u/aaarry

Hello to lovely people of Lviv. I’m a 25 year old guy from the UK who has a spare half a week this week and I have taken it upon myself to travel to your lovely country and city for the first time. Everything is booked (transport, room etc.) and I have taken out insurance etc. so I believe I’m all set to go.

Someone from my area recently did one of the aid convoy drives and mentioned something about bringing toys to charities. I have a huge 85L bag and I’ve packed fairly light, so my plan is to go to a charity shop in Krakow tomorrow and stock up on stuff like that to bring over with me the following day (unfortunately I am taking the bus as I am a disorganised bastard and thus was too slow to book a train in good time). Is this something people do, and if so can people point me in the direction of somewhere I can drop them off to donate?

Further to this I was just wondering if people had any general suggestions of what to do whilst I’m there? Obviously there’s a lot to see but I’d like to make some sort of a ranking/interary in the meantime.

Like everyone lucky enough to come from a country that has not seen any significant conflict in my lifetime, I am also somewhat apprehensive about the security situation, mainly concerning whether shelters will actually be open or not (I’m aware some are in private houses). Is it safe to assume that a 1000 capacity shelter will be open or are capacity numbers not good to go off?

Finally, I presume I will be stopped by the security services at least once, as I am of fighting age. Will my British passport be sufficient evidence to show that I am not eligible to be conscripted or are there any other documents you would recommend keeping handy? My Ukrainian also isn’t great, but I feel like I can speak enough to get by in some situations without necessarily being able to hold conversation. I am multilingual (German and Spanish both studied to Uni/A Level) so I am aware that my Ukrainian isn’t going to get me very far, but I was also wondering if these people speak English generally, just in case? Assuming not, I will learn some phrases for this situation in the meantime.

Thank you all so much in advance. I’m really looking forward to this and I have heard nothing but good things about the city.