MoldovAnn

We arrived in Ivano-Frankivsk last evening. It is lovely! I had heard it is a very “European” city, and I see what they mean. We walked along a quaint cobblestone pedestrian street last night, brightly lit with holiday lights. This morning we took a nice stroll around the town center, and there is a beautiful town square just like we saw in Poland (which makes sense when you remember that this part of Ukraine used to be part of Poland!).

This part of Ukraine is definitely more attuned to Westerners – the train station in Lviv had signs in both Ukrainian and English, which they don’t even do in the capital Kyiv! The hotel we stayed in last night in I-F was as nice as any American hotel (the elevator was even an OTIS). Igor and I were both floored to see the breakfast buffet (included in the price of the room) – scrambled eggs, cereal, sausages, oatmeal, you ask for it! Of course, if wouldn’t be Ukraine if there wasn’t also cabbage salad for breakfast, but for once I got to eat things that make sense to me as breakfast foods.

We leave in a few minutes to travel another 2 hours up into the Carpathian mountains to a lodge, where we’ll spend the next 2 days. I’m sorry we have such little time in Ivano-Frankivsk, but I doubt it’s our last trip here.