Our last night in Ukraine, visiting Lviv

On our last day in Ukraine, we spent the day wrapping things up and then took the evening off to meet up with our good friend Alexey Palko, his wife Kristina and his son Mark.
They took us to a truly unique place to eat, hidden behind a nondescript wooden door in the Old Town part of Lviv. No Russian sympathizers allowed in this place! When you knock on the door, they’ll typically say “Slava Ukraini!”; if you don’t respond quickly with “Heroyam Slava!”, you won’t be allowed in (the call and response has become hugely popular in Ukraine, translated as “Glory to Ukraine” followed by the response “Glory to the Heroes!”.
What an incredible place this was. There were displays of Ukrainian patriots from throughout their history, weapons of all sorts on display (many of which you could pick up and handle), a flag signed by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of their Armed Forces, a ‘shooting range’ where you get to take out Vladimir Putin, and so much more.
The Christmas decorations in the city were subdued, understandable given the war situation. Still, Lviv was humming with the usual activities of a city.