 360 around of the whole city
it's a fantastic place to walk up to when we still have this beautiful weather and you can see the colors
of the trees, of the leaves, so beautiful here so this is definitely somewhere you want to come
you walk, you get a little bit of sport and a great way to kick off the trip here in Lviv
Lychakiv Cemetery is the main burial site of Lviv's intelligentsia, middle and upper classes
it's a beautiful historical and poignant place to stroll around
Somewhat awkwardly Ukrainian nationalists, Soviet soldiers, victims of the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, and
Polish defenders of Lwów all lie here in large numbers and even sometimes side by side
They may have been enemies on earth but these Lviv natives' remains
will share the same hallowed ground for eternity
So that's coming up ...
Exactly so I'm going to take you in the next vlog on a little tour of the Carpathian Mountains
we're going to go there, this is not Lviv, it takes another 2-3 hours to get to the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains
but it looks absolutely spectacular so I'm going to show you a little bit of that
that also you can do on your own or if you're into the outdoors or you can also come with a Ukrainian girl
that you are romantically involved with and do that as a bit of a tour if that rocks your boat so
let's go take a little bit of a stroll around romantic Lviv!