mid-July update

This mid-July update is not as I imagined it would be. We had a wonderful holiday and I was planning on talking about that, but now I am in Lviv and on Friday to Saturday night it was a significant attack on Lviv. From what I understand, there were about 40 drones sent to the city, and missiles passed on their way to a city in the north. Obviously, I will start with that and mention the holiday afterwards.

The air alert started and I ignored it. It was the 6th one since I got here on Tuesday and by now I am used to air alerts in Lviv, so not bothered by them. Soon I started hearing Shahed drones [they sound like a lawn mower, you can’t forget once your heard it once], air defence [machine-gun type of sound, in bursts], and explosions [I think the sound of a hit is louder than the sound of a Shahed being taken down in the air]. It was not the first time I heard that. I didn’t rent a flat with a shelter and I’m not sure where shelters are here, not that I fancied spending the night in a bunker.

So, after quite a few explosions I moved to the hallway, to be further away from the windows. There is a window on the hallway, but it is to an inner courtyard and that’s ok. With all that sound I couldn’t sleep, so I was chatting on social media with others who are in Lviv, both Ukrainian and foreign volunteers. At some point I knew that a missile is heading towards the city. As being in the bathroom [2 walls rule] wasn’t making a huge difference for a missile, I just remained on the sofa, which was much more comfortable. There was strong community support, with some [including me] joking.

This is an update given by the mayor of Lviv. The picture on the top is of a house a mile away from where my flat is. Last evening, during our volunteer dinner, the air alert started again. One volunteer asked if they need to go to the shelter, I checked and told them that it’s a reconnaissance drone, so no need for shelter. After that, most of us went to the bar we usually go to, for drinks and chatting.

On Saturday a convoy with a fallen soldier passed. The convoys are always the same, but it is the first time I am on the street when it passes, usually I am volunteering at that hour, but this was at a different time. I kneeled for the hero, like many others, you can see on the other side of the road. The red car was part of the convoy. All the rest stopped to pay their respects. I took a picture of the street to document it.

In the 4 full days I spent in Ukraine I volunteered over 20 hours in 4 roles, had a wonderful time with friends. Today I will try a new volunteering role and I am excited about it.

I am staying next to a wonderful coffee shop with this lovely view of the Opera. It’s just perfect for meetings and catching-up.

Going back to the reason I wanted to have this mid-July update, the holiday. I already blogged about Cerne Giant and White Horse, Lyme Regis [pictured above is the fossil I found on the beach there], and Lulworth Cove [pictured below is from the cove, where we went with Volya].

Now I want to blog about the rest of the holiday, including attending this year’s Tank Festival, a day trip to Portland, a lovely Model village, our visit of Osborne House, and seeing Monkey World. There will be a few other posts, but I haven’t decided on how I will group or not all the places we’ve been to.
I loved Osborne House and it was so worth visiting it. It is a very special place and I felt so sorry for Victoria, loosing Albert so early.

We got some very interesting wine from an English Heritage location.