Vacation! (part 1)

Wow, sorry I haven't written in a while!  My internet has been out for a few days, and I've generally been too busy doing things to think about writing my thoughts on this system of tubes.
Two weeks ago, I had the chance to go on my first 'vacation' here in Ukraine.  It was nice to have a week off and not have to worry about going to work, and to be able to travel to a different country in such a short time!  My roommate and I caught an overnight train as soon as we were done with our last day of the semester, and got to experience some very interesting Ukrainian train conditions.  Our destination for the first leg of our journey was Lviv, a pretty little town in the far Western part of Ukraine.  We had heard from both friends and students that it was an interesting place to visit, which of course proved to be true.  The city has, over time, been in the possession of Ukraine and Poland, so there is a lot of more Western influence as far as architecture and such than in Kiev.  We arrived early in the morning to a snow covered city, and we caught a tram to the center, where we explored the city before it really woke up.  We decided to begin our day by taking a trip to the cemetery, which was amazing.  I love cemeteries, and the one in Lviv is absolutely gorgeous.  It is situated on a hill side, and all of the graves and tombs are packed in tight.  There were many sculptures and extravagant memorials, and dead, wintry ivy covered everything, as did a light dusting of snow.  We spent about an hour making our way through the entire cemetery (it was huge!), and then wandered back to buy some fruit at the rinok we passed on the way.  We continued to walk about the city, stopped in a few cafes for coffee, and then made our way to the Lvivski brewery for a tour.  This brewery makes beer you can find at every kiosk in Kiev--a national treasure!  Honestly, it isn't very good at all, but the brewery was cool, and our guide was amazing.  She spoke Ukrainian, but spoke so slowly and articulately that Jon and I could understand her pretty well for the most part!
After our trip to the brewery, we were hungry, so we stopped in at a vareniki cafe.  We got a ton of food (3 big dishes of vareniki, a national dumpling dish here in Ukraine) and also some wine and beer for only 80 GRIVEN!  Wow!  That equals about 10 bucks.  For both of us.  Lviv is really cheap.  After our huge meal, though, we started to get tired.  We had been in Lviv since 6 AM, and wouldn't be leaving until midnight, when we would catch our train to Poland.  It was only about 4 in the afternoon, so we decided to occupy some time by seeing a movie.  We watched a ridiculous Russian movie, with the charming and catchy title "Love is a Carrot."  Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean.  It was the stupidest movie I have ever seen, but it was in Russian, so I got some good language practice.
Finally, it was time for us to head back to the train station and continue our journey.  We were delighted to find that we got a cabin to ourselves on the train to Krakow, which was amazing.  However, we didn't get a very good night sleep, partly because of the constant stopping and starting of the train, and also because we had to deal with a border crossing at 1AM, which lasted about 2 hours.  You need to get your passport checked by officers who enter the train on both the Ukrainian side and the Polish side.  It is kind of nerve-wracking, just because you never know when they are going to say that something isn't right and force you to pay a bribe to continue into or out of the country...luckily we escaped such misfortune (probably because it was the middle of the night and too much of a hassle for border guards to worry about), and we even managed to smuggle some vodka across the border for our train attendant, a Polish man named Josef who begged us to carry a few bottles for him, as he needed it for his friend's birthday party.  Ok Josef.  Whatever you say.

I will finish my vacation story later today...I've got some cookin to do right now!