For breakfast, I cooked scrambled eggs, tomato and cucumber salad, and sliced figs. Mo introduced me to a thyme spice mix with sesame seeds from Lebanon that his mom made, as well as labneh (yogurt cheese), which goes really well on bread.

In the morning, I cooked breakfast for me and Mo. I didn’t think much of it, but Mo was so impressed that he took a picture of his plate. (He hardly ever does that.) Afterwards, he took me to Çamlıca Hill in the morning. It’s the highest point in Istanbul, and we reached a bus stop about a ten-minute walk away from the hill by bus. You can enjoy views of both the European and Asian sides of the city from there. Usually, it’s quite crowded on weekends, but this is not a usual year for Istanbul.

My day started with a bird flying into the living room window and unable to escape by itself because it kept running into a glass pane above the door to the balcony. I had to pick the poor, frightened thing up and shoo it out of the open window.

Mo left for work around 08:30, but I lazed around until 11:00 when I needed to leave and meet with Kutay and İnci. At the Sirkeci Marmaray Metro Station, I met with Kutay to give him the chocolate from Oleh in Lviv at 11:45. Last night, he was busy working on furniture design for ancient buildings in his hometown. It would’ve been nice to chat more, but he didn’t have time to hang out before he left for work. I asked him to let me know which of the three chocolate bars is his favorite.

Grade

B.

Would I fly with them again?

Yeah, the experience was not too bad!

To get to the Lviv airport, I had to catch a marshrutka at a stop about 15-20 minutes away on foot from Kate’s apartment. I got to walk on a major street that was basically closed off because the city is majorly overhauling it for new tram tracks down the middle. The marshrutka stopped about a 15-minute walk away from the airport. I did see a closer marshrutka stop as I approached, but I guess there aren’t any direct routes from Kate’s.

My last full day in Lviv started with me getting two hours of sleep. But I was going to make the most of it no matter what! I left Kate’s to start my day with the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at Baczewski. You walk in anytime starting at 08:00 and pay for your meal voucher with the hostess (₴9). Breakfast service ends at 11:00, so allocate enough time to enjoy yourself!

From the time I woke up at 09:00, I was excited that I’d be visiting Kate in the afternoon at the radio station where she’s been working as a DJ for the past eight years. She was a little hungover from the party last night, and she talked a lot, so her throat was a bit sore. But she made some oatmeal and got to it!

Kate and I trekked to High Castle today! There used to be an actual castle up there from the 13th to late 19th centuries, but it no longer exists since it was replaced by a park and an artificial hill called Union of Lublin Mound. But it’s still called High Castle and is a popular place to see a panoramic view of Lviv. A TV tower was also built up there, and it’s jokingly known as the Eiffel Tower of Lviv.

Kate cooked a hearty brunch of boiled potatoes, tomato/cucumber/sweet pepper salad, bread and butter, green onions, and compote. Over such a tasty meal, I learned more about her background.