WE SACRIFICED THE DAY TO THE WINGED and oh so capricious goddess of travel, arising at four for our six-thirty flight to Kiev. We hardly expected to leave on schedule — Ukraine Int’l Airlines is batting 0 for 4 for on-time departures — but they have been improving from four hours to ninety minutes to a single hour late.
Be it ever so humble
Surprise! We left on time and arrived back in Kiev just after eight — only six hours until our onward flight to Lviv. That one left and arrived on time, too, but we had to wait more than an hour at baggage claim. One of the two carousels was broken, the “domestic” one, and it took that long — and a lot of shouting in Ukrainian — for someone to decide to switch to the “international” one. Soviets, even former soviets, aren’t very good at improvising, it seems.
St. Feder, home for a while
We are spending the next six days in Lviv at St. Feder Boutique Hotel on a quiet plaza just outside the Old City. Our rhombus-shaped room upsets Connie’s sense of symmetry but is otherwise very nice. Geraniums on the windowsills and hymns from the adjacent church just add to the atmosphere.
Flowers, fruit and veg
As is my wont, I explored the neighborhood, getting my bearings and searching out supermarkets and such, and had to tip-toe around and over babushka’d women selling flowers, veggies, fruit and fresh berries. Yummy.
