Category: Ukraine trip

Carpathian Mountains

This morning we had breakfast in a little cafe – so cheap – 25 hryvny for all three of us (although Natalia only had tea). Then we were on our way. Got stopped by Ukrainian customs officers because Romania is just across the border. Then we stopped at the “Geographical centre of Europe.” Stopped briefly. Bought a wood carving there for Dad.

We drove slowly through the Carpathian Mountains. Slowly, because the roads are twisty, but also because some of the roads have been washed away. It was like we had been zapped into the 1700s. Houses looked like they would have back then, except they had tin roofs, satellite dishes and young girls sitting on haystacks, talking on cell phones.

Houses, churches and small chapels were decorated with elaborately tooled tin.

The farming methods were the old ones, by and large. Saw few pieces of modern farm equipment. Natalia wanted to have a ride in a horse-drawn wagon, so Eugene pulled over when he saw three 9 or 10 year old boys driving a wagon. They were delighted to give us a ride. The wagon felt downright fluid while we were on it. The boy driving showed off a bit, making the horses go fast and taking us off the road and into a field. The kids were laughing uproariously and we got some pretty funny expressions from passers by.

During our drive through the Carpathians, my father-in-law’s niece contacted me via Eugene’s cell phone. We had thought of passing through Drohobich because of the wooden church. Halina was going to come in to Lviv on Sunday to visit me but since we were going past, we changed plans and suggested we meet in Drohobich instead. We hadn’t factored in the flooding damage to the roads. If we’d had any idea how bad the roads were, we never would have tried to get through. It took an hour to get through a single 14 kilometer stretch. We didn’t get there until 9:30 or so, and we still had to get to Lviv after that. And we’d had no supper. We met with my father-in-law’s nieces and they were so nice. They gave us gifts and some things for my father-in-law, and I gave them some more books and some icewine. We walked around for about half an hour, chatting. Or should I say Natalia chatted and interpreted. Then we were back on the road. We were all pretty tried and Natalia was feeling sick.

 

I tried to keep up a conversation with Eugene bcause I was afraid he’d nod off while driving. We got into Lviv around midnight. The apartment is stunningly fabulous. It’s an investment property specifically for rental and is done in complete western style, even with a jacuzzi. But we had not eaten and there was no food in the apartment. Natalia stayed there and Eugene and I trekked out to a 24 hour grocery store. It’s quite an experience shopping for food when you’re so hungry and tired. We inhaled food like bread and honey and cooked eggs as soon as we got back and then went to bed – around 2am.

 

 

Roxolana

One of my main reasons for going to Ukraine was to do some hands on research for my novel about the early life of Roxolana (Alexandra Listowska) a Ukrainian girl who was taken as a slave in 1520 by the Tatars and ended up being the Sultana of the Ottoman Empire. She lived in Rohatyn, an hour south of Lviv.

As we drove towards Rohatyn, I took note of the rolling countryside. I imagined grassland and forests of long ago, but now it was pastures, fields and wooded areas. When we got to the first sign of the Lipa River I got out of the car to look at it. Much smaller than I expected. I can only think that it was mightier back then. It looked more like a creek or stream than a river. But I noted the trees hanging over like a canopy and that the greenery went right to the edge. It was deep enough that no rocks showed through and the water looked black.

Eugene phoned Orest Galan an American friend of my father-in-law who has retired in Rohatyn. He directed Eugene to his house. He was standing outside, holding a newspaper, plus he lived on the main street so he was easy to spot. He invited us inside and offered us coffee because our first appointment wasn’t for an hour. He showed us family photos and then it was time for our first appointment. Mr Galan got into the car with us and directed us to a house a few blocks away. In a few minutes, a retired govt official met with us. He is a Roxolana enthusiast and he has collected a vast amount of material on her, as well as info on other aspects of Rohatyn history. He went through his material one by one and then offered to photocopy the pertinent documents for us. Mr Galan noticed the time and said that we had another appointment at 1pm. It was 6 minutes to one. We sped out and headed for Holy Spirit Church. This is the wooden church that stands on the spot where Roxolana’s father’s church stood.

The foundations are the originals from the late 1400s – there is a person buried there right in front of the iconostasis, and her burial date is marked.

The church is now a muesum, and Tetiana, the museum guide, began to give us a canned lecture about the church. It took me six requests to finally get her off the loop and start answering real questions. Once she did, it got interesting. She let us go behind the iconostatis to see a painting that was being restored.

It is from the late 1400s. Then she asked if we’d like to see the tunnel under the church! Would we!!? Why yes! She flipped the rug in the main part of the church and lo and behold, a trap door.

When it opened there was a descent into blackness. She got us candles and Eugene stepped in first to help me down, then got out. I went down first and then he did. Six steep steps. Very dirty, dusty and somewhat scary. She said that it used to be a network of tunnels connecting all of the churches and likely a tunnel out of town as well. Now the two doors leading in either direction were blocked up.

It felt good to get out of that hole, I must say. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people buried down there. After all, the church is on a hill with terraced graveyards all around. Tetiana says that when someone new is buried they always find old bones. The lowest terrace of the graveyard backs onto the Lipa River, and like the part of the river that I had seen at the town entrance, it was canopied by trees. It was wider behind the church and there was a footbridge across the river at the front of the church.

Two things that struck me as unusual about this church: 1 – the bell tower was built into the church. Apparently it used to be separate but with erosion, it got too close to the river. Two: The priest’s house was across the road (kitty corner to the bridge) rather than on the church grounds. The way the river went and the terraced graveyard, there was no room for a house any closer than that.

Tetiana asked if we would like to see the bell tower. Why yes!! We climbed up the narrow wooden steps – three flights of them, and she demonstarated how to ring it. She said you want to make a rhythm and to never ring it just once because that would mean there had been a death. After she demonstrated, I did it.

It’s a lot harder to ring than you’d think. The bell is heavy. Then we rang it together.

I ran to the car and got her a book once we were finished the tour. She does speak halting English. She told me that she has family in Toronto and she gave me some brochures and cards from the church. I donated 200 hryvny to the church fund. I also gave Mr. Galan and Michael copies of Kobzar’s Children.

It was about 2:30 when we left the church and we had another appointment with Michael. He couldn’t photocopy the sheets because the copier was out of toner so he gave me his originals. I offered to photocopy them at home and mail them back, but he said, no, to keep them. He was just so thrilled to be helping me and to be getting the story of Roxolana out. We had lunch at about 3:30. I tried to pay, but Mr. Galan insisted. Then we walked around the centre square with Michael explaining the layout.

He also showed me the remnants of the town gate. Then we all got into the car and he showed me where the town wall would have been for the entire circumference of the city.

It was raining, but he wanted to show me the main cemetery. It started to rain hard just as we got back into the car. We dropped them both off at their homes and got onto the road for Lviv at something like 6:15. The roads were flooding with the torrential rain and it was hard to drive and hard to see. Got back to the apartment at about 8.

shopping in Lviv

Natalia and Eugene went to Sambir and I stayed home. I had contacted Natalya the guide yesterday to see if she would be able to take me to the Lviv market and she called in the midst of my Rohatyn trip to let me know that she could. I relaxed in the morning, checking email etc and then met her out front at 10:30am with a taxi. She is a lovely person. Interesting to talk to and very classy and intelligent. We got dropped off at the market and she helped me talk to the vendors and I got everything that I wanted to buy. I needed some more money but none of the bank machines would accept my card so I had to exchange some euros for hryvny to pay her and to have cash for the taxi back. She only charged 10 dollars an hour and was only going to charge me for two hours but I paid her extra and also took her out for lunch. She drove back in the taxi with me and I spent the rest of the day reading, taking a shower, and generally unwinding. Tomorrow is Poland!!

 

rest

Natalia and Eugene went to the outdoor museum and the cemetery, but I stayed in and rested. Sorted through my knapsack etc because things were getting all jumbled up. Did laundry. Read. It was glorious.

Here’s what our apartment looked like:

 

 

The building from the outside looks plain, and the stairwell leading to the apartment is Soviet-style:

border crossing

We cleaned up the apartment and packed and left at about 10am. Right now, we’re sitting in the line-up at customs to get into Poland. We got scammed for 150 hryvny ($32 Cdn) for the “fast” line-up. Eugene says that often these scammers are quite honest, but today there wasn’t much of a line-up. Seems the customs officers all took lunch at the same time though.

We stopped at a gas station just before the border. The bathroom was so spotless and modern that it would put many Canadian public bathrooms to shame.

In a few metres, we’ll not be in Ukraine any more. What a wonderful country it is.

We arrived at this border at 12:19. It is currently 2:15 and we’re still waiting. We’ve eaten cheese on bread as a lunch – leftovers from the fridge – and it was pretty tasty. We can see Poland. We can almost touch it. Now if only the cars would move.

Our wait at the border ended up being three hours and four minutes in total. When we finally got onto the highway, the first thing we noticed was that the highway was well-maintained. No potholes. And there were lots of road signs. Very well-organized and easy to get around. We drove to Sanok, admiring the scenery as we went. It looked just like Ukraine, but more prosperous and no litter. This is how I imagine Ukraine could look in ten years. It already looks so much nicer than 2001, but Poland is beautiful. I didn’t expect to like it. I had no expectations.

We checked in to an absolutely beautiful hotel in Sanok called Hotel Jagiellowksa which was on the main drag. Eugene asked a local for directions, and was told to go in the exact opposite of where the hotel was. We finally got there, drove through the very narrow opening to the parking lot and checked in. The room was lovely! Two double beds, hardwood floors, open and airy. A small but functional bathroom and the water pressure in the shower was so good it could practically take your skin off. There was a sofa and two ottoman chairs. Very clean, spacious airy, comfortable.

We walked up the hill to downtown and tried several bank machines for money but we were having the same problem that I had had in Lviv the day before. Eugene was able to get money out on his card so we were able to have dinner at a restaurant off the main square. We were able to find a machine on the way back that would give us money, so we paid him back. Whew, was getting worried about that!

Differences between Ukraine and Poland:

Beer is ubiquitous in Ukraine; ice cream and cake in Poland. The girls where stilettos and trashy clothes in Ukraine; in Poland they look more like us. Ukraine has potholes, trash, poor signage; Poland has the opposite. In both places, the houses look the same, although Poland has a larger proportion of prosperous ones. In Poland, apartment balconies and front steps are decorated with bright pots of flowers. Lots of flowers in Ukraine too, but in gardens.

It was our first early night in a long time. After supper, we had tea and cake at the hotel restaurant.

 

 

Sanok, Poland

If you ever go to Sanok, do stay at Hotel Jagiellonski. Natalia and I shared a beautiful room with hardwood floors and comfortable double beds, a huge airy window, a sofa and two ottoman chairs. The room was 160 zlotys a night, which worked out to $73, or less than $40 for each of us. Eugene’s room was 130 zlotys and it looked very nice too, although of course smaller. Breakfast was included, and it was huge and yummy. And they have free wireless internet.

After breakfast, we walked up the hill to the main part of town to get some maps from the tourist bureau and also to get more money from the bank machine that worked for our cards.

Our first stop was an outdoor folk museum. This part of Poland was Ukrainian until Operation Wisla after WWII, when all of the Ukrainians in the area were deported to the Soviet Union. The folk museum displayed traditional houses and churches from that earlier era. It was interesting to see and touch artifacts that we had just read about. For example, Natalia had heard about wooden cemetery markers. They had some here:

We were both struck by the beauty and elegance of the cemetery marker. Later, when we were in the museum gift shop, we noted several carved figures similar to the ones used in the markers.

Our next stop was a small village close to the Ukrainian-Polish border. We saw more of these carvings:
Something else that we noticed as we were driving through this rural area was ornate road markers every half kilometer or so. Natalia speculates that these are markers commemorating the end of serfdom from Austro-Hungarian times. I would be curious to find out more information about them. They’re beautiful:


We found it easy to navigate in rural Poland. Everything is well marked and many people speak English. Our next stop was Krakow, so we backtracked and drove through Sanok again and had an early supper at Hotel Jagiellowska and then continued on to Krakow.

We got into town quite late at night and the street we needed to take to get to our hotel was under construction. Hotel Wielopole is just a few steps away from the city centre of Krakow and so very convenient. It was the most expensive place on our entire trip, so Eugene had booked himself into a hostel to save us money. Our room was clean and comfortable, but tiny. We met Eugene the next day at the hotel for breakfast.

Krakow

We lucked out. Krakow was commemorating the 300th-plus anniversary of the Battle of Vienna. There was an open air market with all sorts of food and crafts, and there were people walking around wearing cardboard Viking-looking hats. We wandered around, taking in the sights and sounds.

A friend’s mother was born and raised in Krakow and lived on Josepha Street, in the old Jewish district, so Natalia and I trekked over there to take photos for her.

Eugene

If you ever want to do a trip like we did, I would highly recommend that you get in touch with Eugene. Here is a photo of him with his trusty Ford Freestyle:

Eugene has the patience of Job and he’s very knowledgeable re good hotels and restaurants and apartments, and places to see off the beaten track, especially in Crimea. You can reach him through this link.

Just before our flight, I asked Eugene if there was something he wanted us to bring from Canada, and he said maple syrup. Once we got here, I found out what he really would have liked is 5W20 motor oil. So if you connect with Eugene, be sure to pack motor oil for him!