lviv's chocolate festival round 2

my first year in ukraine i visited lviv twice...this year i decided to return in february to attend (again) the chocolate festival hosted by the city, and just enjoy being out of kyiv for a weekend...
i traveled with one of my coworkers and friends, camille...we took a night train friday night from kyiv, arriving in kyiv early saturday morning...we were in separate cars on the train, because i hadn't bought the tickets very far ahead of time...this was camille's first night train, so it freaked her out a bit, as she speaks even less russian than i do (which is practically nothing)...i can understand this, as she didn't know the 'traditions' of a ukrainian night train...

i'd made a reservation at a hostel, so we walked from the station to the hostel to see if we could check in...i'm really glad i printed out a map and marked the location of the hostel as well as written the address, it ended up being in a place we would not have found easily...we were the only people there except for the owner, who spoke absolutely no english...we stayed in a dorm room even though i'd booked a double...i think the owner was trying to say we would have the room to ourselves?
anywho, we started walking around town, i showed camille the sights i liked as we passed...lviv is so easy to walk around, nearly everything is within walking distance...

we ate lunch at a mircrobrewery i love...the menu is extensive, and everything on the menu is good...as usual, i ordered too much, and ate too much:)
we continued walked around town during the afternoon, looking into churches and shops, and generally enjoyed the atmosphere of the city...we took public transport to a huge local cemetary, and explored an area i hadn't seen previously...camille practiced reading russian/ukrainian by reading the names on the tombstones/gravemarkers...i found the area for soldiers who fought when the area was polish, that area was particularly organized...i'm guessing there were specific battles mentioned, but i don't remember...

we visited the chocolate festival that evening...after last year's experience, when i got sick, i was a bit nervous that the same thing would happen...there was more chocolate available for free, but i only ate one piece...(shocking, i know, as i don't normally have much in the way of self control)...i enjoyed seeing some of the huge chocolate blocks being carved, seeing the final sculptures created...
we spent most of the next day on the train...since i bought our train tickets so late, a day train back to kyiv was our only option...i'd never ridden a day train from kyiv, so it was actually kinda neat to do so:)...i spent time reading, napping, chatting with camille, etc...

a weekend out of the city is different when you arrive back sunday evening, but i still enjoyed the trip to lviv...i'm sure i'll go back again:)
i should mention that my visit to lviv was much warmer this time than it was last february...last year it was -20C or so as cloe and i walked around all day...this year it was 'only' -5C...both temperatures are cold, but believe me when i say -5C seems almost balmy in comparison to -20C!!