Saturday, June 30, 2007
Viewing the Past
Three days of vacation—what does one do? If you want to see the country, visit places of historical and general interest, you do what we did. We took our interesting and knowledgeable friend Yuliya with us. She was a wonderful tour guide and found some great, obscure places for us to explore. On a lovely Wednesday morning in June, we headed southwest from our home to Kamianets-Podilsky, close to 400 kilometers away. The trip ended up taking about 10 hours because of many interesting side trips.For some reason my favorite place was the first one we visited. It was just ruins of a beautiful home, probably a palace of some sort. The place—Denyshi. I am including several pictures of it here.
Our next stop was at a Catholic Church in Lyubar—quite
old but not really very interesting. Some of these places were very hard to find. But I did take a couple of pictures I really liked of a horse drawn cart loaded with cargo for a local Mom and Pop grocery store. A colt ran along the mother horse. It was so cute. The other is of a bicycle. We first saw a lady riding it but on our way out of town, I saw it leaning against a fence.
old but not really very interesting. Some of these places were very hard to find. But I did take a couple of pictures I really liked of a horse drawn cart loaded with cargo for a local Mom and Pop grocery store. A colt ran along the mother horse. It was so cute. The other is of a bicycle. We first saw a lady riding it but on our way out of town, I saw it leaning against a fence.
Lunch in Samchyky was on the grounds of some kind of agricultural foundation. The building was very old and beautiful. We lunched on cheese, bread, chicken and tomatoes—a real picnic. (Of course food is always fascinating for me.)The last side trip on our way southwest was to Starokostyantyniv to an old fortress 
or castle with a church at one end. It was on the end of a causeway that we walked out to get to it. A thunder and lightning storm raced us back to the car. We won. 
or castle with a church at one end. It was on the end of a causeway that we walked out to get to it. A thunder and lightning storm raced us back to the car. We won. 
During this stop we found a tower--part of an old church--on the property of an Orthodox church. The young priest told us to look for icons that had mysteriously appeared on the wall. A boy working on the property showed them to us. Yes, we could see two faces but what they looked like to us were faces from a previous picture painted on the wall at some time in the past. You can decide that for yourselves.We stayed in what we would call a B & B in America but without the Breakfast. It was very clean and we had two rooms on the upper level, the third room housed the owner's granddaughters. I believe we had their usual rooms. We had a nice bathroom with a shower on our floor. It was very clean and only cost us $12.00 each a night. Actually, it was much nicer than some of the hotels we have stayed at in this country.
Because I want to do a thorough job telling about the castles in Kamianets and Khotyn, I will continue this in a week after our return from Uhzgorod. So good-bye until then.
