Back from Lviv, Ukraine's 'most European' city

I just returned from a rocket trip to Lviv (that's the Ukrainian spelling; it's Lvov in Russian -- but Russian is disdained there). Lviv is the heart of the Ukrainian nationalist movement -- and somewhat chauvinistic about Ukrainian culture and about itself. And it should be: Lviv is a pretty city, more like Italy than like Kharkiv -- with historic buildings, sidewalk cafes, winding streets. The central district is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Last September, Lviv celebrated its 750th anniversary. I got the impression, too, that Lviv wasn't decimated by World War II as other cities. (For example, 75 percent of Kharkiv was destroyed during the Great Patriotic War.)

Lviv looks to Poland (of which it once was part) and to Western Europe just as Kharkiv looks to Russia. To some extent, the two cities reflect the geographical split in Ukrainian politics.

I went to Lviv to do a series of technology workshops for journalists. Yulia came to serve as a translator and co-trainer -- plus, she got to see a good friend who lives in Lviv.

We left Kharkiv early Wednesday morning (7 a.m.); took a train to Kiev, then another train to Lviv, arriving around 1 a.m. Thursday. We crashed at a hotel (Yulia's friend, Olena, met us there and shared Yulia's room so they could catch up). Then, early Thursday, we had breakfast and took a taxi to the workshop.

The workshops were held in a conference room in the Lviv office of ПОРА! (pronounced "PORA"), a pro-democracy group. Here's what Wikipedia says about the group:

Pora! (Ukrainian: ПОРА!), meaning IT'S TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy, in opposition to what they claimed was the authoritarian governing style of Ukraine's president Leonid Kuchma.

The group was established in 2004 to coordinate young people's opposition to the Kuchma government. Pora! was inspired and partly trained by members of the Serbian Otpor movement which helped bring down President Slobodan Milošević, and is also allied to related movements throughout Eastern Europe, including Kmara in the republic of Georgia (itself partly responsible for the downfall of President Eduard Shevardnadze), Zubr in Belarus (opposing President Alexander Lukashenko), Oborona in Russia, and MJAFT! in Albania. ...

Yulia and I felt a bit awkward doing our workshops under the auspices of a political organization, but if that's who opened the doors to us, who were we to complain?

Nine journalists (from newspapers, radio, TV and online media, as well as from the Lviv City Hall press agency) attended the workshops, and a few more drifted in and out. We covered Internet searching, spreadsheets and Web 2.0 publishing. Among other things, we divided the participants into teams and had them do a Web scavenger hunt:



We wrapped up around 4:30 and then did a little sightseeing. The City Hall folks gave us a VIP tour of the bell tower that's part of the City Hall complex. The view from the top was impressive. You could see churches like the one at the top of this post. And the tower looked down on the old market square:



We were under the bell when it went GONG! at 5 p.m. According to tradition, you're supposed to stand under the bell (it's a good idea to cover your ears!) and make a wish. [So Lorenza, if you're reading this, guess what I wished for?]



You'll find more pictures from my trip to Lviv here.

After having dinner at a terrific sidewalk restaurant, Yulia and I walked to the train station and caught the 11 p.m. train to Kiev. It arrived around 7:30 a.m. We had tickets for an 11:30 a.m. bus to Kharkiv. To kill time, we took a taxi to downtown Kiev (the driver was a talkative guy who met, and went drinking with, American soldiers in Germany; he had pretty strong conspiracy theory about the Kennedy assassination). I did some souvenir shopping. Then we caught the Kiev Metro back to the train station and got on our bus.

The bus unfortunately had an accident about an hour into our trip -- it wasn't our bus driver's fault: Somebody cut him off and he bumped another car. Nobody was hurt, but the police had to be called and paperwork had to be filled out before we could resume on our way.

As a result, we didn't get back to Kharkiv until almost 7:30. The silver lining: Yulia thought we'd arrive at 6:45; I bet on 7:30. The loser had to teach the winner three new words in the loser's native language. So ... I continue to build my Russian vocabulary, thanks to the bus accident.