L'viv

I began with a week in L'viv, which I reached on the new "express" train. There are true expresses that run from Kyiv to Odessa and Kharkiv, zooming along on new tracks at rapid rates of speed.  This train, however, rattled along on the old tracks, albeit with fewer stops, and was only an hour or two faster than the night train, and I was awake the entire time.  Not just awake, but crammed into a row with a family of four, and with a flat screen TV hanging just above my head and shrieking loudly in Russian the entire way to L'viv1.  I did not consider it an improvement in the least, although I did get glimpses of the countryside through the windows along the way.

Once in L'viv, I spent time family and my friends (from my mom's side).  I stayed with my kumy2 Myrosia and Ruslan Zamoysky, sharing a room with 8 year old Maksym.  Daryna, 14, my goddaughter, whose bed I was occupying, slept on the couch in the hall.  It was pretty low key, since school had started, so the children

were tied up all day long.  Both Maksym and Daryna attend the English school, so I helped them with their English studies, reviewing irregular verbs with Daryna, discussing English colloquialisms, and teaching both of them how to correctly pronounce English "r" "w" and "h". We also feasted on pizza on a regular basis – home made pizza, which Daryna makes quite well.  And without mayonnaise3!

Myrosia and I galavanted about town during the day, visiting the old city and stopping into churches, museums4, and book stores.  The name of L'viv comes from "Lev," which was the name of the son of the founder of the city, King Danylo Halytskiy. "Lev" also means lion in Ukrainian, and the city is adorned with thousands of lions – statues, door knockers, engravings, fountains, bas reliefs.  One of the smaller museums had an exhibit on the subject, with displays of photos of the lions, and in the main square were a

large number of new lions, which had been painted and decorated by various organizations.  There was a coffee lion, a fiery lion, a tiger lion, a mystical eastern lion, a chocolate lion, a folkloric lion, a football lion, and many, many others.

L'viv is lovely city to wander about in.  There are all sorts of odd alleyways and passageways, old courtyards and unexpectedly gorgeous old buildings.  There are lovely Viennese coffee and pastry shops.  And there is the open air crafts market, and handcraft shops. I can no longer import Ukrainian pysanky into the States5, but can still collect variations on the pysanka – decorated eggs of wood, lacquer or ceramic with beadwork and paint6.  And I can still buy lovely embroideries for my mother and aunts (and did). 

Knyazhe

I spent a couple of days in Kniazhe, my mother's village.  Things hadn't changed much in the last year, except for the Russians jacking up the price of natural gas yet again. My aunt Zoya had gotten a new gas heater for her house, which would allow her to affordably heat only a couple selected rooms, instead of the whole big house.  Telephone service was still sporadic at best, although anyone who could afford it now carried a mobile phone and didn't bother with land lines. The cat had two new kittens, there was a new cow, and Rud'ko, our trustworthy guard dog, was still in good form.  Nadia, my mom's cousin who lived next door, had sold her house, and was moving to Sokal', the nearby big town.

We hung out, visited, ate drank, and relaxed.  It rained and stormed.  We caught up on family news.  Nothing really exciting, but that's what you do when you go home.

Sokal'

is the administrative center for the region which includes Kniazhe, has an interesting museum (run by a distant relative), and is in a region that produces distinctive embroidery and pysanky.  But we stopped in to visit with family.  Ruslan's brother's wife is from Sokal', and Ihor and Elena were back from Poland and staying there with her mother. We stopped to visit with them and their two+ year old daughter, Yustina7, who is quite sweet and very active.  Ihor has been doing art restoration in Poland, and was back between jobs.  He is a brilliant painter, and many of the painting s in my house are his work.  Sadly, he doesn't have time to paint any more......

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Main UKRAINE Page

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1. 1.En route entertainment is not well thought out in Ukraine. I remember flying business class on Air Ukraine many yeas ago, and the in flight entertainment was a black and white TV set on a table in the front of the cabin on which the crew played videotapes of old Russian movies.  Ukrainian trains of the traditional sort, with cabins, have mandatory radio service, often patriotic sounding music.  Luckily, each cabin comes with a volume control which can be set to off.
   On this train, though, since there were no speakers in the train, the volume of the TV itself was cranked up very high so that the people in the middle of the train could hear as well.  And the passengers had no input as to volume except by complaining loudly to the "stewardess."  This is why I carry an iPod with me.
   

2. 2.A "kum" is a special Ukrainian relationship.  Two people are kumy (plural) if one of them is the godparent of the child of the other.  You only pick special friends as godparents; often people are closer to their kumy than their blood relatives, as they have chosen the former and are stuck with the latter.
   

3. 3.Ukrainians love mayonnaise.  It, like ketchup, comes in many flavors and varieties at the grocery store. They love to put mayonnaise on just about everything, particularly vegetables and hors d'oeuvres.  I still shudder to recall the time we ordered a pizza locally and it came adorned with large scribbles of mayonnaise!
   

4. 4.Myrosia and I visit the ethnographic museum annually, as it is one of my favorites,  I love looking at the costumes, the embroideries, the pysanky, and the household interiors.  The "tool" section is also interesting, with all sorts of household and farming implements.  There are usually special exhibits on – this year we crashed a USAID reception as we headed upstairs to view an exhibit of icons collected by an Australian priest, and a room full of what could most charitably be called sofa paintings.  Last year there had been a collection of pipes (for smoking), and the opening of the clock galleries. On the main floor there was also an exhibit of some really beautiful contemporary embroideries, hung on the pillars of the main gallery.
   

5. 5.Since Ukraine had an outbreak of bird flu two years ago, it has been illegal to bring eggs, even emptied ones, into the USA from there.  I still see them for sale on websites, so there must be ways of getting them in, but I've not been able to find any information on the USDA or US Customs web sites.
   

6. 6.While I was in L'viv I also had a chance to meet up with Svitlana, a Ukrainian-Canadian woman with whom I have been collaborating on a book about the various forms of pysanky that Ukrainians create.  She was visiting family in Ivano-Frankivsk and collecting more material. Svitlana is putting together a lovely coffee table type book, and I am providing many of the photos, and all of the English text.  Whether we ever get published is another matter.........
   

7. 7.She also has cerebral palsy, and is undergoing all sort of therapies to strengthen her legs and improve her motor skills.  She had surgery last year to correct her hydrocephalus, and seems to be doing very well, although not yet walking as such.