In Lovely Lviv, Ukraine, a European Crossroads (and Blowtorch Coffee)

“Ukraine? You bet!”

That’s how my travel buddy Ben replied when I suggested the trip. My wife had — politely and, let’s face it, quite reasonably — declined my invitation to visit a country currently mired in an armed conflict with Russia, and whose main tourist attraction is the site of history’s worst nuclear meltdown. But I knew Ben would be up for it. Like me, he’s a total Eastern Europe geek. Like me, he’d never been. And like me, he has an inexplicable affinity for the uniquely quirky culture of the eastern Slavs.

Our first stop is the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Famous for its charming main square and for its feisty, Western-looking, Putin-phobic politics, Lviv appears poised to emerge as a travel hotspot. The easy-as-pie, one-hour flight from Vienna — with just a few minutes between the “cruising altitude” and “beginning our descent” pings — underscores Lviv’s huge touristic potential.

Having traveled in former Eastern Bloc countries like Poland and Hungary 20 years ago, when they were still diamonds very much in the rough, Ben and I arrive with tempered expectations for Ukraine — which, economically, is several years behind those places. But our initial reconnaissance walk around Lviv reveals a town that’s in remarkably fine fettle, and already well on its way to becoming “ready for prime time.” It’s tidy, well-organized, and very accessible to outsiders. Lviv has just the right number of tourists: Ukrainians and Poles, maybe some Germans, a few other Europeans, and a scant smattering of in-the-know American backpackers.

We enter town by crossing through the grand, elongated square bounded on both sides by Svobody Prospekt (“Liberty Avenue”). From the steps of the opulent, unmistakably Habsburg-style opera house, the plaza elegantly stretches several hundred yards past fountains, benches, and parks to a towering statue of Taras Shevchenko.

We’ll hear Shevchenko’s name again and again, and again and again, and again and again and again through our travels (and yet, somehow, I’ll never master the pronunciation — I insist on referring to him as “that poet guy”). The national poet from the 19th century, Shevchenko has recently become embraced as the standard-bearer of Ukrainian cultural identity — which makes him more important today than ever, with the looming threat of Putin to the east. All over this huge country (nearly the size of Texas), statues of Lenin have been pulled down and replaced by Shevchenko. When a tour guide informs us that “there are more statues of Shevchenko than of any other historical figure on earth”…the crazy boast seems almost plausible. (Almost.)

A few blocks farther in — after pausing for a cup of Lviv’s famous coffee at the cozy, venerable café, Svit Kavy — we arrive at the main market square, Ploshcha Rynok. Paved with pristine cobbles, ringed by colorful facades, anchored at its four corners by fountains dedicated to Greek gods, and facing the blocky town hall, the Old World square is what I’d describe as “Euro-cozy” — the kind of place you fabricate excuses to return to, again and again.

Both geographically and culturally, Lviv is closer to Poland than to Kyiv. And historically, this region was essentially Polish all the way until after World War II, when shifting borders relocated a huge chunk of Lviv’s population to the newly Polish city of Wrocław. Having both guided Rick Steves’ Europe Tours in Poland, Ben and I feel a constant sense of déjà vu. Lviv’s grand square feels like the little sister of Kraków’s famous one.

We stroll through lovely Lviv without a sightseeing agenda, just exploring. We pass a dolled-up chocolate store with giant cartoon characters out front, marked by a big ROSHEN sign. Ben explains that this is a wildly successful Ukrainian chain owned by the current president, Petro Poroshenko, who (not unlike certain heads of state closer to home) has few qualms about leveraging his political clout to boost his brand. (Later, a guide will explain that — seeking ostensible compliance with regulations — Poroshenko has officially put his business “up for sale,” but at a ludicrously inflated price that no serious buyer would consider.) We walk through the Roshen shop, which feels like a carbon copy of an M&M Store with a Ukrainian accent.

Another popular stop: the little stands selling sweet “drunken cherry” liqueur that are scattered throughout the cobbled old town. Each one attracts a convivial little crowd out front, sipping their little plastic cup of sweet booze, shifting weight from one foot to the other to stay warm.

Lviv has an abundance of dazzling churches — more than its share. They look essentially Polish Catholic from the outside. But it’s Saturday night, and many are currently holding services — luring in passersby like us with the strains of Orthodox chanting. We come to learn that Lviv (and much of Ukraine) is characterized by its ecumenism: locals are a hodgepodge of Russian Orthodox, Ukrainian Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and “Greek Catholic” — a unique hybrid that answers to the Pope but follows Orthodox liturgy. Standing in the crowded entry foyer of a hulking church with frilly Baroque altars, immersed in harmonious chanting and inhaling incense, it’s clear we’re at a crossroads of civilizations.

For dinner, we follow our GPS in circles around that same Bernardine Church, finally discovering a hidden cellar restaurant we’d read about called Trapezna Idey. (Being a guidebook author myself, I have sympathy for the directions in our otherwise reliable Lonely Planet Ukraine, which tells us to look for a giant paper airplane monument…that no longer exists.) There we settle in for a delicious traditional Galician meal. For my “welcome to Ukraine” dinner, I couldn’t resist the borscht — savory red beet soup, with big chunks of potatoes and other veggies. Ben digs into a plate of potato pancakes smothered in a mushroom cream sauce.

By the way, Lviv is cheap. No — I mean cheap. As in, “filling, sit-down traditional dinner for about $5 per person” cheap. A crosstown Uber costs a few bucks. And our comfy, central, well-equipped, two-bedroom Airbnb is about the price of two hostel bunks in London. It’s hard to think of any place in Europe where you can travel so comfortably and safely, on such a low budget.

The next day, we decide to get our bearings with a “free” walking tour. In keeping with that old Ukrainian adage, “You get what you pay for,” it’s not the best tour we’ve ever taken — but it does offer a handy orientation to the town and its landmarks. At one point our guide recommends a “coffee mine” where you don a hardhat and order a coffee caramelized with a torch. It sounds just the right kind of kitschy. We make a mental note to swing back later.

Speaking of kitsch, the walk leaves a strong impression that kitsch is a forte of Lviv tourism. One bar on the main square — with a patriotic, militaristic, fiercely anti-Russian theme — allows you to enter only after you bark the password (Slava Ukrayini! — “Glory to Ukraine!”). From there, you spelunk through a warren of cellars and into a courtyard where a huge, robotic Truckasaurus “secret weapon” has been welded together from various car and tank parts. Finally you get to poke your head through a hole to pose in a giant photograph of Ukrainian troops about to execute a Russian officer. (Unlike kitsch, subtlety is not a Ukrainian forte.)

Just around the corner, in the home of the Lviv writer Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, is a restaurant dedicated to the kinky predilections that typified his personal life: masochism. Our guide calmly explains — as if this were an entirely rational practice — that if you let the waitstaff beat you with a whip, you’ll get a discount on your bill. And, according to a friend of hers who works there, they really lean into it.

A real gem of the tour is our visit to the Armenian Cathedral — representing yet another faith in this ecumenical city (Armenian Apostolic). Nondescript from the outside, the cathedral’s interior is slathered with stunning Art Nouveau frescoes by the Polish painters Jan Henryk de Rosen and Józef Mehoffer. Of all the churches we step into on the tour, this is the only one we decide to circle back to later for closer inspection — and simply to bask amidst the glorious paintings.

After the tour, we scale the hill just behind the old town, ascending a long wooden staircase to the summit of the High Castle. This historically strategic site is now home only to an observation platform. On this sunny weekend, it’s crowded with Ukrainians surveying the views over the city and snapping pictures of each other. High overhead flaps a giant Ukrainian flag. On this fine early autumn day, the flag matches its natural inspiration: fields of golden wheat under a vivid blue sky. While the tourists’ Lviv is constrained to its compact historic core, from up here it’s clear that the city sprawls in all directions, curling entirely around the hill we’re standing on.

Descending the hill, we decide to see more of this increasingly fascinating city. A $4 Uber ride later, we pull up at Lychakiv Cemetery — one of those classic old European cemeteries that feels like a monumental park filling a forest. I love a good European cemetery…and Lychakiv is one of the best I’ve seen.

We go for a pensive hike, noticing how the gravestones tell the complicated story of this multilayered city. They come in a wild variety of styles, and the epitaphs are a bewildering mix of Cyrillic, Polish, and German. Ukrainian headstones are topped with a Latin (rather than Orthodox) cross. Poignant graves show a young man, who died in his 40s, and his septuagenarian wife, depicted in her old age, after decades of widowhood. They look more like mother and son than husband and wife — a contemplation, perhaps, on the perils of being a Ukrainian man in the early- to mid-20th century.

Another dirt-cheap Uber ride takes us across town to Lontsky Street Prison — Lviv’s main prison associated with the Soviet leadership in Ukraine, and the site of some horrifying atrocities. In June of 1941, Soviet authorities executed thousands of prisoners — including more than 1,500 in this building.

Lontsky Street Prison is slated to become one of Ukraine’s most important national memorial sites. But for now, it’s still a work in progress. The door is guarded by gruff, flak-vested, assault-rifle-toting soldiers who eye us suspiciously when we arrive, and then — once they see we’re curious tourists from half a world away — heartily invite us in to learn the story of the place. It turns out they’re guarding an idea more than a building — this remains a dank, grubby old space, with a few makeshift cardboard information panels. It smells like wet concrete and diesel fumes.

The prison’s current state speaks volumes about just how young the fledgling Ukrainian nation is. They have bigger fish to fry than fancy museums. (In fact, under Russia-friendly former president Viktor Yanukovych — who was ousted in the 2014 revolution — authorities tried to close this prison, to brush the ugly Soviet blemishes under the rug.) And yet, in some ways, the neglect enhances the experience. The prison is more poignant because it has no choice but to speak for itself.

Leaving the prison, we take a shortcut through a sprawling, lush, slightly overgrown park back to our Airbnb. At one point, we’re passed by a formation of a dozen Ukrainian soldiers, in fatigues, marching in lockstep. If I were Ukrainian — knowing that a war against a giant neighbor rages on my eastern border, 750 miles away — I’d find this little battalion a comforting sight on a Sunday stroll.

Rested up from the day’s sightseeing, we head into the old center for an evening stroll. As afternoon turns to evening, the square is lively with musicians and roving groups of heavy-drinking tourists.

We eat well in Lviv, for very little money. In addition to Trapezna Idey, we have delicious dumplings at Khinkalʹnya Na Fedorova — one of several solid Georgian restaurants in town. For a quick bite, we find the cheap-and-cheery Puzata Hata cafeteria chain to be a reliable, extremely affordable choice, with a long cafeteria line of traditional fare. With locations all over the country, this turns out to be a handy go-to. (Entering for the first time and seeing the long, surly row of monolingual cafeteria attendants manning their stations — like humorless mid-level bureaucrats guarding their nuclear silos — Ben and I nudge each other and say, “Oooohhh…we are about to get yelled at.” And indeed we are.)

Tonight for dinner, curiosity lures us to a simple, hole-in-the-wall Crimean café, operated by recently relocated refugees from the little Black Sea dongle of Ukraine that was annexed by Russia in 2014. Digging into our simple meal of hearty soup, fresh salads, and noodles with rich meat sauce, we watch gauzy, slow-motion Crimean tourism videos on the big TV screen — revealing a starkly mountainous landscape and dreamy beaches in a corner of Europe that few Americans visit. (Duly inspired, we add Crimea to our list of upcoming trips.)

On our last morning in Lviv, Ben and I are ready for one more memory before heading to the airport. On a quest to caffeinate, we remember our guide’s tip about the “coffee mine” (Lvivska Kopalnya Kavy) on the main square. We head into the standard-issue coffee house interior. Then we discover a staircase that leads deep down into the 800-year-old cellars of the building, which feel chipped by hand out of solid rock. We’re issued hard hats and hunch our way through passages to a tight, dimly lit seating area. We pull up rustic, uncomfortable wooden stools at a battered table tucked in a nook below a blackened wall. Squinting our way through the menu, we spot the drink the place is known for: caramelized coffee.

The server brings us a tin cup filled with coffee and sets it deliberately in the middle of the table. In his other hand, he carries a blowtorch. Not a cute little chef’s torch, with a harmless blue flame for gently caramelizing crème brûlée. No, this is a military-grade, just-wait-’til-those-Russkies-show-up blowtorch. He moves the napkin holder out of the way. And just as I’m thinking, “Why did he have to move that? It’s all the way across the table…” — the blowtorch explodes to life.

I don’t know exactly what we were expecting. Maybe a foot of flame, for show, for just a few fleeting seconds. Just long enough for a fun photo op. What we were not expecting was a terrifying five-foot flame to spurt out across the tabletop, licking the wall behind it and scorching the exposed stone. The heat from the blowtorch is intense. My eyebrows singe and my eyeglasses frames start to radiate heat to my cheeks. Ukraine plays for keeps.

After several seconds of pyrotechnics, the server dials back the flame and aims it at the tin cup, scorching a crispy layer of caramelized sugar on the top of the liquid. When finished, he blasts his blowtorch against the wall a couple of more times — just to remind us that he could kill us with the flick of a wrist — then walks off without fanfare…on to the next table, where a half-dozen hungover bachelorette partiers have no idea what they’re in for.

The blowtorch coffee experience turns out to be the perfect conclusion to our Lviv visit: memorable, unexpected, just a little bit challenging, but ultimately rewarding. Lviv is not quite for everybody, but it is well worth a visit for curious, adventurous travelers with an appetite for off-the-beaten-path gems that are just about to break through as tourist darlings.

Oh, yes — and for people who enjoy getting whipped for a discount on their near-death coffee experience.

 

23 Replies to “In Lovely Lviv, Ukraine, a European Crossroads (and Blowtorch Coffee)”

  1. Very good review. However, your Lviv tour guide didn’t tell you the whole truth about Roshen company (President Poroshenko business) – it was indeed put up for sale, but it’s price was not inflated at all. It was in 2014 when no investor expected Ukraine to survive Russian invasion, so no offers were made. Then, Poroshenko put it in a blind trust, operated by Rothschild group. President Poroshenko has no influence or decision making capabilities over Roshen since then. So, no laws were broken, both formally and ethically.

  2. I totally agree. Lviv is wonderful. Have visited three times in ten years. There is so much there: History, architecture, opera, cafe, and of course people. Last time we were there for Easter. What a wonderful place to be. This year, we plan to go for Christmas which is on January 6, 2020.

  3. I loved this article. I’ve traveled throughout Europe including the Eastern states and because I’m 88 and have a husband suffering from dementia, I can no longer make those wonderful trips. Posts like this take me back when I sat at little tables and ate with strangers and heard gypsies sing. Please keep posting these gems.
    M

  4. My paternal grandfather emigrated from Lviv to the US in the early 20th century. I would definitely like to visit there to see where that half of my family came from. Grandpa said he emigrated from Poland–I have read that Lviv has been under many different flags over the years–and he spoke Polish. It wasn’t until I applied for a visa to visit Krakow in my college years that I learned my family name has a gender ending and and an Ł (pronounced like an English w in the word will). Once again, learning never stops when you travel!

  5. Cameron: Please visit Yanovska Cemetery and see the headstones that had been used as paving and contruction materials. Jewish heritage should be mentioned in any account when visiting L’viv. The two main synogogues were destroyed by the Nazis, but one can take a virtual tour https://jewish-heritage-europe.eu/2017/12/03/ukraine-interactive-virtual-walking-tour-of-jewish-lviv/ of Jewish L’viv. If you retrace those steps during your visit, please talk about this as it is an important part of Galician and Ukrainian history.

  6. Lviv turned out to be our favorite city in Ukraine. However, I think the cup of hot chocolate — literally a cup of hot chocolate — at the Lviv Chocolate Factory may have skewed the evaluation a little bit. It was awesome!

  7. Wonderful article. My parents were from the region and left during WW2. My wife and I visited Lviv in 2013 and found it to be as described in the article and more. (A bit more expensive, though – the Ukrainian hrivna has lost about half its value since 2014.) Just a wonderful city with wonderful people. The churches are truly something special – I think we visited 20 or more. That I speak Ukrainian (with the accent of the region) was extremely helpful – better bargains in the street markets, for one thing, where fantastic local Ukrainian embroideries and lovely amber jewelry are the things to look for. And the ladies on the line in Puzata Hata lose all of that imposing attitude when tourists order in Ukrainian. And the chocolate is phenomenal. Also the Lvivske brewery, which has been turning out great beer since the mid-1700s.

  8. My Ashkenazi family is from Lvov. Jews call it Lvov not Lviv as they self identified as Russian stock and many spoke Russian as a lingua franca. Russian Czarina Catherine the Great expelled jews to Lviv (Known as part of Russia’s ‘Pale of Settlement’) over 200 years ago and Jews did the jobs they were allowed to do. Lviv lost thousands of Jews in WW2 to the German Nazis. Hope modern Lviv memorializes thise lost citizens in some charitable way.

    1. Actually, while true that Catherine expelled the Jews from Russia proper, they did not go to Lviv, which is in western Ukraine. So Lviv was not under Catherine during her reign, because it was under Austro-Hungary; as such Lviv was not part of the Pale of Settlement. The residents of Lviv did not have to learn Russian until it came under Soviet rule during WWII. On the other hand, there was a large Jewish population in Lviv and by the beginning of WWII it constituted about one third of the city’s population. For the most part, those Jews there spoke Yiddish, Polish, possibly German (the language of Austro-Hungary), and sometimes Ukrainian. So Russian was not the local lingua franca. I understand that the local population, now mostly Ukrainian, is in fact working on memorizing the history of the Jews in Lviv.

    2. Jews in Lviv spoke Yiddish and called in Lemberik. Also the city never belonged to Russia or the Pale of Settlement, as it was Austria-Hungary until 1918, then Poland until 1939 then occupied by the Soviet Union; Nazi Germany and again the Soviet Union from 1944 until 1991. So Catherine never expelled anyone to Lviv as it wasn’t her jurisdiction. But yes, almost all of Lviv’s Jewish population was killed by the Germans and their helpers. There are many people who are engaged in bringing this back to the surface, but it’s a long process.

  9. Crimea is not a place to support by visiting since it had been invaded in 2014 and occupied by the Russian military displacing a million and a half people, arresting and torturing Ukrainian citizens, especially Crimean Tatars.

  10. Wonderful description of the city and a must visit place for anyone. Thank you Roxy for correctly clarifying the Roshen business. We’ve been visiting Lviv the last 3 years and every time we go, we see something new. Highly recommend this city to everyone!

  11. Lviv is really a gem of a discovery for people wanting a beautiful, cheap, historical and friendly city! :-)

    If you want to see the rest of the country go with Cobblestone Freeway Tours. They offer a wide selection of tours and village visits etc… You can see the Carpathian Mountains and Chernivtsi near the Romanian border, Odesa on the Black Sea and Kyiv as well!

    You’ll love it! :-)

  12. Great review thank you. Lviv is indeed a beautiful city and very, very cheap. Excellent seats at the ballet are a whopping AUD$20. Thanks to M Kovalsky for pointing out Crimea is not a place to visit until Russia kindly leaves. Also try Veronica in Lviv for an amazing breakfast and cakes. Pick up a vyshyvanka (Ukraine’s trademark embroidered clothing) at the Vernisage market near the theatre.

  13. Love the review, I hope you visit other cities like Odessa. I would have liked to visit the Crimea, but gave up on that dream after Russia illegally occupied the Crimea in 2014. I hope you visit Poltava, I vacationed there three times and found it to be a wonderful city.

  14. My family and I are traveling to Kyiv and heading west to end up in Lviv this coming May. Thank you, thank you for this article. I have been researching everything I can over the last six months between those two cities. Your descriptions greatly heighten my excitement of finally visiting there.

  15. Some comments about Lviv were correct, (Ivisited in August 2010. But other comments
    were made that that made Ukrainians look like terrorists.

  16. I have been to 6 cities in Ukraine, but not Lviv. I will have to go one day. Ukraine is a beautiful country.

  17. Lviv residents like this saying: “In our city everything starts with coffee – morning, business, and love …” On the Ukrainian tourist map Lviv is strongly associated with the best coffee. This city is a heartland of thematic coffee shops, and the local baristas know more than a hundred ways to prepare a magic drink!

  18. As I research my great grandfather’s homeland formerly known as Tucholka,Galicy his name was Wasyl Skolski left there is 1905 entered the us Elis Island. his nationality was of Austria Ruthanian , I can see that he left a beautiful country. my research leads me to see what a turbulent time it I was then. one day wish to visit there.

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