“I love the nightlife”–thank you, Alicia Bridges

The nightlife of Lviv, Ukraine rivals any place in Europe, as far as I’m concerned. I have to admit that I have not been terribly involved in it this trip. I’ve been so occupied during the day, that I’m dead by the time I get home. Too, it doesn’t get dark here until about 10:00 p.m. which makes it hard if I want to take photos.

And take photos I did. Lviv residents impress me with their love of color, flowers, lighting and architecture. They know how to accent a building with colorful flowers spilling out of window boxes. Balconies adorn practically every building and I swear that no two balconies are alike. Makes me wonder if past Lviv residents were all fans of Romeo and Juliet.

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“Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out”–thank you, Beatles

Okay, so the title of this blog posting is a bit misleading. I’m not talking about Ukraine girls. But I am in Ukraine and I needed some sort of segue!

I arrived in Lviv Monday afternoon. The journey was arduous. I had taken the train from Ascoli Piceno, Italy to Bologna. The train was an hour and a half late arriving in Bologna–and I was standing the entire time. I had never been on an oversold train in Italy. I didn’t even know they existed. In Facebook postings to friends, I joked that I was developing Nixon disease–phlebitis.

“This is the end of the innocence”–thank you, Don Henley

I am sitting in the airport in Vienna, Austria. The Italy leg of my trip is over already and it feels weird. Historically, I have always spent a larger proportion of my time in Italy than anywhere else. Not this time.

While in Italy, I made it a point to visit Alba Adriatica, my home of one year in 2014-15. I had romantic memories of the place stored on my mental iCloud. Even though there were times I suffered severe loneliness and raged over the inefficiency of the Italian system, the images of that year are fond ones.