Between Silence and Sirens

I finally have a moment to write.

Not the long, detailed entry I would like, but something. It irritates me more than it should that I cannot keep a proper daily log. Time slips here in strange ways. Entire days compress into fragments, and then suddenly I am sitting in a quiet place like this, with sunlight filtering through leaves and glass, pretending the world is behaving.

I am in Respublika Sadu in Lviv. If there is a place designed to trick you into believing everything is fine, this is it. Green everywhere, soft light, people talking as if there are no sirens in this country at all. I ordered something simple but well made. A creamy pumpkin soup to start, smooth and slightly sweet, followed by grilled chicken with vegetables and a light herb sauce. And coffee. Strong, properly made. I needed that more than I expected.

After I last wrote, I arrived in Lviv with a delay. Night attacks again. The train slowed, stopped, continued. No panic, just that quiet understanding everyone shares. By the time we reached Lviv, it felt like arriving not in another city, but in another rhythm.

Yesterday, around lunchtime, I made it back to the Ibis Lviv Center. Familiar, clean, predictable. I dropped everything and went out almost immediately. Walking helps me recalibrate.

Lviv was… Lviv. Alive in that layered way. Old stone, cafés, students, fragments of history that refuse to stay in the past. I ended up in Forum Lviv. A very normal decision. I needed normal.

I wandered through shops without urgency. Picked up a couple of things: a dark minimalist jacket from Zara, a pair of comfortable trainers from Nike, and, somewhat unnecessarily, a small tech accessory from Xiaomi that I convinced myself might be useful later. It probably will be.

Then I went to Planeta Kino.

The film was Hide and Seek: I’m Coming to Find You. That is the closest translation. The original title sounds better in Ukrainian. The film itself… strange. Not horror in the traditional sense, more psychological, slightly disjointed. It plays with perception, with the idea that being “found” is not always what you think it is. At moments it felt like it understood something deeper, and then it would slip away again. I liked it. Not because it was perfect, but because it tried.

After that, I made a predictable mistake and went to McDonald's.

I ate more than I should have. Considerably more. There is something about that place that bypasses reason entirely. It was not even particularly good, just… effective.

Back to the Ibis. Sleep. A lot of it. The kind that resets something fundamental.

This morning was calm. Breakfast, quiet, a slow walk through streets that felt almost too peaceful. And now here I am.

It is one of those moments where everything aligns just enough to feel… stable.

Which usually means something will go wrong soon.

I can feel it already. Not anxiety, just pattern recognition. When things are this calm, something somewhere is preparing to break, and I will likely be involved in fixing it.

But not yet.

For now, I am finishing my coffee, watching people pretend the world is simple, and allowing myself the same illusion for a little while longer.

— Marco