City Center L'viv January 2024

On January 9, 2024, I am walking down Vulytsia Havryshkevycha toward the concert hall at the end just past where the brilliantly lighted Christmas tree stands tall in the night. When I passed through L'viv in May of 2022, I purchased some items at a grocery store on this street. It was 9:02 p.m. when it was my turn in line, I put my items in front of the clerk. The clerk very forcefully and rather angerly said something to me in Ukrainian. After a split second of thought I responded in English. At some point, I figured it out that I could not purchase the bottle of beer. My response was okay, I'll just go and get a beer at a bar, thinking this alternative would offset my disappointment I may have displayed. (In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, beer is not sold at grocery stores after 9:00 p.m., but I had believed that Europe was different from the States in many ways and this was just one of them.) One tall, young man asked me in English where I was from and I told him Chicago, which was a recognizable place. He was very friendly and was very interested in me as I am sure others were wondering who was this guy from America in Ukraine? (Maybe not) I would learn and figure out later that Ukraine had a curfew on selling all liquor after 9:00 p.m., whether it was a grocery store or a bars. It was one condition of the war. When I returned to L'viv July 2023, the grocery store was gone. (I'm not saying it had anything to do with not being able to sell beer after 9:00.) In January 2024, a coffee shop I attended on each of my previous stays in L'viv was also gone. Other businesses took over these prime spaces.