Potions, Lotions, and Sexual Deviants

I've fallen in love with Lviv.

It's like I've walked into a time warp and I'm back at the beginning of the 20th century - Art Nouveau architecture surrounds me at every turn. Beautiful iron balconies in smooth curves and repetitive plant patterns. Hyperbolas and parabolas abound in windows and doors, as well as gateways to the courtyards beyond. It's like walking into the land of Mucha. Considering this is my favourite art movement, I am completely in heaven.

It's been a real struggle to stop, then look up. I keep walking with my gaze upward, staring at all the unbelievable architecture and find myself stumbling over the cobblestone road, walking into people, or worse yet, into cars.

We spent a good part of the morning at a rather unusual but extremely interesting and photogenic location - the Apothecary Museum. Located right downtown across from City Hall, it contains three floors of potions, lotions, herbs, and apothecary paraphernalia from times gone by. For an extra 3 hryvnia (about 25 cents) we were allowed to photograph inside. We just couldn't get enough of all the old bottles, ampules, and jars. Some were labeled in English, some Ukrainian, and then languages of all sorts. It was intriguing - especially finding the bottles of Cocaine, Morphine, and Heroine. You forget that these were once used as legitimate medicines. The jars of dried herb - dozens and dozens of them - were quite beautiful to look at, especially with their cyrillic labels. The herb were so old in them, they looked like ancient potpourri in bell jars. For some reason, I started humming the Addams Family theme song....

We hit the local arts and crafts market for some shopping (finally). Once you got around the reproduction icons and the flea market Jesus "paintings" there were actually some nice pieces to look at, especially the row of hand-made embroidered shirts and rushnyky. Some real work went into these. I'm lucky enough that I have several table runners and small square pieces that were made by both my grandmothers and I cherish them dearly.

On the flip side, we stopped by the Masoch Cafe and the statue commemorating Leopold von-Sacher Masoch. Never heard of him? Neither had I until I read a small bit about him in my travel book. Born in Lviv on January 27, 1836 (an Aquarian like me), he was an Austrian writer and journalist who was seen by some as a successor to Goethe. A utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his writings, his most successful novel was Venus in Furs, the only one you can obtain in English. So why does he have a monument?

Although he begain his carrer by writing non-fiction about Austrian history, Masoch's Venus in Furs expressed his fantasies and fetishes, especially for dominant women wearing fur. In addition to writing out his fantasies for the public, he also lived them out with his mistress and wives. He had signed a contract with his mistress making him her slave for 6 months with the stipulation that she wear fur as often as possible, especially when she was in a cruel mood. He spent his last years in deteriorating mental health in an asylum in Germany. In 1886 the Austrian psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing invented the term masochism based on Leopold's fantasies and experiences.

It seems the people of Lviv are quite proud of their past, wether deviant or devout, as witnessed by the bronze statue to Leopold, the Masoch Cafe, and the many Masoch souvenirs that you can purchase throughout the city. Nice to see this pretty little town has a kinky side.

Tomorrow it's off to the cemetery.