Lviv: The Museum of Folk Art and History

My doctor said that I needed to exercise more…and this post would make him very happy.  The Lviv Museum of Folk Culture wasn’t anything I was expecting it to be.  I expected a building with a bunch of historical fashion and art…maybe a recreation of a building or two.

In reality, it is an actual preserved Ukrainian village from 1840’s-1910’s.  It’s an actual village, so in order to see all of it; you basically have to walk through an entire village.  However, it was really neat and probably the highlight of my trip to Lviv.  If nothing else, it made up for not seeing the Open Air Museum in Kyiv.

As you walk along various cobble stone (and just plain dirt) paths, you see various cottages, wells, wheelbarrows, churches…everything you’d expect to find in a Ukrainian village from the time.  Most of the buildings had their doors open, and you could go inside and see what it would have looked like (I’m assuming the clothing and bed dressing are recreations and not from the 1800’s—otherwise someone better think about doing some laundry!).

Just like everything else on this trip, this was a hike.  Keep in mind I had just spent hours hiking up High Castle (the mountain that looks over the city).  All in all I think we were in the village about 3 hours. Most of the time trying to find a windmill.  Tom really wanted to see a classic windmill, and since there is one on the map, it must be there, no?  No.  At one point, all signs of other tourists were gone, and we were hiking down through this gorge using a rope to cling to.  I said to Tom “what are we even doing this for?” Duh.  To find the windmill.  Why did I ask?  We finally found what I think might have once been a windmill…I should have taken a picture of it.  It was just a shack with a long wooden plank sticking out and broken off at the end.

As we were leaving, I pointed to an exit sign with a picture of a windmill on it and said “Well Tom, there’s your windmill!”  At least he laughed.  Every muscle and bone in my body hurt that evening, all through the night, and my feet were even sore the next day.  My doctor would be proud.

I left early the next morning for the airport.  The people working at my hotel were so nice, because I was missing breakfast; they packed me a bagged breakfast to take with me.  Svetlana (the woman at reception) said “here is packed breakfast for you.  I am sorry.  It is terrible.”  It wasn’t so bad…flavored crackers, cheese and bottled water.  I couldn’t complain.

So that was Lviv.  Beautiful place, amazing people, great food, fun times.  If you go, plan to be there just 3 days or so…there is not that much to do there….just a nice beautiful city with a rich culture (or multiple cultures) and really nice and helpful people.

I flew from Lviv to Odessa, where I am typing this from my apartment.  But that, for sure, is a tale for another day.  Until then…

Jeff:  Aug 26^th, 2017