September 2024

I spent under 2 days at home this month. After returning from Ukraine on the 21, we left for Canterbury on the following day, and by the 24 we were in Paris. Now I am in France, but I will return from my holiday shortly. I am very excited to get back home and stay there after leaving on the 15 of last month. My time in Ukraine was amazing and I am looking forward to returning very soon. I blogged about Lviv, so do check out the post if you haven’t already. Now I am writing a long post about volunteering in Lviv, which will be published this week. In October I will talk about the things I saw in Paris, Krakow, and Canterbury, especially as I am planning to spend a lot of time at home, reading and relaxing.

My time in Lviv, in 5 numbers:
– 13 air alerts
– went 1 time to the shelter because we were attacked by russia. That day I saw air defence taking out Shahed drones from my balcony.
– attended 2 funerals – of a soldier and of a family who died during the attack mentioned above, a mother and 3 daughters (both funerals took place this month)
– 187 hours of volunteering in total, with a few different organisations
– went 3 times to the Opera – the picture above is of the Lviv National Opera from the entrance of the hotel I stayed in

At Krakow airport they decided that this painted bullet is a weapon and I can’t fly with it. It’s just bonkers. The bullet was spent, it wouldn’t be reusable, it was beautifully hand-painted with acrylic having 3D effects. On top of that, it was sold by a charity (raising funds for Lviv Volunteer Kitchen, who makes dried food). I think the army guy who was called liked the bullet, but his colleague was not even interested in talking. Any modern historian is familiar with all sort of trench art or weapons/bullets repurposed into works of art or chess pieces. There are plenty of them in museums, because they look special, beautiful, and these were worth keeping. I was very disappointed to have to leave it there, especially when considering that others have taken similar ex-bullets with them. Now it was a piece of painted metal. I would have used it as a vase for the dried flowers I have on my bookshelves.
Funnily enough, I had no issues passing with it on the Ukrainian-Polish border, where the Poles had airport-style security. Ukraine has sniffer dogs on the train to check the luggage. At least the charity (same one I volunteered at) got the money for it. It was such a shame to leave it, as I met the lady who made these and she is so talented. I bought other stuff from her (for charity), painted tote bags, so those were fine to pass through the security.

Food in Poland, from 2 different vegan places. It was delicious. I stayed only 1 day in Krakow, as I wanted to maximize the time I was in Ukraine and I already knew how the journey back is going to be.

Canterbury Tails, a vegan cat cafe with a fantastic name. It’s very close to the Cathedral too.

These are the train delays in France because it rains or something. I got back from Ukraine with a Kyiv to Poland train, which stopped in Lviv. It arrived on time and we arrived on time in Poland. Unlike in France (or UK or any other western country if I judge by the comments on social media), the Ukrainian railways managed to get the trains ON TIME! During my journey we had an air alert in the region (oblast), meaning we could have been hit by a russian drone or missile. We still got to Poland on time!! On its journey, my train, went through a few oblasts. It was an air alert in Kyiv oblast and there were alerts in all the other regions it passed through while it was passing through. Also, Ukraine too has the things that seem impossible to conquer in the west, like rain and leaves.
If you can’t see from the picture, the delays are from 10 minutes (1 train) to 45-50 minutes (3 trains) to up to 2 hours (3 trains). We should do better.

As I am still in France, I will make a round-up of the things I am seeing here next month – including Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, and the Catacombs.

1. Opera. 2. Volunteering at the kitchen, sorting peppers. 3. Powder Tower. 4. Camo netting. 5. Memorial of the Heavenly Company Heroes. 6. Funeral. 7. Coffee Mine Lviv. 8. Ukrainian Opera. 9. Lviv. 10. Flowers delivered to my hotel. 11. Socialising cats at Domivka. 12. Landmarks. 13. 150+ hours of volunteering in Ukraine. 14. Volunteering in the kitchen. 15. I visited Unbroken, a prosthetics and rehabilitation centre in Lviv for wounded soldiers and civilians. 16. Back to volunteering in the kitchen. 17. A net, made especially for a unit who is going to be deployed soon (early October). 18. What children say about the war, an open-air exhibition in front of the opera. 19. My last coffee in Lviv. 20. Goodbye Lviv, see you soon. 21. Welcome to Liverpool. 22. Bishop’s Finger, 1690s pub in Canterbury. 23. Canterbury Cathedral. 24. Dover to Calais. 25. Louvre. 26. Wine at Centre Pompidou, with Eiffel Tower in the background. 27. Malmaison. 28. Palace of Versailles. 29. Eiffel Tower. 30. Flag in Paris.