Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2018/Guide

Wikimedia CEE Meeting 2018

Lviv, Ukraine, October 13-15

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Weather

The weather forecast promises that it will be sunny, up to +19°C in the afternoon and +6°C at night.

Time

Right now clocks in Ukraine are set to Eastern European Summer Time (EEST), UTC+3. You can see the current time in Lviv (and everywhere in Ukraine) here.

Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania and Turkey have the same time as in Ukraine.
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are one hour ahead of Ukraine.
Kazakstan is two (west) or three (east) hours ahead of Ukraine.
Russia is too complicated to tell.
All other CEE countries are one hour behind Ukraine.

Addresses

You will be accommodated in the hotel «Sonata» («Соната») and its address is Morozna st., 14 (вул. Морозна, 14) - openstreetmap, google map

Conference venue is The Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Center, Lviv, Stryiska str., 29 - openstreetmap.

Transportation

First of all, we will arrange you being met at the airport, railway station or bus station by a member of our team, who will help to get you to the hotel. But, still, it is probable that you will have to go to the hotel on your own.

There is a website which can come in handy, and smartphone applications corresponding to it, for Android or Apple, which can offer you a route on city transport from any point A to any point B in Lviv, and which also includes real-times GPS data.

Airport to hotel

The trolleybus stop is just in front of the airport terminal. Get on a trolleybus number 9 and go to the stop «Liublinska-Vyhovskoho St» («вул. Люблінська-Виговського»). After leaving the trolleybus, walk 50 metres back in the opposite direction, cross the road, turn left, walk 50 more metres and you will reach the bus stop. Get on a bus number 16 and go to the stop «Ivana Kavaleridze St» («вул. Івана Кавалерідзе») which is the final stop. After leaving the bus, walk 300 metres forward till you reach the bridge. Turn left, and you'll see the hotel after few steps.

If you arrive at night (22:00-6:00), you have no other option than to get a taxi. In taxi you can pay only with cash and it will cost something around 130 UAH.

Airport to venue

Until the moment of getting on the bus number 16, the same as above. Then go to the stop «Catolic University» («Католицький університет»), walk backward till you reach the traffic circle, turn left and walk 100 metres to the venue.

Railway station to hotel

When you go out from the main door of the railway station, the tram stop is on the left hand, and the bus stop is on the right hand. The bus brings you from the railway station right to the hotel, but it goes incredibly slow. The tram is faster, but you will have to make a transfer, pay twice and you will have to walk some distance to the hotel. If you arrive at night (22:00-6:00), you will have to use a night bus, which stops at the same place the usual bus does. The exact point where the bus stop is 49°50′20″ N 23°59′44.4″ E.

Bus. Get on a bus number 16 and go to the stop «Ivana Kavaleridze St» («вул. Івана Кавалерідзе») which is the final stop. After leaving the bus, walk 300 metres forward till you reach the bridge. The hotel will be at the left hand.
Tram. Get on a tram number 1 or 9 (different directions of a circle line) and go to the stop «Franka square» («Площа Франка»). There you transfer to a tram number 8 and go to the stop «Dovzhenko Center» («Центр Довженка»). After leaving the tram, walk 100 metres forward to the next crossroads. There turn left to the adjoining street. Walk forward till you reach the bridge. The hotel will be at the left hand.
Night bus. Get on a bus number 4Н and go to the stop «Sykhiv district administration» («Сихівська райадміністрація»). After leaving the bus, walk 300 metres backward to the crossroads. There turn right to the adjoining street. Walk forward till you reach the bridge. The hotel will be at the left hand.

Railway station to venue

You have two options: bus or tram with bus/trolleybus. Again, bus brings you from the railway station right to the venue, but it is slow. Second variant is faster, but you will have to make a transfer and pay twice.

Bus. Get on a bus number 16 and go to the stop «Catolic University» («Католицький університет»), then walk backward till you reach the traffic circle, turn left and walk 100 metres to the venue.
Tram with bus/trolleybus. Get on a tram number 1 or 9 (different directions of a circle line) and go to the stop «Franka square» («Площа Франка»). There you transfer either to a bus number 3А, bus number 53 or trolleybus number 24.
- Bus 53. Go to the stop «Catolic University» («Католицький університет»), walk backward till you reach the traffic circle, turn left and walk 100 metres to the venue.
- Bus 3А/Trolleybus 24. Go to the stop «Child railway» («Дитяча залізниця»). After leaving the vehicle there will be a park at the left hand. Walk forward untill the park ends (there will be a wooden church), then turn left (go round the corner of the park) and walk 150 metres to the venue.

Bus station to venue

Get on a bus number 3А or a trolleybus number 24 and go to the stop «Child railway» («Дитяча залізниця»). After leaving the vehicle there will be a park at the right hand. Walk backward untill the park ends (there will be a wooden church), then turn left (go round the corner of the park) and walk 150 metres to the venue.

Hotel to venue

Bus 16. The hotel is situated near the bridge. Walk along the street in the direction opposite to the bridge untill you reach the mall, where the bus stop is. Get on a bus number 16, which stops near the hotel, and go to the stop «Catolic University» («Католицький університет»), then walk backward till you reach the traffic circle, turn left and walk 100 metres to the venue.
Trolleybus 24. The hotel is situated near the bridge. Walk over the brigde and you will reach the trolleybus stop. Get on a trolleybus number 24 and go to the stop «Child railway» («Дитяча залізниця»). After leaving the vehicle there will be a park at the left hand. Walk forward untill the park ends (there will be a wooden church), then turn left (go round the corner of the park) and walk 150 metres to the venue.

Hotel to city center

The hotel is situated near the bridge. Walk along the street in the direction opposite to the bridge untill you reach the crossroads with a big white church on the other side. Turn right and walk 100 metres to the tram station. Get on a tram number 8 (there are no other trams than 8th) and go to the stop «Franka square» («Площа Франка»). This stop is at the connection of three streets. If the street, from which you just came, is behind you, then turn to the street on the left hand and walk some distance. You will reach the Liberty Avenue («Prospekt Svobody», «Проспект Свободи») which is the main street of Lviv.

Maps

Airport
Hotel
Venue
Railway station

How to pay for a trip

A trip on a tram, a trolleybus or a bus costs 5 UAH. A trip on a night bus costs 8 UAH. Taxi to the hotel costs over 130 UAH.

To pay for a trip, upon entering the transport vehicle, buy a paper ticket from a driver. On a tram and trolleybus you have to validate the ticket by puncturing it on a special device. Some vehicles have devices which allow you to pay with a MasterCard PayPass, but they are still very rare. There are also QR codes for clients of the biggest Ukrainian bank PrivatBank, which can be scanned using the internet banking application Privat24. The bank claims that any other internet banking application with QR code-reading function, including foreign ones, can use it as well, but, unfortunately, we had no means to check it.

Asking for advice

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call anybody from our team.

Or you can ask locals for assistance. Many people in Lviv can speak Russian (it would be polite to say which country you are from, in this situation). Many people, especially young people, speak English, but try to speak slow and clear. Some people are able to speak Polish, or at least understand it, but again, speak slow and clear. At the wit's end, you can try to speak any slavic language, and there will be a probability that you will be understood.

Currency exchange

You can exchange USD, EUR, RUB, PLN, GBP, TRY, SEK and CZK into UAH (hryvnia, consists of 100 kopiyka's) in the airport or USD, EUR, RUB and PLN elsewhere in the city, but we recommend you to take some USD or EUR with you anyway. Also, we strongly recommend you to use a bank card where possible, because when using a bank card you will lose less at the currency transition, than you will lose if you exchange the cash. You can see the exchange rates here.

Other things to remember

We would like to bring your attention to the fact that communist symbolics, e.g. shirts with hammer and sickle, are outlawed and possessing or demonstrating them can result in an arrest. Russian national symbolics are legal, but they can cause strong negative reactions of local people.

Remember that unlike many other European countries, in Ukraine floors are counted from the first floor, not the ground floor (zero floor), so the reception in the hotel is at the first floor.

We ask Ukrainians to take their passports with them, because they will have to show it at the reception in the hotel.

You can see the scheme of Lviv trams and trolleybuses here.

We recommend you to print this page or to save it into the memory of your device.