My first bus ride, and more!

Hey everyone,

I just came back from my first trip into the city centre of Lviv. I went with Pavlo, one of my host brothers. While we were there, we walked about some of the touristy type areas. We walked down some streets where there were different shops set up with all kinds of neat things.

I am surprised that the city wasn't as crowding being a Saturday afternoon, especially because the Lviv Days are being celebrated. The Lviv Days are celebrated yearly to commemorat the founding of Lviv, which was nearly 800 years ago.

I also got another sharp reminder that I am no longer in Canada. In order to get there, we had to take the bus into the city. That of course was no big deal. However, the public transit system in Lviv is, well it could be better. The publicly funded transit system isn't that great. So some brilliant person got the idea to start a business driving privately owned buses down the same routes to compensate for the lack of public transit. However, these aren't really buses. They are really just large vans you have to pay to get on. They only seat about 14 people and have a bit of standing room. Also, ceiling is low, so you have to crouch down whenever you stand. I realize I probably will never be able to sit down on one of these things because there will probably always be enough women to fill up the chairs, and it is seen as incredibly rude if a man does not give up his seat to a woman. Not, I am not at all complaining. Hey, they are dirt cheap to take. To ride a bus costs the equivalent of about 22 cents.

Another interesting thing I've noticed about Lviv is that the drivers are crazy! Well, at least compared to Toronto standards. People wave in an out of traffic at high speeds with no seat belt on. People cross streets without really looking. It all reminds me of, well, Montreal! Except people in Montreal talk funny. No really, western Ukrainians and English Canadians think alike. A man was driving along with his left tires on the sidewalk, and he honked at people to get out of the way. I immediately thought "He must be French." Then Pavlo said: "He must be Russian." Okay, I guess that I am not a very good sample by which one can judge all of English Canada, and Pavlo probably isn't the same by which one can judge western Ukrainians, but you get the point. I get the sense that Pavlo is very pro-Ukrainian. He's not anti-Russian, just really Ukrainian. By the way, he is 18, and just finished his first year at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. His English is pretty good, so he has been my translator and person to talk to.

I wrote more about the buses and comparing Russians to French Canadians, and not as much about Lviv. That is because everything was so new and different, I cannot really express it all right here right now. Do not worry, as time goes on I will be able to fill you in with more things about the city.

And yes, I have begun taking photos.

Until next time,
Michael