Experimental Vacation & Lviv Trip
Now that I have only two days of vacation left I feel it’s time to report on how I have spent available time.
The idea of experimental vacation came to my mind at the end of April. At the time I was reading Dalai Lama and thought that it would be great to have some time to reflect on what I’ve read and forget for a while about everyday work-home regime. A bunch of national holidays at the beginning of May came right in time. So I made an initial plan of what I wanted to accomplish within ten days and started enjoying the process.
Firstly I paid visits to my relatives in Chernivtsi and Cherkasy. Spending some time with family inspired me even more and on my arrival to Kyiv I was firmly determined to arrange not less than “intellectual mini-retirement” for myself.
The first thing I did was prepaid everyday swimming pool attendance and set up alarm clock for 5 a.m. Every next day I got up early, made 30-40 minutes of yoga and went to swimming pool. After three days of such morning routines I decided that I wanted to stick to it at working days as well. The reason for this is that by 10 a.m. I felt incredibly well with great sense of accomplishment and the rest of the day was like a phoenix song. Conscious physical activity indeed provokes the power of mind and thought. In the following days I caught up with my Spanish podcasts, finished a couple of pending books and audiobooks, organized my musical collection in Songbird, and met my friends.
However the most beautiful part of the vacation proved to be the trip to Lviv. Now that I think of it I can’t believe how come that I’ve never been there before. The city is so fantastic, welcoming and pleasing. Narrow streets with cozy cafés and authentic shops, beautiful architecture, kind people who speak in their native language make it look very European. My friend said about Lviv: “Here’s what all Ukraine should be like”.
Lviv is a very nice place for people of artistic professions. It’s full of galleries, museums, and special shops. We’ve been to artistic shop for painters, a couple of musical shops, and several art-cafés. The prices are less than moderate and the experience is more than great.
During the time of visit I made friends with two awesome guys who play ethnic drums and one of whom dances salsa. With them we made some noise in a musical shop where I tried playing “Korean replica of American Gibson” kind of guitar, danced salsa in one of the central city squares and simply had a great time.
I think it won’t be long before we go to Lviv again to make more in-depth exploration, spending more time in museums and galleries to dive more deeply into city’s creative spirit.
And now it’s time for me to go and enjoy the rest of remaining days. ¡Hasta pronto!