Day 9--May 21--Saturday: World's Largest Mall

(Left)The front entrace to the huge bazaar includes multi-story buildings with hundreds of shops. (Right)Behind the buildings there is a maze of stalls, the walkway between part of them covered.

Today we did the tourist bit and just went shopping. We went back to a large “mall” that I had found two years ago. It’s not a mall in the way we commonly think, but more like a huge bazaar. In the labyrinth of shops, including those crowded into every nook and cranny of neighboring buildings, I would hazard a guess that there could be close to 1000 individual shops in the complex.

Two years ago I found a genuine leather purse here for Abbie for $15, about 1/6 the price in Portugal. We looked for her another one this time, and ended up finding one for $10 (not genuine leather, according to the shopkeeper), and another for $20, which we were told is real leather. It feels real, at least. It was a relaxing way to spend a few hours, the dry--even if not hot and sunny--weather being a big plus.


We bought our train tickets for the next stage of our travels, as we will be going to Netyshin on Monday, and then went back for another stroll through downtown L’viv. The main difference this time is that there were people out and about, enjoying the pleasant weather.



(Above)Old men gather on benches and around tables along the central plaza in front of L'viv's Opera House. You see the same sort of thing in Madeira and Portugal, but with a difference. The men here play dominoes or cards; I can't imagine seeing a crowd gather here to watch a chess game.
(Below)L'viv is a very old town and most of the streets are still paved with cobblestone.














We strolled through a square where local artists displayed their works and all sorts of tourist items were on sale. All in all, it was a relaxing day. Although it didn't rain, the sky was overcast, in contrast to the cloudless weather two years ago. (Pictures above right, and lower left, taken in 2003; upper left, this year.)





Odds and ends of L'viv memories






























TOP (Left) Horse-drawn carriages circulate downtown on the weekends. (Right) A dog helps his owner sell sunglasses. Passers-by drop coins in the plastic container to help the "blind" dog.
CENTER (Left) The cakes and pastries in Ukraine are really good. These just happened to be ones we had in L'viv while out shopping. (Right) The lady at the department store added up my bill on an abacus.
BOTTOM (Left) An evangelical sidewalk funeral. Perhaps the elderly woman's house was too small to accommodate the friends who attended.