On Friday evening, (very rainy) Barbara, Sam, Isobel and I left for Lviv for the weekend. We took an overnight train; this was my first train trip. It was suggested that we take first class cars. They were simple and nice. Nobody slept very well due to the way the train rocks but it was a pleasant enough trip. We arrived at 6:30 a.m. in Lviv. We took a taxi to our hotel and they locked our luggage up in their office so we didn’t have to haul that around with us. McDonalds was the only thing open so we ate there. We walked over to the Opera house to look at it and wandered around a bit waiting for a real place to eat to open. At about nine we ate at the hotel restaurant. I had potato pancakes stuffed with cheese with a side of sour cream. There were delicious!!! We walked around a bit more until a friend of Barbara’s daughter and her husband (Lillia and Anzar) met us to give us a tour. They were a wonderful couple; very intelligent and very informative about Lviv’s history. We visited several churches; briefly stopped at the market in the square. We ate at a great restaurant called the Golden Boar. The place has a very interesting history, which I can’t remember exactly but when the basement was being cleaned of ruble three golden boar statutes were found hidden in the walls. So there were several boars’ heads hanging on the walls and a complete stuffed boar hanging from the ceiling. The food was fantastic!!! We saw nearly two dozen brides as we wondered the city. They have more than one Lent and can’t get married during Lent. One had just ended so many people were getting married. What a cold rainy day to get married!!! We got in on two of the weddings as we were visiting churches. (I’ll have to write more about the churches.) Lillia helped us by tickets for the Opera. We then departed company with Lillia and her husband. We went for dessert then back to the hotel to rest before the Opera. It had rained constantly all day and we were soaked; shoes, socks (I went thru three pair) and pants. The Opera was good. We couldn’t understand it too well. They had the basics of the story printed in English in the program but was hard to follow most of the time. It was great to listen to the singing and to watch the actors.