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Prague - Krakow - Lviv - Budapest - Vienna. Thanks to everyone for the advice I asked for a few months back. It was all fun and well-traversed, except Lviv which was by far the best city I visited. Lviv now is what Prague and Budapest were probably like ten years ago. The very few tourists that were there were mostly Poles since the visa fees ($100 for Americans, similar cost for Euros) are keeping everyone else out despite the low, low prices. Entirely worth it for myself because I have family and family history there, but Lviv is also a beautiful city and not as run-down as I was led to believe -- although a lot of it was in disrepair. One of these days I'll do a long Ukraine trip, but I need to improve my pathetic Ukrainian first.

― fletrejet, Thursday, 12 June 2003 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Lvivotel is a beautiful beer (thank you for the Swimmer for bringing it to our attention).

― Pete (Pete), Thursday, 12 June 2003 11:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Lviv, yeah... the two times I passed through there must've been in the mid-70s and the very eraly 80s. Yet even then the city definitely had a different look (and "spirit"?) from most other places we visited (briefly) in those regions.

Lvivotel? Don't know its taste, alas. But Obolon ('nother Ukranian brand) is rather good too, i drink that almost every other day :)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 12 June 2003 14:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I had forgotten you were on that trip! I R envious.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 June 2003 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I had some of the Lvivotel dunkle and it was one of the better Ukrainian beers. All the locals said they used to be much better but they got bought out by a Russian company and are now just ok. I brought a bottle of their baltic porter home as a souvineer. Taller makes a good pilsner. I'd put Ukrainian beers on par w/ Polish ones - some terrible ones, some good ones, but nothing too great.

>Lviv, yeah... the two times I passed through there must've been in the mid-70s and the very eraly 80s. Yet even then the city definitely had a different
> look (and "spirit"?) from most other places we visited (briefly) in those regions.

Lviv was a very cosmopolitan city and culturally western - it was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the population is mostly Catholic. I wish I could have gone further east to Kiev to get the east/west contrast.

― fletrejet, Thursday, 12 June 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

lviv has a special place in my heart, because that is where my grandmother was from. pre-wwii, it also had a large jewish population (not as large as wilno or lublin, but large enough to be considered a "jewish" city).

if you have any pics, fletrejet, it would be much appreciated if you could post them!

― Tad (llamasfur), Friday, 13 June 2003 10:18 (twenty-two years ago)

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