# All Quiet On the Eastern Front



## Sergei (May 20, 2004)

This is a great article about Eastern European travel in general, although it focuses on Lviv, Ukraine. I highly recommend you to read it, you won't be sorry.  

*All Quiet On the Eastern Front*
*February 13, 2006*










*Mat Schulz escapes the crowds to a sleepy Ukrainian city.*

The best way to find out how greatly a former communist-bloc city has been overwhelmed by tourism is to apply the stag party test. Stag parties, mostly from Britain, are generally the last type of tourist group to arrive in cities already swamped by travellers. Their number multiplies with the parallel explosion of cheap airlines flying to a destination.

Typing the words "Prague stag party" into Google scores 75,700 hits, while typing in "Cracow stag party" gets 9580. It means that in Prague, on any weekend, you'll meet scores of drunk young men and women who've flown in for a few days. None of them will know where they are, only that the beer is cheap.

If you're a member of one of these parties you might be pleased with those statistics. If not, you could have the sinking feeling that Prague has been ruined and that Cracow may follow.

The truth is, central Europe has been more than "discovered" - it's packed with tourists. Previous borders of the European Union - and the domain of budget airlines - have shifted, and so have the names of the "undiscovered".

Only 300 kilometres from Cracow - less than the distance to Prague - is the Ukrainian city of Lviv. A small, dilapidated but much cheaper version of Vienna, it can easily fit into the itinerary of tourists travelling the Prague-Budapest-Cracow triangle.

Type the words "Lviv stag party" into Google and you get no hits. It's a relief. A place so close, so beautiful and yet, for the moment, untouched.

It won't stay that way. In October last year, the budget airline Ryanair began flying to the small Polish city of Rzeszow, which is two hours from the border. For the moment, you can get from Lviv to Cracow in one easy train trip.

More significantly, Ukraine has loosened its immigration rules. Last northern summer, EU citizens could travel visa-free, for the semi-bizarre reason that Kiev was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest - and now the offer has been extended indefinitely. Australians still require a visa, but it's easier to get than before. You don't need to pay in advance for hotel rooms - only prove that you have reserved them. In a Kafkaesque flourish, there's no obligation to use the rooms you reserve.

I travelled by train from Cracow to Przemysl, an atmospheric Polish city on the Ukrainian-Polish border. There, I boarded a bus, and travelled 100 kilometres. The entire trip takes about six hours and costs only $25 - yet you are transported into another world.

I'd booked into the Hotel George in the middle of the city, a magnificent neo-Renaissance building built by Viennese architects. A prestigious hotel in Cracow or Prague would cost a fortune, but here you can get a room for $25. The ornate, golden interior is weirdly offset by a reception area that looks as if was designed during the communist era of the 1980s.

Westerners travelled east into Poland and Russia in the 19th century. In their accounts, they saw this part of Europe as wild. Facilities for travellers were bad or non-existent. Ukraine can sometimes be like stepping into a time machine, travelling back not into the 19th century, but rather to a Soviet-era landscape of surly faced receptionists - such as the one who greeted me in the Hotel George - lines for train tickets and mediocre meals.

But this, combined with the beautiful architecture, is the charm of the place. In a world where all cities seem increasingly similar, and getting good service feels like a tourist's basic right, finding yourself in a slightly confronting reality can be like taking a deep breath. Not everywhere is the same.

Lviv has had a tumultuous history. For centuries it was Polish - until 1772, when it was incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the end of World War I it became Polish once more, then with the outbreak of World War II the Soviets took over. It was briefly occupied by Nazis, made Soviet again, and then, finally, in the 1990s became a part of independent Ukraine.

All these periods of history are marked, one way or another, on its streets. In the centre, around the Hotel George, the architecture looks similar to that in Vienna, Prague or Cracow - the Austrian-Hungarian influence. Buildings are large, colourful and ornate. Parks are spread between them. From the George you can walk along Prospekt Svobody - a main avenue with a tree-lined area for pedestrians - to the majestic Opera House.

This 19th-century building looks as if it was directly transported from Vienna. In front of it, Ukrainians ride in circles on hired ponies or, in the case of young children, small plastic cars. Elsewhere, old men play cards, dominoes and chess, or meet in a large groups to argue politics. Others pray in groups in front of a religious monument.

There are few Western tourists. It's as if a button has been pressed, and the hoards in Cracow and Prague have suddenly been vaporised.

Those tourists milling about are mostly Polish. "This was a Polish city," says Wojtek, a 25-year-old student from Warsaw. "You can walk around and see signs in Polish, Polish art, palaces built by Polish aristocrats. Polish people still live here. We come here to see what we lost. Of course, it's also beautiful."

"And the beer is cheap," adds Marek, Wojtek's travelling companion.

Lviv's Old Town, which UNESCO has made a World Heritage site, is nearby. The first thing you notice about it is the lack of advertisements. The main square - lined with mansions, centuries-old - feels asleep, and the people seem half-dazed. Fountains decorated with Greek gods have weeds growing around them, plastic flowerpots hang from street lamps, a local sells vegetables. All is silent.

There are no banks, no McDonald's, no international clothing stores - instead the area is full of corner shops, cafes and bars for locals. In one cafe, I try strong black coffee and something like a delicate, creamy pavlova - which makes me wonder if the allegedly Australian recipe was pilfered by someone back home. Like Vienna, Lviv is famous for its cakes - you can buy them in many places here, at a fraction of the price in Vienna.

The old town also has a remarkable number of historic churches - as many as Cracow. For me, the most beautiful is the Armenian cathedral, built in 1370. Other favourites include the Boim Chapel, built by a Hungarian merchant at the start of the 17th century, and an 18th-century domed Dominican church.

Directly behind the Old Town is the city's hill, where crumbling buildings line cobblestone streets.

Lviv has many museums. On my second day, I discovered some of them. The Lviv Art Gallery has a collection of art mostly by Polish artists, dating back to the Middle Ages. There is also the National Museum, with its impressive icon painting and manuscript collection.

In the Old Town, you can visit the Pharmacy Museum, behind the counter of a functioning chemist. The main room has stained-glass windows, and wall paintings by Viennese artists. Old crockery, prescriptions registers and medicinal herbs are exhibited in cellars, stairways and courtyards. There is even an alchemical laboratory.

Nearby, on the main square, the Lviv Historical Museum has a lovely Italian courtyard, with tables set among statues. It's a perfect place to sip a coffee, or wine. Elsewhere, it would be packed; here, there's a single table of Americans, another table with a Ukrainian mother and daughter - and that's all.

But the best idea is to simply keep walking, taking in the atmosphere. Outside the centre of Lviv - before you reach the communist-era housing blocks - are streets of art deco buildings, built by Poles.

There is also Lychakiwsky Cemetery, one of the prettiest in Eastern Europe: a kind of Ukrainian Pere Lachaise, but without Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde.

Between the crypts of Polish nobility are socialist realist headstones, for Soviet writers, musicians, athletes and engineers. The contrast between serious-faced communists and crumbling, weeping angels verges on the surreal. Trails lead off from the main avenues, up a hill, where forest has overwhelmed the graves. Climb higher, and some tombs have collapsed.

At night, Prague and Cracow both offer pub, restaurant and nightclub scenes, which are among the best in Europe. The stag party groups head to strip clubs. In several years' time, Lviv may be the same.

For the moment, once night falls it gets very dark - even in the city centre - due to the scarcity of street lamps. On the boulevard leading up to the opera house, people promenade, mill about, or sit at benches, talking and drinking bottles of beer.

There are some outdoor cafes, bars and restaurants. You can find slick places. Some are almost empty - waiting for the deluge of tourists that will, soon enough, come - if they can stay open. Waiting staff - often dressed in Ukrainian folk costumes - have also not yet caught onto the idea of service, and are mostly grim-faced as they take your order.

Before dinner you can take in a performance at the opera, costing just a few dollars. The artists are world class, and seeing the interior of the building is worth the price of the ticket alone.

Visiting a beautiful European city with few tourists is an experience that spoils you. Once you've done it, it is very hard to return to the crammed streets without feeling that something essential is missing.

A city such as Lviv can only remain in its present state for a year or two longer. My advice is to see it as soon as possible. Prague will still be the same in a few years. Lviv won't be.
*
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald *


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## Sergei (May 20, 2004)

I must give props to the author for writing such a beautiful article that captures the spirit of Lviv perfectly.

But one part isn't completely accurate:



> There are no banks, no McDonald's, no international clothing stores


We do have one McDonalds, and a few banks and brand-name clothing stores in the historical centre. But we must forgive the author, since I think they're pretty easy to miss. All of these, which are often eye-sores in most North American and European cities, are actually quite beautiful in Lviv. Yes, even the McDonalds is housed in an old, ornate building, with a stylish interior. Who would've thought?


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## Forza Raalte (Sep 18, 2004)

Lviv was always high on my list of cities to visit. Eastern Europe is one of worlds most fascinating regions. 

http://www.djoser.nl/oekraine/1214/ 

The site says: Lviv is Ukraine's most elegant city.


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## Sergei (May 20, 2004)

Forza Raalte said:


> Lviv was always high on my list of cities to visit. Eastern Europe is one of worlds most fascinating regions.
> 
> http://www.djoser.nl/oekraine/1214/
> 
> The site says: Lviv is Ukraine's most elegant city.


 Interesting site! What is it about? Looks like some sort of itinerary.


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## empersouf (Mar 19, 2004)

It's a travel site In dutch.


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## Sergei (May 20, 2004)

Soufian said:


> It's a travel site In dutch.


 LMAO. Ok. Cool.


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