Lviv!

Lviv's vogzol:

The train pulled into Lviv (pronounced Luh-veev in Ukrainian, also known as Lvov in Russian, Lemberg in German, and Lbib in Polish...it is jokingly referred to as L-wow, as it is also sometimes written) on Saturday AM and the first thing I noticed when we walked to the front of the station was how similar it is to Chernivtsi’s. They share a similar history, so this didn’t surprise me much.

During the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (so, up to 1918) Lviv (or Lemberg, as it was known then) was the capital of the empire’s Galicia region. The Galicia region is just north of the Bucovina region, of which Chernivtsi was the capital. Lviv’s art nouveau train station is beautiful, and back in the day, it quickly connected people to Vienna. This statement from Lviv Life, one guide that I read, describes the dessert at one of the cafes, but I like it and it made me laugh: “Emperor Frans Josef would no doubt approve of the calibre of cakes on offer, although he would be a trifle alarmed by the fact that Austria is several hundred miles west these days.” Needles to say, this area has changed hands a lot. It certainly provides a historian some good material to better explain why and how one's official "nationality" at any given time may or may not be an important part of one's identity.

In pre-WWII Lviv, Armenians and Poles were a significant presence in the city, and some say they even dominated the cultural life of Lviv. They all left in accordance with Stalin’s policies, and no longer are part of the ethnic diversity that once characterized Lviv. Polish-Ukrainian relations were very poor during the WWII –era, but have improved significantly. In 2012, Poland and Ukraine will be jointly hosting Euro 2012, a major soccer (football over here) event occurring every few years. Lviv is considered the entry and exit point from western Ukraine into Europe. It is a transport hub to get to Hungary and Poland.

I have learned a lot about diversity, western-Ukrainian style. One of my students the other day asked me about it. She said Chernivtsi has people of German, Polish, Armenian, Romanian, Jewish, Russian, etc. heritage. She mentioned that she knew the US is a diverse country and wished to know how we handle our diversity. I enjoyed hearing her perspective; she isn’t the first person who has spoken of Chernivtsi as a diverse place. It is certainly a different kind of diversity from what I am accustomed.

I walked around to check out the main part of the train station, and ran into Ukraine’s Elle Woods.

Had to photograph her for you Legally Blonde fans out there.

When we got into the city (pop. 1 million) we had breakfast, checked out Boyim Chapel, and visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral during a service. It was nice. It is a Gothic-style Roman Catholic Cathedral built in 1360. The 14th century must have been quite a century for Lviv.

This was the view from breakfast, which I ate outside.

Here is Boyim Chapel:

There is a relief of Pope John Paul II commemorating his visit here in 2001. This church was the only operating church in Lviv during the Soviet era.

I enjoyed being there during a service. I always enjoy seeing people in places of worship.

Then I decided to take a mini-train tour through the town. The tour started at Place Rynok/Market Square, where the ratusha/town hall and it’s tower are located.

I learned more about the history of Lviv and saw most of Lviv’s more important structures. Evidently Lviv is know both as the last city of the East and as the first city of the West. It was a major meeting point for individuals involved with East-West trade through the 19th century.

While waiting I watched this group of men sitting outside together. This seems to be such a popular activity, a group of men or a group of women sitting outside together the day. Playing chess in the area around the Opera House was also a popular activity. No fights or blood this time, however (in Odessa AGG and I saw a full on tackle, punches, and blood in the area where a large group of me were playing chess).

When the tour started we saw many of the city's highlights. We saw the Assumption of the Virgin Mary church and nearby German school, where Stanislav Lem (author of Solaris) and several other notable individuals studied. Evidently studying German remains very popular in Lviv.

The pinkish building to the right of the statue is the German school. I spent some time in this book market later in the day. More on that later.

We passed the City Arsenal and Customs Square, where Lvivians protected their city from the Turks in 1672. We saw Cathedral Square and the Bernardine Monastery, which is a Greek Catholic Church today.

The statue of Polish Prince Prince Danylo Halytsky on horseback was next on the tour. Prince Dayulo’s son was named Lev, and Lviv is named for him.

Next we saw this statue of Adam Michiewicz, a Polish poet. The base of the statue is Milanese granite and the statue features the winged genius of poetry.

We saw the Hotel George, which dates from 1793; it is the oldest hotel in Ukraine. Guests who have stayed at the Hotel George include Honore de Balzac, Jean Paul Sartre, and Franz Lizst. The restaurant there is well known, as time spent in a restaurant was a display of status during the Soviet era.

We also saw the Meeting House, where many trade meetings between merchants from the East and West (mainly Greece, Persia, Turkey, Russia and Moldova) were held.

In 1527 there was a very bad fire in the ciy of Lviv, although fire brigades didn’t really appear until the 19th century. Here is the fire department, with St. Florin, the patron saint of firemen at the top. Hugh and Julian Buxton, these photos are for you:

We passed the Benedictine Nunnery from 1593, which has now resumed functions as a nunnery and serves as a place of study for theological music and kindergarten.

We saw the tiny St. John the Baptist Church, the oldest church in Lviv.

One of the more famous jewels of Lviv and of Ukraine, period, is the Lviv Opera House. It appears on the 20 hyrvnia note. There is a fountain in front of it today. Formerly, there was a statue of Lenin, but it was removed after the fall of the USSR at the request of the people. It was discovered that the statue had been made from concrete from gravemarkers in nearby Lychakivske Cemetery, which is supposed to be beautiful, but we didn’t visit it.

The Opera House (built 1897-1900) stands at one end of Prospect Svobody, which has a pedestrian, tree lined street on its median. It features a statue of Ukraine’s beloved poet, Taras Schevchecnko. This are is always abuzz with children, couples, people just hanging out,etc. Kids can ride battery charged cars or ponies. There are stuffed animals and people dancing for money. I was not one of them, but I had to continue the tradition established long ago of doing something dancelike in front of the Opera House.

We saw one of the university buildings, which has written in Latin, “The Motherland Resopects Knowledge.” There is a statue of Ivan Franko opposite the building. Evidently he was not graduated for political reasons, but obviously became very famous later in life. Now the building is named for him.

We saw the Potoski Palace, which is now a branch of the Lviv Art Museum. A war plane crashed into it in 1918 during WWI.

The train pased by a statue of the Virgin Mary that was restored in 1997. It had been destroyed and removed during the Soviet era. I didn't get a photo of it but the history interested me.

We ended the turn back at Place Rynok, where we were told a shame column used to exist. I read an interesting article a few years ago about the lack of shame that exists in society today…very interesting stuff. Basically, the article said that shame is a very powerful deterrent, and the decline of shame in our society has had negative repurcussions regarding human behavior. Perhaps we ought to put a shame column in Piazza Bergamo. I wonder if it would lower the crime rate in downtown Gville.

The clock from the Bell Tower is from Vienna.

Around the corner was also saw the birthplace of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch in 1835. Haven't heard of him? Look again at his last name...this is where we get the term masochist.

Afterwards we walked around the city some more and had lunch at the Viennese Café. I enjoyed some chicken schnitzel. The Viennese café originally opened in 1829, and serves many Austro-Hungarian dishes.

Then we walked across the street to have some café and streudel at the Grand Hotel.

Afterwards we embarked on a walking tour of many of the sites we had seen earlier in the day.

I spent a loft of time checking out our walking tour directions. That part of travelling isn't always so much fun.

I recently read that Ukraine had the highest civil casualties of all countries during WWII. I haven’t corroborated this myself, but between the actual war, the deaths from the Holocaust, and the hell that Stalin put the Ukrainians through, I am inclined to believe it. During WWII, all the synagogues in Lviv were burned by the Nazis. The Golden Rose Synagogue from the 16th century was the most famous, and it is still in rubble and currently undergoing excavations.

So, as with most Jews in the western part of Ukraine, Lviv’s Jewish community was decimated during WWII, as was Chernivti’s. There were more than 100,00 Jews in Lviv in the years before the war, not counting several thousand who came here from Germany and Poland in the years just before WWII. Nearly all of them were killed either at Janowka, a concentration camp on the outskirts of Lviv, or at Belzec, across the border in Poland. Evidently the city is built on top of the Poltava River, and Jews hid from Nazis in the tunnels underneath the city during WWII. One of the train stations in Lviv, the Kleparivska station, was the last train stop before arrival at Belzec. 500,000 Jews from Galicia passed through this train station and died at Belzec. Lviv's Jewish population now numbers about 5,000.

You don’t often read about the camps that were in this part of Europe; they don’t receive nearly the attention that camps such as Bergen-Belsen, Auschwitz, and Dachau do. I’ve been to Dachau outside of Munich and to Terezin, a camp outside of Prague. Living in Chernivtsi and knowing that 70 years ago there were thousands of Jewish families living there and contributing to the life of the community that are now completely gone makes the Holocaust more real to me than it ever has been before. I walk past Paul Celan’s childhood home every day on my way back from the gym and think of his parents, who were taken from that house and put in the Chernivtsi ghetto, near the train station, and then taken on a train, probably from the same station I have passed through so often, on their way to a concentration camp to die.

Then we walked around the corner and saw this.

Why do some people have to do things like this?

Next on the tour was visited St. Michael's Church. There are some interesting things going on in this church. I noticed several different kinds of crosses. We noticed that some of the frescoes look like they have been painted over. Then we saw sculptures that are hidden behind more recently placed large wooden ornamentation. We looked up it but havnen't been able to come across much about this mystery thus far.

Later that afternoon I visited the Transfiguration Church (late 17th c.)

...and the Armenian Cathedral (1363). The Armenian Cathedral was locked up during WWII by the Soviets and remained closed during the "godless" years of communist rule. The Cathedral is located in the heart of what was formerly the Armenian quarter, in accordance with the Madgeburg Laws which divided parts of town by ethnicity. The cathedral is off Vul Virmenska. Virmenska is the word for Armenian in Ukrainian.

I also tried to climb the Tower but it was closed.

I also ran into this woman, again, who looked like she was dressed in the Ukrainian flag.

Speaking of clothing, here are some traditional Ukrainian clothes.

That evening I ate at Amadeus, a restaurant recommended by many a traveler to Lviv. I decided I had to have some caviar while over in this part of the world, so I ordered the salmon with caviar. The salmon was great…not a huge caviar fan but when in Rome…or near Russia…you get the idea.

Quick aside before I move on to the next day...Have I mentioned the tradition of a bride and groom getting married and then trave all around the city to the city's most famous sights to have their photos taken?Consequently, brides are a common sight in Ukraine on the weekends.

The next morning we conquered the ratusha tower and got some great shots of Lviv on yet another beautiful day. I am so, so grateful for this weather.

Afterwards I visited the Apteka/Pharmacy museum. I love this kind of stuff, I guess it is the historian in me combined with the fact that we have so many doctors and a nurse in the fam. The Pharmacy Museum is housed in a Renaissance-era townhouse (c. 16th century) and includes a pharmacy/chemist that has been in operation since 1735. Cool. I felt the need to continue to support the pharmacy, so I tried to come up with something that is wrong with me (no comments, please…ha!). They are known for a vino they make that is for those with iron deficiency. It was recommended in my guidebook for anyone, however. It cost 8UAH/1USD. I bought some but am a bit hesitant to try it.

So one of the big things to do here is to hang out in the Vienna-style cafes. Before the 6:00 performance, we decided to have coffee and dessert for lunch. We went to Veronika, the top ranked place in Lviv. I had an apple fruit thing.

Unlike Chernivtsi, there are several McDonalds in Lviv. European McDonalds attract a higher clientele than in the US bc they are not as inexpensive compared to other places. McDonalds tend to have more of a cafe vibe, at least here, and many of them offer free wi-fi. Another things that Lviv has that I like, and have not found in Chernivtsi: a drug store similar to Walgreen's or CVS. Chernivtsi has aptekas, or pharmacies, but they are only pharmacies. The only places I have found that sell shampoo, etc. are food markets.Thank goodness I brought most of everything that I needed with me, and that my fam brought some more of my daily sunscreen from the US on their recent trip.

So those of you who are loyal followers will remember that when we were in Odessa, we were told that the most beautiful opera houses in Europe are in Odessa, Lviv, and Vienna. The Lviv Opera House, which is also home to the ballet, was built between 1897-1900, which makes it Austrian-style, not Soviet-style.

Sunday evening I went to see Don Quixote the ballet at the Opera House. What a super fun ballet, especially the first act. The choreography was energetic and showy, with grand jetes, pirouettes and fouette turns, and other unique and interesting moves, many of which showed of the lead female dancer’s (Kitri) impressive extension. Some of the moves that were combined were very interesting to me, as they were not moves I had seen combined before last night.



I personally was more impressed with the Odessa Opera House, which was larger and more grand. When I was in Vienna in 2005, I didn't get to go into the Opera House there, so no comparison can be made.
 
Afterwards I went to dinner at Panorama, on the top floor of a hotel across from the Opera House. It provide great views of the Opera House and of Prospect Svobody.

The more upscale Opera House wine, cheese, etc. market nearby had many items with writing in English and I was tempted to buy some groceries, especially when I saw that they had 4 freezer sections of vegetables, including broccoli. I did buy some of Lviv’s well known chocolate…thanks to some helpful info I learned at Christmas this past year, I was able to surmise that was the grape/raisin and nut flavor. I asked at the front desk and was right. I looked on the back and it is owned by Nestle. Oh, well. It was pretty good.

Lviv is such a happening place that is filled with people. Saturday night we heard music late into the evening bc there was a wedding reception in a courtyard nearby. AGG- they even played our favorite, Ricchi E Poveri's Mamma Maria.Ricchi e Poveri, which translated means The Rich and The Poor, is an Italian group that formed in the late 1960s I d been without itunes since January bc I don't have my FU laptop with me. I have no idea what music has come out in the US in the last 4 months. I am thrilled to have a new favorite song. Check out this song on youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNDzOWIdY8&feature=related

Monday, I spent the day hanging out at Svit Kavy/ World of Coffee, doing some internet work and just enjoying the Vienna café thing. I went inside the Lviv History Museum to see the Italian Courtyard, and then had lunch.

Ukrainian fashion is definitely not subtle, especially as we get more and more into spring.

I saw an advertisement for something featuring Sienna Miller at the Opera House Market, where we went to buy some food for the train. It is always amusing to me to see people's names, including mine, written in Cryllic.

We took a cab to the train station, where not 1 but 2 different people broke in line in front of me. One dude said the ticket was already there, he just had to run get money to pay for it. OK. I repeatedly told the 2nd person that I was in line, but she didn’t care and basically shoved her in front of me. UGH. She seemed to be in a hurry, and I wasn’t , so oh well.

On the platform, we stood beside  this babushka, wearing the traditional babushka dress code and carrying typical babushka accrutruements (usually a plastic bag like this, or a smaller one that has BOSS, as in Hugo Boss, written on it.) I interpret to mean, "I'm the boss," as most babushkas are. The babushka mafia...they are quite a site, and some people are scared of them!

I bought 2 kupee tickets for the Lviv- Chernivtsi train, where I am sitting, writing this. More on that later. I should have bought 4, but didn’t know that they would be the type of sleeper compartments, given that this is a 6 hour day train.

Two things I didn’t get to do. If we go to Krakow, we’ll have to go through Lviv, some maybe another time: There is brewery, the Lvivskye, is the oldest functioning brewery in Europe. It has it’s 300th anniversary coming up in 2015.

Also, Lychakivke Cemetery is considered the Pere Lachaise of Ukraine. I haven’t actually been to Pere Lachaise, bc I always become preoccupied with other things in Paris.

I enjoyed Lviv. Far more than any other Ukrainian city I have visited, they know how to attract tourists and how to be tourist-friendly. More people spoke English than anywhere else I have been, including Kyiv, and offered well organized sightseeing options for tourists, something lacking in every other Ukrainian city I have visited. Plus, Lviv is very pretty, the weather there was gorgeous (highs in the mid-to high 60s and sunny), and the grass is green and there are leaves on the trees. It was really nice to be there and I’m glad we waited until spring, as just about everyone with whom we spoke advised us.