Leopolis (issue 1)

Drink of the Tsars Vodka: The DIY Guide

Scandinavia

Hitchhiker’s guide through Europe

Katya & Oksana the Head organisers exposed

ukrainian special teambuilding: day 1 Lviv | 24 Oct 2010 | Issue 1 TH

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Editorial Jonáš Jančařík & Martin Hoffmann on behalf of the media team

Welcome to Leopolis/Lviv/Lwow/Lemberg/Львів.

A city filled with history, culture, and since this week 300 enthusiastic and passionate young Europeans. You have all come a long way. For most of you it might be the longest trip you ever had. Most probably this is your first time in Ukraine, one of the underestimated great countries in Europe (it is the biggest country that lies geographically completely in Europe). More history will await you some pages later in our Ukraine Special, a series that will help you to understand the local habits and traditions as well will equip you with useful knowledge to show off in front of your friends back home.

But wait, some sentences about what you are actually holding in your hands here. This is Leopolis, the official magazine of the 65th International Session here in Lviv.

The name, obviously inspired by the hosting city, does also refer to the Greek πόλις (polis), an ancient form of community settlement and nowadays seen as one of the archetype of today’s political culture. We hope this will fit you and your ambitious aspirations to have your say on the sustainable future of a responsible Europe. In the next days we, the media team, will try to catch your attempts and footsteps in any way in order to save it, spread it, value it. Additionally, we hope we will be able to add some extra flavour and ideas that will enrich your stay

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here beyond your committee work room and the people you know.

Before you have arrived, you hopefully had already heard from us as you visited the blog of the session. You had the possibility to exchange links with each other, facebook-like your comments and tweet around. You might have thought what the greater purpose of the site was.

The paper that you are holding in your hands is basically the printed version of the newest state of the blog. All articles, all photos, and actually more photos and videos can be found there. So when you come home, everything already will already be waiting for for you to be commented on, shared and facebook-liked. But furthermore, all those people who could not make it to Lviv can watch every step you take while trying to improve Europe.

A little help will be the QR-Codes that you will found here and there. Once you are online, you can scan them with your phone (certain software required) and they will direct you to the exact place of the article in the blog, where more stuff awaits. Alternatively you can type in the short link.

We hope we will be able to enrich your experience here in Lviv and thus make your stay with EYP more enjoyable.

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Responsible Europe, sustainable future Floris Lauwers

In all the diversity that the committee topics represent, it is sometimes easy to forget that the session as a whole also has a topic. You might have seen it written on some of the officials’ T-shirts, we are thinking about a responsible Europe to ensure a sustainable future. The obvious first association would be environmental sustainability but this is just one of many facets. To ensure Europe even has a future we need to keep considering our place in local and world politics. We also keep our industry and research potential in mind as this could give us an edge internationally. With so many possibilities, wouldn’t it be possible to link all of the committee topics to the session topic?

Europe is united in diversity, or at least it should be. With the recent expansions in 2004 and 2007 Europe is now more diverse than ever before and more countries are already lining up to join the European Union. Would further expansion be beneficial, or will it spell our downfall? To paraphrase Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, further expansion is only feasible if we manage to further adapt European policy, it is however we something must surely strive for and try to find a way to spread peace and prosperity.

There are of course a great many countries that are not interested in joining the EU – yet we must not neglect them. Our international policy has a tremendous effect on our internal affairs. Our attitude towards other nations in the world will be key to maintaining Europe’s position as an economic superpower.

Power implies responsibility, as an economic power we thus have economic responsibility. By imposing the same standards of production quality and respect for human capital that we have in Europe, we can take up this responsibility. However, if driven too far it could chase away suppliers, can we find a balance? China and India’s economical power is growing daily and we must therefore find a way to protect our own economy without hopelessly invalidating it. Is a rigorous pursuit of cutting-edge technology what will help Europe maintain it’s strong industrial presence or would a reallocation of grants from agriculture to industry be more appropriate? Not all nations are as successful as the rising powers mentioned earlier and we should be focusing on what Europe can do to help some of these so called ‘failed states’. Getting them back on track might be a worthwhile investment for the future.

The situation in the Palestine-Israel region is holding the entire Middle East in it’s grasp and disentangling this Gordian knot will be an important step towards better relations with the local governments.

However it is not only foreign policy that we should be concerned about. There are many internal issues that beg for solutions. With the recent expansion the differences between member states have increased exponentially and this has led to some unacceptable practices. Voices have risen that suggest the press in some countries is not as free as it seems. Freedom of thought and speech is crucial for the development of a fair democracy.

Another recent case that comes to mind is the repatriation of Roma in France. This debacle was an example of treating the symptoms instead of the cause. As a union we could take away

the need for people to emigrate due to economical reasons and to at the same time ensure the freedom and rights of all citizens.

Not all emigration is voluntary however, human trafficking still exists and is even quite widespread within the EU. This massive underground trade network is crippling for the economy of the countries from which it stems, a change of approach and mentality is necessary to ensure the preservation of human rights and to ensure both economical and social prosperity. The new member states are however not necessarily a problem, they are an opportunity. Countries that were until very recently bereft of democracy are now fast involving into a new and more open state.

Unguided development is however not ideal, this is were hopefully the EU can step in.

The older member states also need to step up their game. The recent economic distress proved that prosperity is also a work in progress. To ensure the flow of capital, money needs to be available to companies without dangerously undermining the credit system. Again a balance must be found between monitoring and freedom. Furthermore with the massive expected growth in the percentage of elderly people, action needs to be taken to ensure the continuation of fair social policies. Reactivation, changes in pension age or perhaps a more creative approach, questions that need to be answered and so on. Not only the old are an issue, thanks to gene-technology the young are now a very hot ethical and moral issue as well. The possibilities offered by manipulating genes of plants or animals could revolutionize the way we live.

For good or for worse is however a heated debate. Currently we can manipulate plants to increase their resistance to harsh conditions and to improve agricultural yields and with further research we could make genetic diseases a thing of the past. Do these advantages outweigh the dangers posed by multinational companies or dangerous random mutations?

Other new revolutions in technology will allow us to change the way we produce electricity for the cities of Europe, cities changed by advances in building technology that allow new ways of composing cities. Green energy is at the moment still not enough to support our energy need on its own. The easiest answer would be more nuclear power to take up the slack.

However this also implies more nuclear waste that we will have to store for centuries to come. Advances in research into thorium fuel cycles and improved installations might make nuclear power more ecologically feasible. By combining this with the new construction methods that provide a more efficient usage of the available space the European ecological footprint can be drastically reduced. If we also incorporate lessons learned by Europe at international humanitarian crises we can prevent such situations within our borders and also provide more organized professional aid internationally.

The European future is a bright one but only if we make it so.

A sustainable future needs to be everyone’s concern, from the environmentalist to the industrialist and the politician. No single way will prove to be the answer but a multidisciplinary approach might prove successful.

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interview

Responsible couple, sustainable session Ezgi İnce & Sofia Zafeiriou

They are the ones whose faces you will see the most and the least at the same time, as they are running around all the time. That was exactly the situation when we first asked the Head Organisers of the session, Katya Vynogradova and Oksana Andrusyak, to have an interview with us. A couple of organisers broke in first, telling that there’s something important. Then Oksana’s phone rang, another emergency. We had ten minutes before they rushed into the next organiser meeting. Yet we managed to have a chat about how they perceive EYP and what took them to make this session happen. »» How did you come across the idea of head organising Lviv 2010?

Katya: Two years ago, during of the “Days of Europe” in Kiev in spring 2008, the former president of EYP Ukraine approached me and asked me whether we’d like to organise the International Session in Lviv 2010.

Oksana: In 2006 we organised another International Session in Ukraine [53rd International Session, Kyiv 2006] and back then we couldn’t have thought that EYP Ukraine will host another IS in four years. And then two years later, the idea came; we wanted to challenge ourselves, see whether we could make it better than the previous ones and submit a successful bid. »» Did the two of you start this project together?

K: No, at first it was me and another Katya, who will be here next week as an organiser. At some point she got too busy with her studies but Oksana was helping me all the time, though not as a Head Organizer. So 4

we decided that it would be fair and useful for both of us to officially do this together.

O: As the president of EYP Ukraine I was involved actively in the project anyway and so we decided that it would be a good match if we continued that, having more than one person to head-organise the session and to support each other; and I have to tell you that it is working quite well when you have someone to support you as a head organiser. »» So you think you make a good team right?

O: I’m sure we are a good team.

K: A good couple. (laughs) Why did you chose Lviv as a location?

K: Because we’ve already had an International Session in the Ukrainian capital and Lviv is the “Western cultural capital” of Ukraine. The city itself is very beautiful; great history and a mix of cultures. Eastern and Western cultures meet here.

O: When we thought about the location, Lviv came first to our minds to host such a session, because it has a special atmos-

phere. Throughout history Lviv was under the rule of different empires and states. A lot of different nations have managed to live together, sometimes with conflicts, sometimes resolving these conflicts. So, the city represents something that we are trying to achieve in EYP as well when we gather together from different countries, different nations and we start communicating and try to find the common view, common solutions, common interests. As Katya mentioned, it is perceived as the second capital of Ukraine and it has a lot of things to show so we decided that if we want to introduce people from other countries to our country for the second time, we need to show them Lviv. »» So you said that EYP gathers people, is that the only reason why you do EYP? What exactly does EYP mean to you?

K: Well, EYP became such a huge part of my life, that EYP has actually been my life for the past four year and thus I cannot decide on one element that EYP consists of for me.

O: I would say also that for me the first thing about EYP is friends. If I said how many friends I have, most of them are EYPers, who

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have either joined after me or were the reason why I joined EYP, so it is the common interest and the common things you want to share, views and ideas. This also brings support; I do not know whether it’s the same in other National Committees, but EYPers in the Ukraine are some of those progressive young people that are active, who want to achieve more and develop. And it is in EYP that they find these opportunities and people that share this active positions. Basically for me it’s already six years that EYP is not only part of my life, but something I cannot imagine my life without, these are people that I am (pause) with. »» How do you feel right now, at this turning point where the session has just started?

O: Well, we have been here since last Sunday and from that point we were counting down the hours to its start. During the officials’ teambuilding I had an exciting feeling, because while simply looking at the rest of the CJOs I still could not realise that it’s our session, that we are making it and that we have been preparing for two years now and that it is already happening. Today that

all the delegates have arrived it is quite an amazing feeling to see them here. And we are actually are very happy about today’s weather!

K: Well, to add to that, personally these days I’m feeling much better than the past two or three month. I have no more nightmares about Lviv’s session. In May I started having nightmares about Lviv and for the past couple of months they were there every night; parts of the Lviv session in my dreams.

But now, I’m just so tired that I go to sleep, wake up, go to work. I think it’s getting better and better each day. »» What are your expectations? What will make Lviv 2010 unique?

O: An International Session has its parts; the delegates, teachers, officials, chairs, journos and organisers and I think that the uniqueness of the session lies in the hands of the officials’ team, because we are the ones who bring all these people together, we are the ones who create the spirit and we really hope that after this session the delegates will know more about our country, will get excited about EYP and will want to

continue. We have to make sure that they will bring back the best memories, the best impressions, friendships, all those connections between all of us.

K: The expectation is that the session will seem well-organised to the participants, even if the orgas will have some mess with preparing and taking care of everything; that in the end we will have everything on time and ready. Besides the organisational aspects of the session, I would like to see the real spirit of the EYP. As soon as we thanked them for leaning us little of their time, they said their goodbyes and ran back into the school to start the organisers’ meeting. It’s you participants of the session that will make their dreams come true just by making the best of your time here and make the Lviv experience unforgettable.

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How did we get here?

Katrīna Šuvajeva & Tea Vulić & Pia Spiesmacher

The 65th international Session of the European Youth Parliament just started and we are all happy to have you finally here – in Lviv. You might have already wondered about the 'conditions' of your fellow delegates. Some look incredibly exhausted, some stand randomly in queues and don’t realise that it is their turn already. Some keep on talking about the “magic of the rail tracks” and keep on asking you to please not to take off your shoes and socks.

But first we would like to give you a little advice, which would have been actually a lot more useful for those who did not make it… Please do check what are the necessary documents that enable you to enter a certain country. You might find this really silly but the latest incidents proof us right: For example, one of the teachers thought Ukraine is in the Schengen zone, so did not think of bringing a passport with himself. Also unfortunately, three delegates from Estonia and the Netherlands did not make it to the session either.

Unlike the teacher, the delegates had accidentally forgotten their passports at home.

When travelling to Ukraine, please take patience with you. It was impossible not to notice that almost everyone at the session complained about waiting at the border. For instance, the Romanian delegation had to wait for 8 hours because of a misunderstanding with their bus tickets, while the Czech delegation went through 11 different passport checks. If they had met the German delegation at the border they could have saved a lot of time by simply paying 5 Euro 'corruption fee' that shortened their waiting time from approximately 5 to only 2 hours.

A very special entertainment was waiting for our Croatian officials at the Ukrainian border.

They got off the train while the bogies of the train wagons were changed. After the whole press team had to listen to this story several times with

including all details, we really got the idea, that it must have been really impressive.

We are very glad to inform you that there still are a lot of people with positive and funny anecdotes from their trip to Lviv. One of the Czech delegates found a homeless man, who was giving directions at the train station. Very amusing.

After realizing the very disturbed face of a Turkish delegate we insisted on knowing the 'story behind the face'. His foreign travel companion sitting next to him on the plane seemed to have a different idea of a "comfort zone” as she didn’t only take off her shoes but socks as well.

For one of the delegates the surprise was waiting in her suitcase. After detecting the strange taste of alcohol surrounding her, she realised that a whole bottle of nail polish remover turned her

whole suitcase into a vodka-distillery. But don’t worry, she still has two sweaters and one trousers, that don’t smell that bad and her committee turned out to be really understanding.

Enjoy the way back home and take into account advice of Dominik, chair of the ITRE II committee, if you buy any alcohol or cigarettes: Hide them under your dirty clothes – preferable dirty underwear! The luggage-check will go incredibly smoothly as soon as the extraordinary smell of your worn clothes gets detected by the noses of the friendly border police. And take care that you do not harm the innocent dogs working for the border police with your special scent.

Ukraine does offer many facets. First impressions of some participants.

Elsa (SE): “Warm.”

Hugh (IE): “I feel like I’m in the 50’s. It is certainly vintage.”

Tayanc (TR): “To me it’s like some David Bowie song.”

Dora & Martina (HR): “A Grannie. We met her on the train ride. Supergrannie knows everything. She showed us how to open the windows.”

Ezgi (TR): “Distant.”

Stefan (NL): “It was exactly as I hoped it would be.”

Jonáš (CZ): “Why don’t they speak English?”

Tea (HR): “Cheaper than Croatia.”

Peter (PL): “I especially love the airport. Very colourful.”

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Where I drank coffee in Stavanger, how to travel in Göteborg and what to see in Ekenäs Pınar Akkor & Theresa Kleih

The Hitchhiker’s Guide Through Europe: Although the whole Europe seems to have gathered in Lviv this week, there are many nice places waiting out there to be discovered. In this series, we will help you planning your next holidays for Europe’s secrets while at same time meeting fellow EYPers.

I cannot believe that I have been in Norway, Sweden and Finland just in one week time and experienced so much! When I remember the trips I had with my family, I recall running from sight to sight suggested by the “tourist guide”. hhhhhhhThe Eiffel tower, Hard Rock Café, the Berliner Mauer, Starbucks, Colosseum, the Manneken pis, the Mona Lisa… Basically just focusing on the places the guides or tourist offices want us to go rather than integrate in the country. The real tourist spends his monthly pay check on fancy bars and hotels. But if you want to know the world, you have to meet the people and visit the spots those insiders recommend. That’s why I decided to hitchhike through Europe: I wanted to visit the cities, talk to the people and discover the secrets.

I wanted to feel the spirit of Europe.

I started my trip in Norway, in a city called Stavanger on the West Coast. It was a small and cozy city. I wondered around a little. That car ride was really tiring so I decided to go to a café to have some coffee. I asked to a random guy where to go and he told me about a place that became my favourite spot there. It was called “BØker oq BØrst” and it was a great reflection of the Norwegian intellectuality. Seriously, books where everywhere, it was like the café was constructed just by using books. On the walls, there were pictures of Mahatma Gandhi and some other spiritual leaders. The warm atmosphere and the conversation I had with random and unique locals just took my breath away.

After the coffee I decided to go to the Pveikestolen mountain which everybody was talking about. It took about 3-4 hours to climb up. The mountain was on a famous Norwegian fiord so you could easily dive into the sea if 700 m doesn’t scare you.

When I got back to the city again I decided to eat. I wanted to taste some Norwegian food but it seemed that nobody was really interested in that so instead they suggested me to go to the Kultur Kafé. Lunch was followed by a visit to the Petroleum museum to understand why Norwegians got rich. Hope I will find petroleum in our garden so we can be like this too. Maybe then I would have the enough money to go the best local club of Stavanger, Martinique, for some drinks and dancing.

To be honest, they even didn’t accept me to get inside. So I gathered my stuff and hit the road.

None of the car drivers took me so I also wanted to try the marina. Fortunately a rich guy took me

on his boat and we are on our way to the golden coasts of Archipelago, near Göteborg, Sweden.

The breeze and the clean air were really what I needed.

When we arrived, I started to walk on the beach and relaxed a bit. It was really fascinating and calming. We all know Sweden is the hipster country number one these days. So of course I had to go there but I didn’t want to limit myself to the capital. So I took a public bus to Göteborg. I got off at the Brunnsparken Square which is one of the main squares such as Jarntorget square. It was full of restaurants and people who didn’t worry about life itself. I started walking but then I noticed that a true Göteborg citizen prefers taking the tram so I did it like them. At a random stop I got off and found a bar called Andra to drink something and chat with people. I met with a guy who works at the IKEA designing studio and he promised to take me to Stockholm.

Even though I did not want to visit the places all tourists go to, I couldn’t keep myself from getting exited when I thought about Stockholm. Actually, I still feel like you can not have enough time to really experience this amazing city, consisting of several regions and so full of diversity. One of those regions is called Söder and being there really gives you the spirit of experiencing Swedish Montmartre with all its cafés and artistic inhabitants. Another place I really liked was Kungsholmen, full of second hand shops and some of the nicest cafés in Stockholm, like the antic-style Vettekatten or the Sundays. Because it is a really tiny café, it compensates size with awesomeness by selling only fair-trade products.

After a while I felt like I spend my whole life hanging around in cafés and shopping, so I thought I would need some education. I never expected a Museum of Medieval Stockholm to be that interesting! However, my plan of going to the Natural History Museum afterwards was axed when I saw this big garden called Bergianska trädgården with its huge green house that makes you feel like you can travel around the world in one day. It is an incredible feeling to stand on the sand and sweat under the summer sun in the desert section when outside the building Sweden is getting ready for the winter. Being a food lover, I continued “travelling” around the world in a big restaurant or food court called Kungshallen whose two floors hosts more than 15 restaurants serving food from

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the corners of the world. Seriously, Stockholm is amazing…

After my driver let me hop off in Helsinki, the first thing I bought was a bobble cap. It is already so cold here, but at least not as dark as I expected it to be. Finland really is a country that makes you go to your extremes since it is for sure most beautiful in the hottest or the coldest time of the year. I visited a city in the southern part of Finland, about 100 km from Helsinki.

On my way I experienced quite a funny story – I was standing next to the road with a piece of paper with my destination written on it. The place was quite good, but I was already waiting for 20 minutes. After some time I realised that drivers coming from the other direction are quite interested in what I’m doing with a piece of paper next to the road. I’ve decided to write my destination on the other side of the paper (even if it was totally the opposite direction), so the drivers could see it. And then, after less than 2 minutes a minivan stopped. The guy shouted to come to him, and then said: “Well… I don’t really go that way, but who cares, I can drive 60 km more”. Yes – it is possible to get a lift from a car just coming back from your destination.

The name of the city he took me to was Ekenäs (or Tammisaari in Finnish) and its city centre is located between two narrow bays. Everywhere I went, everything I saw had water elements in it.

In the tourist office they gave me the key for the water tower of the city and at first I didn’t know what to do with it. However, in the end the tower was absolutely worth the visit and I also had so much fun walking around the bay area where I saw all these little islands (archipelago, or whatever their strange name was). Man, I would love to run around and slide on the ice here in winter!

Still, the beautiful and numerous oak trees that gave the city its name made amends for the lack of snow. When I got bored and cold after seven hours of jumping and walking around in happiness, I went to the city centre. Obviously the Finns like second hand shops; the city was full of them.

Also,close to the market place there was this lovely café named Carl de mumma (by the way, who’s that guy?!), a totally cosy place and also not as noxious for my purse as the rest of Finland. It’s slowly getting cold in Europe and my purse gets lighter – I’ll have to continue to search for places like this!

To destination unknown!

Powered by…

Norway: Eivik Kviudesland Göteborg: Lillian Liu Stockholm: Emilie Tilstam Finland: Anna Englund Hitchhiking anecdotes: Michal Korzonek

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The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts Ezgi İnce & Michał Korzonek

Over the past three days the officials have discussed one main issue: needs.

Needs of people. Needs of chairs, journalists, organisers and delegates. Needs of human beings. What do they need? How do we satisfy them? It seems interesting that everything that surrounds us is a results of other people’s needs and their will to fulfil them. Teams are also one of those.

People have the need to form groups.

The most simple examples are society and families. Individuals joined together because they have believed that everybody has a potential which could be used; that every opinion could matter. When united through a common goal, be it a sport game or ploughing the field, people get together and work as a team to reach it.

In the 1920s Elton Mayo, the founder of the human relations movement, conducted a research confirming the relationship between human factors, such as self-respect, recognition, self-direction, and productivity.

That result depicts that productivity increases when workers are organized in teams. As the century progressed, many high profile companies (such as General Motors, Volvo and Xerox) conducted more research on team-work. The results again demonstrated the effectiveness of teams and refined their structure and use.

A group is not necessarily a team. Rather, a team is a group of people with a common goal working together. When people are united, a power mix which is pushing the team to accomplish much more than one person ever would is produced. As every person has something to offer to the others, fruitful team-work results not only with full accomplishment of the goals but moreover it can stimulate personal development of the group members.

In EYP, teambuilding is an anticipation of the committee work. It helps to put trust in other members of the team (in spite of different cultural background), stimulates the will to cooperate. By constant challenging, it stretches everyone’s comfort zone. The teambuilding means you developing, within the team and individually. It is a step in EYP that you have to take, a step towards change.

Teambuilding will provide and develop the necessary skills to reach your committee’s common goal - the resolution. Don’t forget however to enjoy the trip and make the best out of it until you reach the destination.

http://bit.ly/9SXuZC Over 200 more pictures from the first day of TB.

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Маршрутка what?

“What the hell are they talking about? I can’t understand anything.”

This is a quote overheard by a German delegate regarding Ukrainian. To be fair, many of us don’t understand the language at all and the fact that the alphabet is in Cyrillic and not Latin letters makes it even more confusing. Therefore we are providing you with a small language guide on the Cyrillic alphabet and Ukrainian that might be useful. Fear Cyrillic letters no more.

History of Lviv

History of Lviv Lviv was founded by King Danylo of Galicia in the 13th century and according to a legend the city was named after his son Lev, which means Lion. Lviv is in fact a city of many names. Historically it has been under various different rulers. When the town was taken over by the Polish in the 14th century, the name was changed to Lwow. In 1772 Lviv became part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, it remained Polish but the name was once again changed, this time to Lemberg. As part of the USSR during the Second World War it was for a few years occupied

by Germany. Due to the Soviet Union collapse in 1991 Lviv finally became part of the independent Ukraine. Despite its many boundary changes the metropolis has been able to keep its Ukrainian identity and is today regarded as one of the main cultural centres in Ukraine. It has also been a leading force in Ukraine’s movement for sovereignty and democracy.

Marshrutka The word literally means route and describes the charming yellow buses that are surfing the streets of Lviv. Originally The Marshrutka was introduced in the USSR during the 1930’s and had the function of a taxi with a specific route. A Marshrutka boom in the 90’s steadily made the buses more important for the urban population. In fact, the vehicles are indeed of crucial importance in the city of Lions. If you fancy transportation, meeting with locals or simply enjoying an extraordinary bus ride, a Marshrutka journey is a hot tip. It might even be a life-changing experience.

Лвив вас фоундед бй Кинг Данйло оф Галициа ин тхе ьЪтх центурй анд аццординг то а легенд тхе цитй щас намед афтер хис сон Лев, щхицх меанс Лион. Лвив ис ин фацт а цитй оф манй намес. Хисторицаллй ит хас беен ундер вариоус дифферент рулерс. Щхен тхе тощн щас такен овер бй тхе Полисх ин тхе ьчтх центурй, тхе наме щас цхангед то Лщощ. Ин ьШШъ Лвив бецаме парт оф тхе АустроХунгариан емпире, ит ремаинед Полисх бут тхе наме щас онце агаин цхангед, тхис тиме то Лемберг. Ас парт оф тхе УССР дуринг тхе сецонд щорлд щар ит щас фор а фещ йеарс оццупиед бй Германй. Дуе то тхе Совиет унион цоллапсе ин ь99ь Лвив финаллй бецаме парт оф тхе индепендент Украине. Деспите итс манй боундарй цхангес тхе метрополис хас беен абле то кееп итс Украиниан идентитй анд ис тодай регардед ас оне оф тхе маин цултурал центрес ин Украине. Ит хас алсо беен а леадинг форце ин Украине’с мовемент фор совереигнтй анд демоцрацй.

exercise ДЕАР ДЕЛЕГАТЕС. ВЕЛКОМЕ ТО ЛВИВ, ТХЕ СИТИ ОФ ТХЕ ЛИОН. ОН ТХИС ПАГЕ ЙОУ КАН ФИНД УСЕФУЛ ИНФОПМАТИОН АБОУТ ЛВИВ, ЛЕАРН ТХЕ КЙРИЛЛИК АЛПХАБЕТ АНД ГЕТ ТО КНОВ ТЙПИКАЛ УКАИНИАН ВОРДС. ВЕ ХОПE ТХАТ ЙОУ АРЕ АЛЛ ИНТЕРЕСТЕД ИН ТХИС КОУНТРЙ АНД ТХЕРЕФОРE РЕАД ОУР АРТИКЛЕС АБОУТ ТХЕ ХОСТ КОУНТРЙ. ЙAЙ. АНЙВАЙ, ЕНЙОЙ ЙОУР СТАЙ ИН УКРАИНЕ АНД СTАЙ ТУНЕД.

useful phrases

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Zdoroven’ki buly - Hello there Pociluj mene, ja ukrainka - Kiss me, I’m Ukrainian Bud’mo gay - Cheers Babusia – Babushka (Grandmother) Tse chudovo – That is awesome Fajno dyakuy – Thanks Bozhe mij – Oh my god Zbozhevolity mozhna – It’s f*cking brilliant Slava Ukraini, Heroyam slava – Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the heroes

Drink of the Tsars Stefan Trifunović

“And bring us a lot of horilka, but not that fancy kind with raisins, or with any other such things – bring us horilka of the purest kind, give us that demon drink that makes us merry, playful and wild!" – Tarsas Bulba, by Nikolai Gogol Drank in cocktails, on the rocks or from a shady unlabeled bottle, horilka – thanks to Russian influence more commonly known as “vodka” – is today one of the most widely consumed alcoholic beverages worldwide. But where do the roots of this ‘demon drink’ lie?

Like with most drinks that have been drunk for ages (and that is to be taken in the literal sense) there is no definite proof of who made the very first horilka and when it was made. The top contenders are Russia, Ukraine and Poland. Russia has been credited as the inventor of horilka in the 14th century by sources such as Encyclopaedia Britannica, while the Gin and Vodka Association (yes, such an organisation truly exists) claims the Polish had distilled spirits identifiable as horilka, named Gorzalka, as early as the 8th century. Then there are claims that the Russians borrowed horilka from the Ukrainian Cossacks, free warriorpeasants that served as cavalry under the tsars, around the 15th and 16th century and relabelled it ‘vodka’ (and even if those turn out not to be true, Ukraine should get bonus points for horilka z pertsem, a delicious horilka bottled with hot chilli peppers). Runner-ups include Finland (Paloviina), Belarus (Harelka), Lithuania (Degtine), Sweden (Brännvin) and other members of the so called ‘Vodka Belt’.

Little boys grow up to be big boys. Due to the revolution in advertising our little horilka, by now better known by it’s nickname ‘vodka’, ex-

perienced a growth spurt in the 1950’s. Quickly conquering the world, vodka overtook the sales of bourbon whisky in the United States, previously the most popular hard liquor and the native spirit of the country.

Along with the shift from the medicinal use of vodka to more leisure oriented through the ages, its popularity has grown, but the fact that it’s a relatively pure alcoholic drink, which makes it less likely to cause hangovers, doesn’t mean that it won’t. So whether you still believe in the drink’s curative powers or are just looking to unwind after a hard day’s of work, if you’ve bought it from the

Ukrainian Special store or used the brew-it yourself guide to make your own, if you bought a Ukranian, Russian, Swedish or Polish one or one of the endless other brands, keep in mind: enjoy responsibly.

Vodka: The brew-it-yourself Guide When we think about vodka we usually think about fun-scarred endless nights. But when it comes to discussing potatoes they don't seem to have a story to tell. But, have you ever thought of combining them?

Wise people of Ukraine have come up with a fascinating product. It's bold, it's fresh and most of all, it's unique. It had already started circling the globe, allowing every alcohol connoisseur to drown in good taste. Hiccups, as well as tumbling around are as always optional but do yourself a favour and refrain from that.

What started off as a humble way to tease one's uvula ended up being one of most popular recipes available. So, since we're all about changing things this time around, let's forget about the ''Peel banana, peel peel banana'' limbo. It's time for ''peel potato.'' Forget all about eating crisps or

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iSpeak. Make yourself heard.

something that gets along with your main dish.

Potatoes are free, but they need to be released.

They are born underground, but end up being sellouts. Since frying in hot oil doesn't actually seem as an enjoyable experience, let's give this crop the glory it deserves.

Let's turn it into ... VODKA! 1.

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Peel potato, peel peel potato Chop potato, chop chop potato Cook in a pressure cooker until dissolved Distil potato juice Get yourself a glass Pour slowly Drink responsibly

Listen up delegates and officials. Over the last years many EYP press teams have neglected a crucial pillar of the EYP in their approach: democracy. Now you might wonder, why this is connected to EYP journalism.

To speak frankly, democracy is not only going to the polls to make a cross every now and then. The freedom of speech and press is an extremely important tool to make democracy work.

We, the Lviv mediateam, strongly believe that everyone must have the chance to become actively involved in the process of EYP journalism and express their ideas, thoughts and opinions on topics they consider as important. This is why we have launched the project called iSpeak. iSpeak is a column where your article, letter to the editor or commentary can be published. The only thing you have to do is take a piece of paper, write down what you want to iSpeak about and put it into the iSpeak media absorber. We promise to support your contribution to the project by publishing most of the received ideas.

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