Problem solved

We had to ask people for directions to our hostel in L'viv, ending up in lively discussions with several passers-by who had different opinions on whether we should turn right or left. Finally we bumped into a friendly woman who was originally from Kharkov and therefore spoke perfect Russian, and walked a couple of blocks with us to show us the way.

This resolved two questions: firstly the location of the hostel, and secondly the language issue. We had been warned both by friends and our guidebook that it wouldn't be a good idea to try to speak Russian in Western Ukraine, where many people are quite passionate about the Ukrainian language and nation. But just like in the Baltic countries, a polite inquiry about a persons's Russian skills usually leads to them happily speaking the language. This is a huge relief for us as Lina's skills in Ukrainian are very limited whereas Kaisa and Leka can hardly say "thanks" at this point of the journey.