I’ve celebrated my birthday in Ukraine this year. The plan was to go to London, but when my husband asked me what I really want to do, my reply was that I would like to go to Lviv, so we went there instead. We’ve spent 5 days in Lviv in which we did, in total, 24 hours of volunteering. For my birthday we went to see ballet, to a fancy coffee place, had delicious food at the vegan places we like, and we started the day with coffee at the Cat Cafe. I’ve made 9 collages with what we did in Ukraine and how the trip to get there was.
This time I tried something new, getting the overnight bus to Lviv from Krakow. It arrived earlier, but we didn’t book a hotel for that night for obvious reasons and almost everything was closed at 5.30 when we got to Lviv. We should have arrived at 6.45, but the trip took less. The bus ride was ok, with a couple of stops for comfort. At the very posh services on the Ukrainian motorway I bought a bottle of Uzvar. I’m loving this smoky drink.
I’m saying that the services are posh because they are. The kind of items on sale there are great, the hot food is freshly prepared (not vegan though) and includes pizza. There were an incredible amount of options for the size of the place.
Volunteering in the usual places, including netting (2 different organisations) and food preparation.
The vegan options in Ukraine are amazing! The regular restaurants do not have a lot of vegan options, although vegetarians have plenty to choose from. But there are 3 vegan places and a vegetarian one, which is great. The macaroons are the best I’ve had, better than the ones in France.
This restaurant has amazing coffee, the one which is made on sand. I’m loving the intense flavour it has, it feels rich. As I grew up in a coastal city with a big Turkish community, sand coffee reminds me of those days. This restaurant, Teplyi Pyets, is decorated with reclaimed Eastern European fireplaces/stoves. It looks gorgeous.
I was looking forward to the 3 things shown above: Cat Cafe, the singing outside, and fire coffee at Lviv Coffee Mine.
As a birthday treat we went to Lviv National Opera to watch the ballet. It was splendid. We saw Don Quixote.
We also went to the Gunpowder Tower to see the special exhibition on resistance in Crimea. It covers the period from when the “green men” arrived in Crimea with guns. This is how the russian soldiers who took over Crimea and started the war in the Donbas region were called. What I didn’t realise before seeing those pictures is how much military equipment they had. I assumed it was a low-key, troops only with some guns, in Crimea, but it was much more than that.
Crimea is not pro-russian as the narrative goes. There are russian settlers who moved to Crimea after 2014 and, after 10 years, the russians are still struggling and arresting pro-Ukrainian activists for things like having a map of Ukraine or singing/listening to a song like Chervona Kalyna.
We went to Domivka, an animal shelter, to see the dogs, cats, and other animals they take care of. All are rescued, but the place looks more like a zoo. I went there once to volunteer with the cats, but I didn’t see the whole place. I will blog about it in the next days.
We left by train in the evening and spent the night in Poland, before flying back to UK just after lunchtime on the following day.
I miss Ukraine and I am thinking of when I will go back in early 2025.
Happy belated birthday! I am glad you got to spend your birthday doing what you wanted to do and spent it in Ukraine! It sounds a great trip. The food looks amazing as does the ballet!x
Kezzie recently posted…A Poem that sleighs!
Happy belated birthday — and what a wonderful and meaningful way for you to celebrate. It’s so interesting to learn about the foods and beverages and I’m sure the exhibit you saw was fascinating. And three cheers for the ballet! It sounds like your perfect birthday.
Belated Happy Birthday, and I’m so pleased you were able to go back to Ukraine. I don’t know what to make of the news at the moment – it seems as if Europe is finally waking up to the fact that they can’t keep sheltering behind the US, which I think is a good thing. Hopefully that malignant little gargoyle and his mafia crew in the Kremlin will get their comeuppance in time. Slava Ukraini, keeping everything crossed.
Thank you. I hope Europe will act quickly because we are all in danger with all those acts of sabotage and we also have a duty towards Ukraine, to help them defend themselves. I just hope russia is defeated soon and that we can talk about reconstruction.
A belated Happy Birthday! It sounds like you had a great time!
Do you know what Ukraine is like for gluten-free food? Being dairy-free & gluten-free, I always have to do a lot of research before travelling anywhere these days.
Peace for Ukraine can’t come soon enough.
Nikki – Notes of Life recently posted…Return to the Cat Cafe, Liverpool
Thank you. There are a lot of gluten-free options, which are naturally gluten-free. But dairy-free is very complicated because they love adding sour cream to all sorts of stuff, including borscht.
Hopefully Ukraine will win the war next year and it will be a great place for tourists.
Wishing you a belated happy birthday! I’m glad your husband got to go with you. Has he been there with you before? I know you’ve talked about the fire coffee before, but what is sand coffee?
Kelly recently posted…RIP Sadie
Thank you Kelly. He was with me on our first trip to Ukraine, back in April, when we went to Kyiv too. The ladies from the netting place where he was back in April were so happy to see him again. These trips mean so much for the people, knowing that they have support from people around the world.
Sand coffee is coffee made on hot sand. There is a device which heats up the sand and the special coffee pan is placed in the sand. Of course, traditionally a big pan with sand was placed over a flame to heat the sand, now there is equipment which heats up the sand. It has a different flavour, more rich and it is stronger. The coffee grounds are staying in the coffee for longer, unlike when is filtered. If you search on youtube, there are short clips, less than 1 minute, with Turks making coffee over sand.
Thanks. That sounds really interesting.
Kelly recently posted…RIP Sadie
Made like that is the best coffee there is and it looks very cool as well. 🙂
Happy birthday!!! It sounds like you had a lovely time.
The service stations sound wonderful and all of the food too. It sounds the place to go if you are vegan. You fitted so much into your time away! x
Kim Carberry recently posted…12 years blogging!
Thank you Kim xx