Day 3 - Sightseeing in L'viv

First, before I get into my journal, a digression. The is no such thing as "the Ukraine." It's just Ukraine. As a matter of fact, in a number of Slavic languages (including Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian), there is no concept of direct (the) or indirect (a, an) articles at all. They just don't exist. Besides, we don't talk about "the France" or "the Japan" or "the Finland." To the best of my knowledge, the only countries we refer to in English as "the..." are ones with an adjective modifying a noun (the United States/Kingdom, but just "America" or "England"; the Russian Federation, but just "Russia"). Well, there is the Netherlands, but that literally means "Nether Lands," so here "Nether" is an adjective. And of course the proper name of the country is Holland (not the Holland). Perhaps the "the" is a remnant from Soviet times, when there was an adjective in the title (the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), but when talking about other former Soviet satellite states, we don't talk about "the Georgia" or "the Latvia." Anyway, let's get back to our regularly-scheduled program, shall we?

Понеділок - Monday, October 11

After a nice breakfast (сніданок/snidanok) in the hotel restaurant, our tour guide Alex showed up and we wasted no time hitting the streets to see the city's many historic Jewish sites. Alex's depth of knowledge of L'viv's history, but Jewish and general, was astonishing. He pointed out house where members of the Jewish community once lived, stores they once owned, places in which they once prayed, etc. Of special interest to me were the shops advertising their wares that were once sold there in Polish, Yiddish, and German, reflecting the former population of L'viv, when it was part of Austria, then Poland, with a large Jewish population. A few of these painted advertisements remained, framing the doorways of these shops, now frequented by people who, for the most part, speak none of those languages.

an old dairy mart, selling milk, tea, coffee, butter, sour cream, etc.

"Skład" means store; not sure what the other stuff means, but the Ukrainian over the doorway says "coffee" and "tea," so this must be a cafe now.

After walking past the old Jewish hospital (built in the Moorish Revival style), which is now a maternity center and down Sholom Aleichem Street, we made our way to a park commemorating the L'viv Ghetto and the thousands of people who were murdered by the Nazis. The park was just off of a square that was a popular bus stop, and Alex tried to flag down a cab to take us to the train station where people were shipped off to Belzec, the largest concentration camp in this region. We also drove to the location of a smaller camp located on the outskirts of the city, which was called Janowska. There was a marker denoting the location, and a memorial plaque, but none of the buildings remain. The area is now just woods.

former Jewish Hospital

Magen David design is visible from the inside of the door looking out

Plaque indicating the apartment where Sholom Aleichem lived in 1906.

L'viv Ghetto memorial

train station

Janowska site

 We then took a cab back into town, past the deteriorating Stalin-era prison and some concrete block high-rise apartment buildings, back to the Ploshcha Rynok area. Nearby was the medieval part of L'viv - a large brick wall and arsenal building still stands, apparently housing a museum of weaponry. Once, two synagogues stood here - one is now a paved-over square, and the other, the Golden Rose is supposedly, eventually, being rebuilt (it was the oldest synagogue in Ukraine, built in the 1500s, but it was destroyed by Nazis). Right next to the Golden Rose site is a "Jewish" style restaurant which has no set price; you're supposed to haggle over the bill. Very subtle.

 Next we walked back into the commercial area, across Prospect Svobody, and flagged a cab to take to see one of the city's two active synagogues. (I should mention here that once, there were 40 synagogues in the city, and pre-WWII, 1/3 of the population was Jewish. Now, not so much, estimated at around 2,000). We also passed a statute of one of L'viv's most infamous former residents, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, who wrote "Venus in Furs," about which the term "masochism" was coined. Oh, Marianne Faithful is a relative of his... Anyway, we got to go into the synagogue, but we couldn't meet the rabbi because he was out of town, and we never made it back to see a service.

tell-tale signs of a formerly Jewish-owned building - mezuzah holes.

active synagogue

Circus (the sign spells "Tzyrk")

law firm (the sign reads "advokats'ka firma, L'viv pravozakhyt (human rights)")

After walking back to town, discussing our plans for tomorrow, Alex bid us farewell and we enjoyed a hearty lunch at the Puzata Khata, the cafeteria-style restaurant we'd tried to hit up the day before. Our huge meal cost all of $12 for two, including beers. 2 bowls of borshch in two days...

For the rest of the day, we took it easy. All the walking on cobblestones takes it out of you! We retraced our path a bit to get our bearings, did a little souvenir shopping, I called Roberta, and then we had coffee and pastry at the Wiener Koffeehaus (aka Viennese Cafe). Then, a short rest to check email, and dinner at a Greek place (for a change of pace).

Cheers! Будьмо (Bud'mo)!

Finally, last but not least, I would be remiss if I did not link to this awesome video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saFoSgHN1TQ&feature=related