Ukraine: A Journey Back in Time | Discover the Carpathian Mountains with Vlogger Eva zu Beck

Vlogger @evazubeck traveled to the Ukrainian city of Lviv and from there she visited a village hidden deep in the Carpathian mountains. There she met the Hutsuls, a Slavic ethnic group with their own culture, dialect and history.

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Hi everybody, I’m Eva zu Beck for DW Travel, and today I’ll be taking you on an adventure in the mountains of Ukraine. But before we set off, let me show you around Lviv, the cultural capital of this beautiful and underrated country. Let’s go! Lviv is definitely a hidden gem in Europe.

The city is over 800 years old, and because of its strategic location, over the centuries it has become a cultural melting pot of eastern and western influence. It’s super vibrant, happening, and above all, absolutely stunning. But just a couple of hours outside of Lviv, you’ll find a completely different world.

Here in the south of Ukraine is the land of the mysterious Carpathian mountains, tiny villages, and centuries-old traditions. I’m on my way to Shybene, a village inhabited by the Hutsul people who are native to this region.

The Hutsuls are a Slavic ethnic group with their own culture, dialect, and history who have been dwelling in these parts of Ukraine and neighboring Romania since time immemorial. Traditionally they’ve been shepherds, cattle breeders, and loggers living in balance with their land.

They’re particularly well known for their intricate woodwork, embroidery, and handicrafts. Today there are only an estimated 25,000 Hutsuls still around. Welcome to a remote village in the land of the Hutsuls! Let me show you around! Shybene is truly at the end of the map, right up against the Romanian border.

Past the village, its mountains and forests for miles on end. It’s a traditional village too, with many examples of local Hutsul architecture. Here I’ve come to visit the Kalynich family, who like many Hutsul people, practice traditional beekeeping. The family invited me to learn about their traditional beehives

Which they keep just behind their house. Ivan built these wooden hives with his own hands. I have a feeling he didn’t just build the hives for making honey. He’s so passionate about the bees that I had a sense he wanted to build them a home in his garden.

I am not an expert beekeeper, which means that I have to put this on to protect me. Maria gave us all a little smoke bath to prevent the bees from stinging us by accident. The beehive stays at a warm temperature all year long thanks to the careful wooden construction

And: a thick pillow that insulates the hive from the inside. The beehives are kept warm so that the bees can have a nice and comfortable life. These here are the worker bees. These bees collect the pollen and then stay in the beehive processing it into honey.

Ivan and Maria explained that the worker bees can fly up to five kilometers away and come back with pollen from the wildest flowers in the mountain meadows. And here is the queen, the biggest bee in the hive. She is responsible for keeping the colony working as a unit

As well as laying eggs for future generations of bees. They take great pride in their honey being so organic with no chemicals or added sugar, just as nature intended it. Finally, it was time for me to try this super natural Hutsul honey. Look at this beautiful natural honey straight from the hive!

It doesn’t get any fresher than this. Oh my god, that’s so delicious, so sweet. So fresh, so natural, and honestly tastes like the forest. I never had honey like this. It was amazing to see this traditional hive kept in harmony with nature. But of course, the invitation didn’t stop there.

Maria invited me to stay for lunch. This bread is still warm! It’s that fresh. All right, let’s cut it! Maria made this fresh bread all on her own. Women in her family have been developing these local homemade recipes for generations. First bite of this beautiful homemade village bread. So good!

It’s just perfectly crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, and it’s still warm. No chemicals, nothing, only natural ingredients, 100 percent homemade. I could definitely live here. Oh, the most delicious fresh village kompot. Basically, a kind of pickled juice that’s really, really popular all across Eastern Europoe.

Homemade butter and cheese. Homemade pickled peppers, and of course, fresh bread. For me, this is honestly the kind of lunch I could have any day. Fresh homemade cheese. This is all the produce of this particular household. It’s all made right here from the local cow

That lives right there in the barn just behind me, all-natural. You can’t buy this kind of stuff in the supermarket, you can’t, only here in this little village. Before letting me go, Maria wanted me to try on a traditional Hutsul outfit she had at home. Oh, wow!

It was time to show off my new Hutsul look. Here we go! This is the traditional Hutsul look for a lady. It’s beautiful. Since I speak Polish and the family speaks a Hutsul dialect of Ukrainian, we could understand each other quite easily. This is not everyday wear.

This is the kind of clothes that you would wear for special occasions celebrations, when you go to church, and honestly, it’s so beautiful. Every single part of it is hand made, hand embroidered, all of this from A to Z.

You don’t see clothes like this anymore, and you certainly cannot buy them in ordinary shops. This is all a beautiful piece of art. After saying goodbye to the Kalynich family, there was one more stop I wanted to make in the village.

Mr. Nikolai is the last person in this village who still makes these traditional Hutsul bells for shepherds and for animals that live up here in these beautiful mountains. Visiting the Hutsul village of Shybene made me realize just how underrated this part of Ukraine is.

There were no other tourists in the village apart from me, and it’s rare to see foreigners here. Apart from the rich tradition and epic landscapes, maybe this is what makes the village feel so calm, authentic, and like you’ve stepped back in time.