Villa Lahodynskyj

Suitably refreshed I walked downtown Vinohradiv.
Took a look around and found a lady to sell me a SIM card. Called up AlexZ (historian) to let him know I am in-country. We’ll meet up tomorrow. 

Picked up some cash from an ATM. 

Found a place for a coffee and a shot. 
The young lads were encouraging me to have another. hahaha. The thought of tomorrow’s potholes made me run away. 

Right past a 15th century church. Was used as a warehouse during Soviet times.

Got rid of my remaining paper Forints. Exchanged for Hrivny.

Then back to my guest house.
Pasta supper.
And an early night. Just as the rain started.

Up early Thursday morning to the sound of rain and traffic. Where are people going at 5am?

Dozed whilst listening to the Beeb. Must have fallen asleep, as awoke just in time to get ready for breakfast. 
Pancakes 🙂
Shared with Oksana, who was down managing a new store for a week. “Hey Boss! She reminded me of you!” 🙂

Packed.
Rain stopped.
Ground wet with puddles to hide the true size and depth of any potholes.
And with that cheerie thought, I rode off. 

Roads were bad, but much better than yesterday.

Police officer stopped me. Looked at my paperwork. We chatted. Shook hands. And off I rode.
Nice place Ukraiina 🙂

Some of the journey looked familiar from last year. This is, after all, the main road to Lviv. 

Filled up, enroute.
Then rode to a restaurant that I remembered from last time. Had an excellent soup……

Over lunch, looked up GeniusMaps which told me I am averaging 41kph. Yippe! Why so happy? Last year it was 30kph. ‎
Small wonder that I also ran over 200km before my fuel dropped below half. On the autobahn with ethanol laced fuel, I rarely get 150km.
NOTE: the fuel tank is a bag. It’s shaped to fit in the frame under the seat. So the indicator only shows the amount when the tank is half full, or less. Motorrad rules are that you start looking for fuel once the tank drops below half.
Ukraiina is the most fuel-friendly country I have travelled in. Fuel stations EVERYWHERE!!!

Was a nice ride into Delyatyn, and the hotel. Smooth winding tarmac and wooded hillsides.
Bit of confusion, then the room sorted. Apparently my Ukrainian could take some lessons ?

AlexZ showed up as I parked the bike and unpacked. 
We then went into the bar and started talking. A samohonka or 500gms 😉 With hlib, salo i chisnik 🙂
And a call to Mykola Lahodynskyj‘s grand-daughter Oksana in Chicago

Walked Olesh (AlexZ and I are now family, so I can use the familiar version of Alexander, ie:Olesh) partway home. He showed me the Lahodynskyj villa, and we arranged to meet there tomorrow.
This is the museum to Mykola Lahodynskyj, a once member of parliament in Vienna, when the Hapsburgs ruled. The building housed his constituency office, and is still setup that way.

Back at the hotel, I had an early night.

Friday morning up at 6am. Rain must have continued through the night. Bike covered up. So all OK. 
Updated my hotel reviews in Booking.com
TaiChi. 
Checked with Olesh. 
Walked over to Villa Lahodynskyj, a museum in what used to be the constituency office of a famous person in the family, Mykola Lahodynskyj…..

Had the A+ guided tour by others, as Olesh had some prep work to do.
Museum building also houses a small gallery and a much bigger school.

Then was taken to Olesh’s dacha by two gentlemen named Roman.
Weird n wonderful way. Seriously. High heels won’t do unless you were born here. And no, I wasn’t wearing high heels!
We four chaps sat down and ate lunch, drank and told stories. All true. Was BRILL. 

I walked back to the hotel via downtown Delyatyn, an espresso, water, and terti platski. 
Had a nap. 
Then down to the bar to see if RomanTheCook shows up.
Nope. But had borsch, vareniki and met Ivan and the two Vasils. Ivan lives in Brooklyn. So we all had a good chat.

In the morning up at 6am on a Saturday grey day. Got serious about planning my way out and over to Germany. Took a while as I realised I had some key dates messed.
TaiChi.

Heading down for breakfast, when RomanTheCook showed up, early. Then WiseRoman (don’t ask) and we all sat down for what was supposed to be lunch but ended up being more a reprise of the last 2 days.

RomanTheCook then took me to see the Lahodynskyj plot…..

And he remembered to bring candles. 

We went over to WiseRoman’s favourite cafe and had terti-platzki……

Then outside a chat with MyronTheBiker…..

Back to the hotel, where a wedding was getting to the party stage. The young couple had finished their breakfast, were off for photos, and the remaining guests were arriving. 
As was the rain.

RomanTheCook left and I went back to my room to double-check my trip planning. Begining to feel the need for a project management system to track all this 🙂

Down for supper. Borsch. Hrebova zupa. Chai.
Paid up for the stay. Landlady confirming that no-one would be in the office early Sunday morning 🙂

Then to bed. Listening to wedding music. 

Awoke at 6am Sunday morning. Still music playing. Good wedding! Band left as I was getting ready.

TLC + first parade for the bike.
RomanTheCook arrived. Had come to bid “A schasliva vam doroha”. Was waiting for Wise‎Roman‎ but nothing either in response to a call, or a knock. What we suspect happened is not for print 😉
The rain started to come down heavily as I rode off. Delyatyn must be sad to see me go 🙂

The rain continued. Heavy. Had to be extra careful as people were attending/leaving church by foot, and the crazy drivers were still about. 
As were the potholes. TomTom again changed it’s mind and took me through town instead of around on the ring road of Ivano-Frankisk.
First pothole was easily ridden around. 
The second was a leap of faith in the bike, as roadworks forced me to ride through. Faith was rewarded. I rode through OK. 
The third was avoided by habit. ‎If you do things right, you end up doing the right things. Subconciously, I had scanned the road whilst watching the traffic on approch to a roundabout. So was able to safely miss pothole and traffic. 

Rode on, to be teased by sunshine. It was a trap. There was ‎ more rain.
Which reduced to a light shower as I‎ filled up outside Lviv.

Checked out a ‎ laundrette. 

Then rode to‎ the hotel. 
Funny. The nasty cobbled street that I rode along last year, seemed benign now 🙂

Booked in. 
TLC for the bike. 
Unpacked.
Took my laundry in.

Had 3+hrs to wait. Was perfect. 
Gave Olesh a shout and we met up. Had a very light lunch.
Picked up the laundry.
And supper back at the hotel.
Then farewells.

Awoke early on‎ Monday morning 6am. 
Ran some chores. 
Breakfast. 
Pack. ‎
Dress for rain.
Ride out on the road. 
Zoom. Zoom. To the border. Slight hints of rain. And much improved tarmac.

A two kilometre line-up of trucks greeted me.
T‎hen wait. Even after cutting to the front of the line, as everyone kept telling me to do 🙂
Ukrainian side was closed down. When they opened the gates I found out why. Really slow on the Polish side. 
Still. It wasn’t raining 🙂
And it’s just waiting in line. 

Thus endeth the Villa Lahodynskyj visit.