LandScope: Travel Diary of An Explorer

It is a small, compact, historical, livable, calm and pedestrian-friendly city. It was a question mark for me to go to Lviv because of the security matters occuring in the eastern part of the Ukraine. I hesitated for such a travel plan. I made a reservation and cancelled, and made it again and cancelled, so forth. I bought tickets after waiting until the last week :)

I read lots of comments, blogs writings and it seemed really different to me. It is more european -very close to Poland boundary-, more historical and had a considerable amount of universty population. There is an european effects on their daily life and culture.

Lviv had been part of numerous states and empires including Poland, Austiran and later Austro-Hungarian Empires, Soviet Union. While being a part of different countries, Lviv borrowed some parts of culture and knowledge from invaders. Lviv has been recognized as the cultural capital of Ukraine 2009. The city is known as a center of art, literature, music and theatre. Lviv was also included in the UNESCO World Heritage List with its urban fabric and architecture. These features attracted me...

We reached to the city center by local transport -minibus- departing in front of the airport. When I first arrived to the center and came to the front side of the Opera House, I just felt as a google man :) What a hilarious scene... While making my travel plans, mostly I stroll around streets, places and some attraction points on the google maps via street view option accompanied by google man. And now this scene came in to real. You are just a small small person in a small small city...Really fabolous.

Rynok square has been the centre of cultural and commercial life of the city for years and it is the central square of Lviv. Rynok square also was recognized as a Unesco World Heritage site and is surrounded by conserved historical buildings dating back to 17th and 18th centuries. Some of them are the most beautiful examples of the Renaissance and Gothic architecture. The main attraction points are located around the square, so it is attractive, lively and crowded all day long.

Historical buildings, streets, parks were all balanced with each other. None of them was precluded the others in the city. 

While walking in the main streets of the city, I confronted with the sculptures of famous polish poet Adam Mickiewicz lived for a while and died in Galata, Istanbul. It is located in the Mickiewicz square.

Christmas Market in Rynok square, Lviv

Lviv also is known with its chocolate and coffees. I think it wouldn't be wrong to say that the city itself is like a bit of chocolate that you taste sweet at first, it gives you happiness from the first bite and makes you feel better. And you remember that it makes you happy when you eat again. Lviv is completely like that. It gives you pleasure and you are addicted to it and want to come back and see again to live this pleasure.

Neuschwanstein from Marien brücke

I was really in a fairy-tale in Fussen. I don't know how can I tell what I felt in this place but it was very very mystical  place I've ever seen. In my visit to Germany, my friends told me that I should go and see Schwangau. Lots of time we made plan to go there, but something went wrong. And I decided to make a visit on my own in my last day of 20 days Germany trip. What a shame :))

When I arrived to Fussen, I felt that I was really lucky to be in that place. Indeed the landscape of Alps was perfect  in its own but Schloss Neuschwanstein adds an extra beauty to this region. Ludwing II created a fairy-tale in the Alps, in a magnificent landscape. 

It was built in medieval style in the 19th century. King Ludwig wanted to create his own alternative world. He could live like a king of the Middle Ages. This was the idea behind the castle and he created his fantasy world. But Ludwig slept only 11 nights in castle. When the guide told us the story while visiting his bedroom, I felt sorry for him. 

You need to take a bus from Fussen train station to reach the area where the castle is located. Bus stop is behind the station and if you bought a bayern ticket, which gives you unlimited travel by train in Bayern, you don't need to pay for bus. It takes 5-10 mins from station. 

In Hohenschwangau, at first you should go to ticket center to learn the tour times and take a ticket fitting your programme. Sometimes, it can be 2 hours between two tours in English.  And please keep in mind that you need minimum 20 min to reach the castle place. 

Castle is located on top of the hill and you should climb to reach it. 3 options: walking, taking bus and horse-carriage. Horse carriage has no schedule, they run independently according to demand of the visitors. If you take the bus, you need to walk when you get-off. The point is that you are responsible for your schedule, because if you miss the tour and you aren't there on time, no refund :((... If you have a good health condition, I advise you to walk. 

The route was acceptable for walking. Furthermore I saw a group of 60-70 year-old people walking down in this route. Maybe it can be an encouraging example for you :)... It took 15-20 min. and I had enough time for my tour, approx. 1 hour:)) . There are souvenir shops and cafe-restaurants along your route also. 

I had many opportunities to see lots of destinations and make day trips during my travel in Germany this year. One of them was Chiemsee. I had planned to go to "Innsbruck" for a day trip from Munich , therefore I got up early in the morning to catch the train. But the plan didn’t work out :((   When I reached to the DB train station, I tried to buy a Bayern ticket to travel cheaper in Bavaria region... I wanted to be sure the ticket was available for Innsbruck, so I asked to the staff in the ticket office... They told me that Bayern ticket didn’t contain the city of Innsbruck :((. 

At that time, I started to think about the other choices... 
But the hours worked against me. ..
A train to Ulm departed, then the other one to Fussen and so on...

I needed to decide a place to go. Finally, I chose the closer one and took the train to Prien am Chiemsee. The train going to Chiemsee is the same direction to Salzburg, by the way, I had seen the station when I went to Salzburg.   

We went to Waterloo by car and saw lots of tourists coming with a group tour. So I had no idea about reaching this area by public transportation. But I think if you chose to come to Walloon region of Belgium, you had a few chance to take public transportation. It is better to rent a car for your stay, but the north parts of the Belgium are really accessible by public trains and by foot in the center of the cities. As a result of car transportation, you focus on only museum place and visit this place and leave from there very quickly. So I hadn't any chance to see residential part of the city. But architectural styles and streets in the museum place were really traditional and give you the inspiration of this historical atmosphere.