Day 24 through 38: A Lot of Traveling In Such Little Time (cont.)

Day 24 through 38: A Lot of Traveling In Such Little Time (cont.)

Word of the Day(s): Железнодорожный вокзал [Zheleznodorozhnyy vokzal]: Train station

Day 37 was the 19th of May. We arrived in L'viv early in the morning, around 5:30a.m. or so. When we got off the train it was somewhat chilly outside. We were wearing shorts because we were planning for warm weather, but since it was still early in the morning, it was cold. So, we decided to relax for a little bit until it warmed up. We went to a sit down area within the train station and in order to get into the sit down area, we had to pay a dollar an hour. Kind of dumb, but worth it.

When our hour was up, we got up and started on our adventure. We took a tramvay to where the church was where Max served. We still had a few hours before church started, so we walked around and Max gave me a tour of the area. It was beautiful! There were cobblestone roads and awesome architecture. It was also really colorful and I saw quite a bit of green grass (it has been a while). On our tour, this is what we saw...

A statue of the founder of L'viv

                            

In case you didn't know what a Mega bite looked like, here ya go! haha

I really want to point out the very first car on the right, or the one in the picture right below. Why? it seems like any old car. Nope, this could in fact be a brand new 2012 edition. I say this because Lada comes out with new editions of their cars, but they all look the same...

This is the evolution of a Lada compared the the evolution of a Bmw 5 series:
                                         

As we were walking around, we heard some singing and followed it to this church. It was pretty neat to hear them sing and see the beauty of the detail in the church. The bag Max has hanging off the front of his backpack had one banana in it and a few other little snacks. As we left the church, we saw a group of homeless people. They were all lined up by the sidewalk leading up to the church. One lady was sitting by herself, separate from the group, and looked really quite depressed. It was sad, so we pulled out our banana and gave it to her. As we walked away, I looked back and saw her eating the banana. It was a good feeling. I love Sunday's.

We also saw these HUGE bottles of alcohol. These weren't even the biggest ones. The picture does not do them justice. I promise, they were huge.  Russian's love their alcohol. 

We were pretty hungry considering we hadn't really eaten a meal since mid afternoon the previous day and we gave away the last of our substantial food (a banana), so we stopped by a restaurant to eat some breakfast. 

He likes to sing in public. He is pretty good when he wants to be. He doesn't always want to be. 

The greenery. I tasted like grass. haha

The food we ate was awesome. I had an amazing omelette, some toast, a salad, french fries, and a glass of freshly squeezed apple juice. Max had an avocado, bacon, and chicken sandwich, some salad, and some french fries. It was so delicious. I want to go back now as I think about it. Yummm....

After breakfast, we walked around a little bit more and then headed to church. When we got there, we changed into our church stuff and went up to go to sacrament meeting. Max was able to talk to some people he knew when he was serving in that ward and was able to catch up with them. Again, it was fun seeing so many people embrace him and love him. 

Yuri Yehorov, Max, and Michelle (me)

Yuri and Max's glasses. He took a picture with Max's glasses on when Max was a missionary as well.

Yuri, Max, and Roman Lisniy

They love him haha

From the left: Brother Yaroviy, Brother Voynarovich, Me, Max, Brother Pirogov, Yuri Yehorov

After church, the ward members offered us some lunch. They had prepared a little after church get together and were serving bread with meat, cucumbers, and homemade cheese on top. They are so willing to share and give what they have here. It is really awesome to feel the love of others all around the world. It was a pretty good meal, except the cheese tasted a little funky. It looked kind of like cottage cheese. We weren't big fans of the homemade cheese. After we ate, we left the church and walked around some more. Here is what we saw...

Yes, that little boy is rock climbing on the statue.

A little market

If you look closely, you can see that it says L'viv.

I wanted to ride the pony, but they told me I was too big. ;)

It was a hot day, so everyone was getting into the fountain to cool off!

They had some type of festivities where people dressed up in the traditional Ukrainian outfits and danced. It was pretty neat to see everyone dressed up. All of those shirts are hand stitched with the famous Ukrainian patterns. 

Cristiano Ronaldo's child. I swear they look identical, but I couldn't get a picture of his face.

We also walked by this really awesome church. There was so much symbolism carved into the walls that we could have studied it for hours. The walls basically described Christ's life and his crucifixion. On the top of the church, Christ is actually sitting down below the cross. Pretty interesting. It wasn't open, or else we would have gone inside.

Right next to the church, we saw this sign and took advantage of the opportunity ;) 

After showing off some public affection, we decided it was time to relax for a bit. We found a bench right next to the church and sat down. After people watching for about 30 minutes, Max was tired and decided to take a nap. He laid down on the bench, put his head on my lap, and fell right asleep. As he was sleeping, I continued to people watch. I saw a lot of interesting things, I wouldn't even know where to begin. The best part though, was watching this drunk guy with his friends. He reminded me of johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. At one point he tried to beat up a street dog, but his female friend saved the pup. Crazy people. I also saw this lady looking out her window. It was a pretty cool shot.

When Max woke up, we continued on our adventure. We walked to this park and saw this cool looking university. Check it out...

It was getting kind of late and we were getting hungry again. We went to Puzata Hata, which is a buffet type place. It is amazing there! They have so much good food and it is cheap! After dinner, we headed back to the train station. When we got there, we just sat outside and waited for the train to arrive. This time we were able to ride 1st class because all of the other classes were full. 

I was pretty excited. 1st class has two beds, so only Max and I were in the room AND there was air conditioning! I will never take air conditioning for granted again, even in the slightest bit. Isn't it interesting how we gain new appreciations for things when we have to do without them? I think everyone needs to appreciate things more, even the beauty of the earth. Recognize the little things around you, don't take them for granted because one day, they might not be there anymore. There. That was my little spiel for the day. When we got on the train, we were pretty tired so we pulled down the curtain to make it dark and went right to sleep. 

To be continued...