Imagine yourself in ancient city Lviv, Ukraine

 

Prepare yourself for a long fly through time, across the cities and the countries, so you could go in one beautiful day, which will give you a nice Ukrainian city Lviv.

Overcoming all the distance using magic intervention, you become the hero of my story. After all, that is you in this city who gives me a priceless inspiration.

You sit on a comfortable wooden chair with wicker headboard. You have solid masonry under your feet. It is noon now, and the entire area is full of melodious chimes. You rub by mechanical gesture your tired feet which did not have the rest from the morning.

If you look down, you’ll see that the pavement made from the stone, as if from the last century.

In front of you is a small table on which there is your hot cup of coffee.

If you look ahead, you will see time-darkened walls of the Cathedral, from which ancient saints look straight inside your soul.

 Moving a bit in the chair, you turn right and see the Chapel of the Boim family – a powerful building from metal and stone, where on the top sits Jesus Christ. Yes, in Lviv even Jesus depicted as on the rest. This is one of a kind sculpture that depicts Jesus in a relaxed manner.

Tourists walk lazy past the chapel with their bags embroidered “I Love Lviv”, stuffed to the brim with this delicious chocolate and traditional Ukrainian souvenirs. Some of them stop, and start to make photos near monuments. Local residents do not pay any attention to the flash of cameras; they have been accustomed to this for a long time.

Now it rains here, but you have hidden under the canopy, and you can slowly sip a coffee and admire the rain washes off as summer heat and invisible traces of tens of feet on a stone road.

Taste of coffee is bitter, and fills you with energy, gives confidence that all your dreams come true, if you just make a wish.

You take a sip, and breathe a pleasant aroma of just brewed coffee according to your taste. Flavor that shatters all the stone streets of the city, it comes alive by the sound of the guitar, the lonely street musician, stopping briefly only for one dance next to him, flies past ancient churches, always with wide open doors. This flavor stays in the heart of the city – in its town hall, surrounded by four fountains. On each of the four fountains stands an ancient sculpture of the god. Here you can see Poseidon with his trident, and the ancient warrior Diana.

The city fills the hearts of the people of Lviv with love so much that they could not leave even a lifeless sculpture without a pair. Poseidon sculpture stands beside his faithful wife Amphitrite, and it seems as if beautiful Adonis leans to the Diana. These statues are frozen forever in marble and watch silently for many centuries the people that are sitting on the benches, their fate, new tourists who descended from the High Castle, designed to protect the whole of the medieval city in case of danger, wearily collapse or drink the water.

You make a second sip and see the Lviv in different light, now you are approaching one of numerous unraveling mysteries of this city. Now, you are remembering the beautiful Gothic spires of churches, baroque arches, flowers on the exquisitely forged city lights. All the centuries-old history of the city, the country, with its diverse culture, interesting traditions, all this in every ray of sun, punched out of the clouds over the Dominican church, in a drop of rain falling over the faces of the sad saints, all this appears in unusually strong thirst for life. Thirst, that feels everyone who has ever come for a day to the city.

And now, just close your eyes, and take another sip of coffee under the dance of rain on the stone pavement.

About the Author: my name is Kateryna and I am from Ukraine. I’m 28 years old and writing is my hobby and the way to earn my living. No matter that it is the war in one part of my country, Ukrainians are friendly and always welcome people all over the world.

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3 responses to “Imagine yourself in ancient city Lviv, Ukraine

  1. Host http://rentandstay.com.ua/ communicated well with us. She was very welcoming. The apartment was in a great location, we walked around the city center plenty of times and found lots of cool places to see, eat and drink. The apartment itself was very cool. Host also helped us to book a taxi to pick us up from apartment on the morning we left. Legend!

  2. Lviv is a marvelous city with traditional European architecture. Since it was part of both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Poland for many years, it was spared the ordeal of having unappealing Soviet buildings. Old Town is a jewel in the heart of Lviv which truly gives one the feeling of what this city was like 100+ years ago. I think Lviv is a great “all year” city, but, if you would like to see what a traditional Ukrainian Christmas celebration looks like you need to come here in the Winter. My boyfriend and I spent 4 nights in Lviv. An apartment, which we rented was absolutely amazing. To begin, Oksana (burak.dmytro@mail.ru ) – house owner, was extremely fast at communicating in the lead-up to our arrival. Once there, her partner Dmytro was kind enough to meet us at midnight after our train arrived. The apartment itself was wonderfully cozy, indeed! We felt like it was our home away from home. You can NOT ask for a better location, the building is charming, and all of Lviv’s wonderful attractions are no more than a 10 minute walk away.

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