Introduction
Day 1 - San Francisco to Prague
Day 2 - Kyiv from the air
Day 2 - Boryspil International Airport
Day 2 - First Views Of Kyiv
Day 3 - Guided Tour of Kyiv
Day 3 - Kyiv - On our own
Day 3 - Night train from Kyiv to L'viv
Day 4 - L'viv with Father Ken
Day 5 - Radekhiv
Day 5 - Vytkiv
Day 6 - Trip to Kolomyia
Day 6 - Halych
Day 6 - Ivano-Frankivs'k
Day 7 - Bazaar at Kosiv
Day 7 - Between Kosiv and Kolomyia
Day 7 - Kolomyia
Day 8 - Zvenyhorod
Day 8 - Back in L'viv
Day 9 - L'viv with Orest and Vitali
Day 10 - L'viv - Morning walk with Dad
Day 10 - L'viv on my own
Day 11 - L'viv with Dad
Day 11 - Night train to Budapest
Day 12 - Budapest
Day 13 - Budapest
Day 13 - Szentendre
Day 14 - Homeward bound

TRIP TO UKRAINE
September 19 - October 2, 1999

DAY 11 - L'VIV
Last day in L'viv - Doing errands with Dad

Map of area from our hotel to old town

Wednesday, September 29, 1999

Our last day in L'viv - with all our missions accomplished, Dad and I walked around and did last-minute errands. It was raining - the only real day of rain during our entire stay in Ukraine - but not hard enough to stop us. It was sort of fun, and made us realize how lucky we had been with the weather.

Dad and I returned to the Cupola (KUPOL) restaurant, where we had eaten with Father Ken on our first day, for lunch. The food was good, the service pleasant and efficient, and the décor charming.

Address: 37 Tchaikovskoho Str

Dad helped me do some errands - I needed more film (I shot 18 rolls!), needed to mail some post-cards, and wanted some Ukrainian candies to take back to share at work. We stopped at the L'viv Art Gallery, right near the Post Office, which has a very interesting collection of European paintings spanning the years from about 1600 through the present. I asked if I might take photos, and was told yes, if I paid them $3 each! I decided I could get along without any pictures.

An interesting article about the L'viv Art Gallery.

This store, probably State-owned, was more attractive and spacious than most, but sold the same things as all the others. (The candies went over well back at home, though.)

Minibuses are a popular mode of public transport. Most companies are foreign- owned, and each has its own colors to identify its vehicles.

Ukrainian currency - the Hryvnia

Like most European currencies, Ukraine's is very colorful by U.S. standards. It also incorporates all the latest security devices - watermarks, special threads embedded in the paper, metallic inks - the works.

Our travel agent told us we were not allowed to take Ukrainian currency out of the country, so I took photos of all the denominations before changing them back to dollars. I suspect the law applies only to large quantities, and I would have been allowed samples, but I didn't want to take the chance. The photos turned out poorly, so here is an excellent page about the Ukrainian Hryvnia, with images of all the bills and coins:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_hryvnia

The official exchange rate at that time was about $1 U.S. = 4.4 Hryvnia.

In March, 2007 the official rate was about $1 = 5 Hryvnia.

Today ( July 2017), the rate is $1 = 25 Hryvnia (!)