The Pharmacy Museum

Lviv, Ukraine

A Shopaholic in Ukraine

What do you do when you've seen all the sights (or at least you think you have?) in the city of Ukrainian love? You go shopping.

It's easier said than done, though, when it turns out you're in a city that doesn't seem to recognize any of your credit cards (thank you MC and VISA) and spits out your bank card from the ATMs like a bad piece of meat. To top it off, most restaurants and shops only take cash - Ukrainian hryvnias and not US dollars either. It was definitely a challenge to get my shopping groove on.

We hit the artist's market for a second day, hoping to see something new or perhaps overlooked and finally get some souvenirs. The most interesting sight there was the row of embroidery with the ladies (and one or two men) sitting in front of their wares with needle and thread in hand working on new pieces. Some beautiful men's and women's shirts as well as cute little girl's costumes could be purchased at really reasonable prices. The more complicated patterns could be seen on the rushnyky (like table runners) and full table cloths. Everything from border patterns to full overall patterns in every colour with patterns from every region of the country were on display. It was really beautiful.

After the market we made our way towards the main park near the Opera House for some people watching. They have about a dozen small electric cars here that parents rent out for about 10 minutes for their children. Half of them allow for the children to drive themselves and the other half are remote controlled with the parents actually driving the car. It was really adorable watching the little girls in the remote control cars, completely oblivious to the wheel or direction they were going in, more intent on their dresses, hands, birds, really anything but the experience. I think the parents were having the most fun.

Near the park there was quite a commotion with police, ambulance, and secret service agents surrounding an outdoor cafe. When we stumbled upon it - being really oblivious to the whole scene until it was too late - we realized that the President of Ukraine was having lunch with a large group of people right on the patio and was engaged in some grand conversation. Lots of hand gesturing and glass raising was going on. You never know if this was a political luncheon or if he just wanted to get out and have a nice patio lunch. I would have taken a photo if I wasn't worried about being pounced upon by a dozen secret service agents.

We're sitting in the "luxurious internet lounge" at the Lviv train station (3 hryvnia/hour to sit + 7 hryvnia/hour to use the internet) waiting for our train to show up. Another night of back breaking travel back to Kyiv - I love the fact that I can close my eyes in one city and open them in another, but those "beds" are murder on the spine, and we're traveling in luxe. I'd hate to see how they travel in the regular cars.

One more day in Ukraine tomorrow and then it's a short hop to Frankfurt and back home. It will be nice to be home - the adventure has been grand!

Meet Me At The Cemetery Gates

Its been the day of the dead as we travelled from one end of the city to the other to explore two different cemeteries.

LYCHAKIV CEMETERY

Our first trek was to the famous historic necropolis created in 1787. Originally located on several hills in in the borough of Lychakiv outside the city limits, it was expanded in the mid-1850s in a design of alleys and round-abouts and quickly became the main cemetery for the city as most others closed. Denominations here include all Christian sects, Roman Catholics, Eastern Rite Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox. After WWII, Lviv was annexed by the Soviet Union and many of historical monuments were destroyed as well as many sculptures - and this devastation continued well into the 70s. However, in 1975 the cemetery was declared a national historic monument and this stopped the vandalism. Today is it one of the main tourist attractions in the city. Some of the famous Ukrainian people buried in the cemetery include:

• Ivan Franko - Ukrainian poet
• Oleksandr Tysowkyj - founder of Ukrainian scouting
• Jacques Hnizdovsky - painter, printmaker, sculptor, bookplate designer and illustrator of numerous books both in English and Ukrainian
• Veterans of WWI and WWII
• Victims of the NKVD

I knew I would love this cemetery the minute I walked into it. Like Pere Lachaise in Paris, the tombs are mostly above ground and there are many cobblestone rows of ancient crumbling tombs. The statuary in the old section is quite beautiful and mostly angels or busts of the people that have died. The most unique, and quite pretty monuments that I found were the ones that included cameos on ceramic in sepia for the 1920s monuments and in pastels for the 1960s.

Many parts of the cemetery seem to have been forgotten, with the plots overgrown with vines, moss and tall wild ferns. We were able to meander down the side aisles where it felt like you were in a jungle and some tombstone were completely covered over and could no longer be read or, sometimes, even be seen.

If not for the tour groups I could have been there all day.

JEWISH CEMETERY

Although they don't put a name to this cemetery on the complete other side of town in our guidebook - it was recommended as a place to go to see what was left of the Jewish cemetery which had been destroyed in the war and to see several soldier's memorials. Somewhere near there was also supposed to be a marker for a former concentration camp, which we were never able to find.

This cemetery was also quite beautiful, with the same above ground tombstones and old metal and stone statuary. Although many of the plots were also overgrown with moss and vines, you could tell that many more people were coming in here and taking care of the plots than in the other cemetery. Everything was a bit cleaner and well maintained.

We spent quite a long time just wandering around, looking for the resting places of the Soviet soldiers (kind of found), Ukrainian soldiers (found), German soldiers (really tried to find and couldn't), and victims of the NKVD (nope).

As we were winding our way out towards the back entrance we made it into the small Jewish section of the cemetery. It was an interesting sight. The tombstones, both old and new, were in both Ukrainian and Yiddish, and were quite beautiful. They were both old and new, spanning design styles from modern shiny marble to the old stone with inset cameos. What was different in this section, something that we had not seen anywhere else, were the cages. Many of the tombstones and memorials were in cages surrounding the entire plot - some as large as about 6' x 6'. The doors were locked and you could not get close. This seemed so odd to us and then we came upon a memorial that had been defaced - the name was missing and the engraved face looked like it had been gouged out. We think that perhaps it is from fear of this type of defacement and vandalism that this section has resorted to putting protective cages around their loved one's memorials. If so, it is sad that people have to do this in order to protect their memories.

It's been a long day, we walked from the middle of the city to one end, the back and to the other end, then back again. My dogs are barking big time.

Tomorrow is our last day in Lviv as we head back to Kyiv for a last hurrah before our flight back to Canada. I will miss this city of the Nouveau Art.

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.

Let's Play It By Ear - Sort Of

Two weeks to go before we fly out so we decided to meet and firm up our itinerary for the trip. We realized we needed to do the math on the train schedules, bus information, and distances to see if our ambitious plan would work.

As much as we want to see everything the country has to offer, we're realistic about only having 2 weeks on the road. Our main objective was always to get to Chernobyl for photography - and with that booked and in place, being able to get around the rest of the country and photograph Soviet-era structures, onion domed churches, historic Ukrainian architecture, and many other of Ukraine's forgotten and decaying structures is a wonderful extra.

Since we don't know just how much we'll see in the different locations we visit, we've decided to keep it loose. It's usually the way I like to travel anyway. The flexibility allows you to spend as much or as little time as you need in one place without the worry of having to make it to a reservation. I've traveled with people who need every single hour of every day scheduled out for them - I'm not really like that, doesn't leave room for those great detours in life. Luckily we both seem to be more into the adventure and not the schedule so I think we're going to travel quite well together.

So if it's a loose itinerary, do we even know where we're going now, you might ask? Sure:

Kyiv > Chernobyl > Kyiv > Odesa > Lviv > Kyiv

Where we go in between and how long we stay in the main cities is the adventure right now. As long as we're back in Kyiv to fly home on time, I'm happy flittering around the country and exploring, meeting people, adding stories and images to our project.


View Larger Map