Category: Uncategorized

Yalta

We drove to Yalta Sunday night, stopping on the way for various sights, including a cemetery for German WWII soldiers that was funded by Germans. The apartment we’re staying in here is amazing. Absolutely spotless and three bedrooms. And a working shower.

On Monday morning, Eugene cooked us a breakfast of ham, eggs, bread, apple juice and coffee and then we walked along the boulevard of Yalta. It was the first day of school and so the kids were all dressed up in black and white outfits which is traditional. Some were in sparkly outfits and little boys were in suits. All were variations of the same thing. The girls wore giant white organza bows in their hair.

Driving in Yalta is quite something. Narrow streets and people having to back out as others go forward. We went to the Massandra Winery for a tasting and I bought a port from 1944 and also Tsar Nicholas’ favourite wine.

From there we drove towards Koktobel, through the mountains – twisty turny and amazingly beautiful. We stopped for soup along the way. I had kvas soup which was interesting. Natalia thought it tasted like coca cola. We continued along the twisty road with breathtaking scenery.

Before we got to Sudak, Eugene turned off towards a beach area and we parked in front of a restaurant owned by a friend of his who is a Tatar. We had Turkish coffee

and then went on the most amazing hike, which started along the beach – which is tarry coloured sand and lots of round smooth stones – and continued up the rocks. It was quite a climb but not as difficult as yesterday’s. We saw spectacular views.

When we came down, we had more coffee and paklava – which was quite different than any I’ve had before. It was crispy and sweet but not cloyingly so.

We continued on the winding road to Sudak and visited the Genovese fortress and walked up to the top.

It was interesting to see the scale of the fortress and to get a sense of what it would be like to live in it. We also found the first bank machine and I successfully withdrew hryvny.

We continued our drive to Koktobel and checked in to the first hotel of our stay. It had a great bathroom and lots of hot water and there was even a blow dryer in our bedroom.

We talked along the boulevard in Koktabel and it was like being in Port Dover. All sorts of souvenirs, Ukrainian tourists, music, kitchy things to do. We went to a quiet restaurant where jazz was playing and had a dinner that consisted mostly of meat but also a dessert that they called bisquick but tasted like trifle, and a bottle of Eugene’s favourite wine. The service was slow but the food was good when it finally came, albeit a bit heavy on the meat. The wine was nice too. The jazz musicians were quite entertaining and they even dedicated a song to us.

 

 

Koktabel

This morning, Eugene greeted us with cups of Turkish coffee and he had pre-ordered breakfast, which turned out to be blini, cheese pancakes, salami on bread, and a tomato salad – and more coffee. Very filling and delicious. We walked down the Koktabel boulevard to the beach – large round stones that took good balance to walk on – and went swimming in the Black Sea.

Then we had showers, packed, and went to Feodosia and found where the slave market would have been in 1500. It looked similar to the Genovese fortress.

 

Our next order of business was to find another “hole in the wall” — aka bank machine. We visited one that didn’t work and another that wouldn’t accept our cards and finally a third that worked.

We drove to Stary Crim and visited the oldest surviving mosque which would have been from about 1299.

Then we visited a Tatar museum and had a lovely couple of hours with a woman who taught at the Tatar school and ran the museum as well. Her enthusiasm for her nationality shone through her eyes. It was a joy to see. Natalia and I both bought prints from her and then we returned and gave her some Canadian souvenirs.

Drove to Simferpol, but stopped along the way at a restaurant on the way. I had a soup called salynia which had a savory/spicy broth and small squares of meats. Yummy. Then had rabbit stew. Again, yummy. There was a dog and cat that went along with the restaurant and begged for food, but the dog was so picky he wouldn’t eat bread. Felt sorry for it because it had a ripped nose and seemed feverish. Fed it a bit.

Just before Simferpol, Eugene took us to a memorial where Nazis had killed thousands of Jews in 1941. There had been a lot of vandalism during Soviet times but the memorial went up after that and the graves were protected underground with cement. It was a moving experience. So much sadness. So much suffering.

He took us to an amazing hotel. Cheap – 300 hryvny – and so clean with a superb bathroom!

Vinnitstya

We started out early Wed morning from Simferpole. Eugene had the hotel lady bring us up a light (bizarre) breakfast at 7am so we’d be awake and ready for 8. The breakfast was these little packaged croissants called 7 days, plus instant black cofffee.

We got on the road and drove 12 and a half hours through to Vinnitsya. Along the way, we stopped at gas stations and for lunch but it was an extremely long day.

It was neat to see the way the countryside and the houses kept on transforming. We saw lots of harvested sunflower and lots of burning fields. This is a way for them to get rid of weeds in a field after harvest. It was really hard on our eyes and sinuses.

The Hotel in Vinnitzya was lovely and by the time we pulled in it was late – something like 10pm. We were starving and had supper in the hotel restaurant – perch and potatoes fried in garlic. It was tasty but greasy and I guess it was just too much too late and perhaps I had a virus because I couldn’t sleep all night because of an upset stomach. After throwing up three times I felt much better but in the morning I was exhausted and weak.
 

Hitler’s bunker

We drove to Hitler’s secret bunker just outside of Vinnitstya. Such a beautiful and tragic place. Fourteen thousand Ukrainian POWs and some German solders built it and then they were all shot. It was an overwhelmingly emotional experience to walk through the forest.

 

We drove to Kaminets Podilsky and had lunch there and then walked around the fortress and the churches.

We drove to Chernivtsi – and this was very interesting. The houses once we got into Bukovyina were entirely different than the Podilsky houses. Lots of beautiful and intricate metal work and the houses are BIG. Chernivtsi is a confusing city and it was quite the challenge for Eugene to find the hotel even though it was supposed to be on the main street. He ended up getting a taxi driver to lead us to it. Hotel Cheremosh. This is the oldest hotel we’ve been in. Looks Soviet and the rooms bathrooms are old looking but downstairs is all redone and there was a working ATM. Natalia was feeling the effects of the virus I’d had the day before so we went to a restaurant called Cafe Reflection because it looked like they had ungreasy food. We all had soup and bread and tea. That was enough. Oh yeah, when we were in Kaminets Podilsky, the place were we had lunch had a stunning view. It was right on a cliff.

I had rice and tea Didn’t want to risk anything more.

And now to bed. I’m hoping for a good rest. Tomorrow we drive to Gido’s village.

Getting out of the city was challenging. No signs, and the ones that were there were the truck signs. Cobblestones make for really rough driving and all of the streets in the city are cobblestone. Asing a taksi driver is the best way to find anything and they are so amzingly friendly. Last night when we came in, one of them led us with his car to our hotel through twisty windy streets.

Gido’s village

This morning, Eugene asked one of the taxi drivers for some help, he gave the directions, and then a few minutes later, he caught up with us and directed us away from a turn we were about to make, calling out the window, “If there are signs to Ternopil, do not turn.”

We got gas, which was not as easy as it sounds. The first pump had no gas and we had to get into another lineup. The gas station was selling coca cola and since Natalia now has the bug I had yesterday, we bought cokes. They keep the refrigerator locked until you pay and then the open it remotely.

Once we got out of Chernivtsi we had good roads and traffic for all of a kilometer or two and then we came to almost a standstill because there was a group of cyclists with a medic behind and police in front and traffic couldn’t pass. One van bumped a couple of the cyclists and knocked one down. We were finally able to pass and we went through Kitzman and then finally saw the sign to Verychanka.

What a beautiful village. When you first turn the corner, there are lush green trees and then they open up to a meadow and a pond.

A bit further up, you begin to see houses. They’re substantial houses, made of pebbled plaster with decorative edges.

Every house had a large fenced in garden lush with flowers pumpkins vegetables. Lots of pet dogs, two churches and one store that I saw. We walked down a street and took photos and then I took a photo of an old woman who lived across the road from the Orthodox church. She scolded me at first but then Natalia told her who I was and why we were here and she became quite animated. Invited us in to her yard and Natalia took a photo of us together.

 

Her daughter came out and was chatty. They have no place to work. They live off what they can grow. Her cell phone rang as we were having this conversation. It was the priest’s wife, asking Valya who she was talking to. She must have been watching from the window. When the priest’s wife found out who we were and what we were looking for, she sent her husband out to greet us. The priest told us that he would be able to help us. The church records go back 500 years and he would be able to look up details of marriage, baptisms, and funerals. The city hall has archives. The priest showed us the new Orthodox church that had been built eight years ago and then he went back and got the key for the old church, which was built in 1794. My grandfather would have been baptized in this church.

He let us in and we took photos.

He gave me an icon (plastic) from the church and some prayer missals. He took down my name and email address and said he would look for info on my father’s family and email me back. We drove down to the end of the village and there was a memorial to the people from the village who had died in WWII. There were four Fesiuks. I was thinking it was Feschuk, but it was Fesiuk. There was a Gregory Fesiuk. Also an Onifry and two Vasyls — cousins? At the end of the road was an old cemetery, and a new one. Could have spent a whole day here, but then again, I could have spent a whole day in any of these places. So much to see. What a beautiful beautiful country.

Now we’re on our way to the Carpathian Mountains. Kolomia is first. At lunch, at a restaurant called Yaremche, I had some brynza, a kind of cheese my father has been trying to get at home for ages. It was quite tasty. Sharp yet mild, sort of like crumbly cheese curds.

 

 

after Gido’s village

We were going to drive all the way to Mucachevo today, but we left Verychanka late – sometime in the early afternoon. We didn’t get to the mountains til around 2, lunch was around 3, and we stopped at a big craft market at 6. Natalia was still not feeling well, and Mukachevo was still 200 or so kilometres away. Eugene had a Plan B. He knew a small hotel called Tisa hotel, in Rakiv, which was just 40k away, and it would mean that we slept in the Carpathians. So we went with plan B. The hotel was four storeys and was old Sovet style, but a single floor had been bought and renovated by someone else and rooms were being rented out. Really cheap – 130 hryvy per room, so about $60 for 3 people. Rooms were clean and comfortable and both Natalia and I slept well. Natalia didn’t feel well enough to go for dinner, so Eugene and I did. I had borsch and salad and then popped in to an internet cafe to do email speedier than in the car on Eugene’s laptop. It cost 2 hryvny for 30 minutes of internet.

 

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: