All Things Ukrainian

 

The time between May 9th and June 14th was spent cramming as much Ukrainian culture into our last few weeks here as possible.  It started with a train ride to visit Natasha's parents in their village. We left early on a Saturday morning and arrived just in time to watch part of the Ukrainian Memorial Day service at a nearby monument.  It was a beautiful day weather-wise, so we spent a lot of time strolling through the downtown area before going back to the house for a late lunch/early dinner.  Natasha's mom and sister-in-law prepared a lovely table covered with more food than the 9 of us could eat in three days let alone one afternoon!  Everything was delicious, but the fellowship was absolutely the best part of the day.  It was certainly a "memorable" weekend for us.

 

 Arriving at the train station

 An old Russian Orthodox church in the village

 An old flour mill along the river

 

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 Great people!

 It was like going back in time.  This guy just happened to be going by the train station as we were leaving, so we hitched a ride for a minute to get a few pictures.

 

Castle Radomysl

Our school social committee organized a Saturday bus trip to visit this renovated castle about 100km west of Kiev.    

 Making paper the old-fashioned way

 Lunch at the castle: Salo, garlic cream, cabbage, and bread

After touring the inside and having lunch, we had time to walk around the grounds before it was time to leave.

Souvenirs

 A Dynamo (pronounced Dee na' mo) Game

"Football Club Dynamo Kiev" is a professional soccer team in Ukraine.  In my opinion, sports are always more fun to watch when you're in the stadium watching the game (and the other fans) live and in action.  It was a fun evening!  AND Dynamo won, 1 to nothing!

No worries, it's just the fans setting off fireworks in the stands...only in Ukraine...

 Vyshyvanka Day

On 21 May 2015, Ukrainians celebrated Vyshyvanka Day. This is a day when people in Ukraine wear Ukrainian traditional embroidered shirts, or vyshyvankas. Most Ukrainians today have at least one of these main elements of national wear, embroidered with standardized designs.

 

Dinner on the Dnieper River, Kiev

...with the Paugh Family

 

 Odessa

From the time I finally got myself geographically oriented on the location of Ukraine and its surrounding borders, I had been saying to Jay (and anyone else who would listen) that I wanted to go to the Black Sea.  I'm always looking for a reason to take a beach vacation!  When some of our colleagues told us about the great time they had during Spring Break at a resort in Odessa, Ukraine, we decided to take a weekend to check it out.



The Nemo Hotel and Resort on The Black Sea 

 

 The dolphin pool and therapy center was right next to the people pool

 From the rooftop it felt like we were on a cruise ship

 My dinner, fresh from the Black Sea

 Me, coming out of the sea after a very quick dip.  It was really cold and not very clean.

 

Overlooking the resort pool and the sea at dusk

The Odessa Airport (yes, that's the whole thing)



A Weekend in Poland

Auschwitz - Friday May 1, 2015 

It's not the kind place most people would choose to spend their birthday weekend, but Krakow, Poland is where Jay wanted to go for his. We had an extra day off during the first weekend in May because of Ukrainian Labor Day, so it was the best time for us to go. Actually, Krakow is a beautiful city and the drive through the Polish countryside was lovely.  Unfortunately, it's just the history that surrounds this part of Poland which makes it feel, in part, like a sad place.

The Auschwitz Concentration Camp

 

The entrance to the Auschwitz

An artistic replica of the prisoners in striped uniforms (pajamas)

The fences around the perimeter of Auschwitz

 

The Birkenau Camp

It was a rainy day, which seemed very fitting for this sort of tour, yet Nature provided a lush, green backdrop, dotted with colorful spring flowers, to an otherwise grim and sorrowful landscape littered with the remnants of what happened here.

After leaving Auschwitz, we travelled to one of Poland's most visited and most famous attractions, The Wieliczka Salt Mines.

 

On the way, we passed this monument dedicated to the Jewish prisoners who were buried on this mound.  The memorial is called Torn-Out Hearts "

"Designed by Witold Cęckiewicz and unveiled in 1964 on the site of Płaszów's second mass execution pit, this monolithic memorial depicts five figures (representing the five countries of Płaszów's victims) with heads bent under the weight of the massive stone block from which they're carved and a horizontal crack across their chests, symbolising their abruptly ended lives. The large Polish inscription across the back of the monument reads, 'To the memory of the martyrs murdered by the Nazi perpetrators of genocide in the years 1943-45'." (from In Your Pocket Essential City Guides)

 

The mine is so deep and the pockets of salt which have been mined are so massive that all kinds of underground rooms, churches, restaurants, and even a hotel and spa have been created in the spaces.

Amazing!

The mine is a World Heritage site



A dining room for special events

Old Town Krakow- Saturday May 2-3, 2015

The rest of the weekend was spent in Krakow, mostly in and around Old Town Square, which was where our hotel was located.

 



 Hotel Starry

 Our hotel had an underground pool and spa.  Jay was treated to a massage for his birthday.

 The entrance to a flower shop

 A Wedding Horse and Carriage

 A cute little café tucked away between the old buildings

 Our school director and his wife were also in Krakow for the weekend, so we met later for dinner.  The guys ordered steak which came sizzling on a hot stone so they had to wear bibs!

 I had wild boar filet with mashed cauliflower, spinach, and pumpkin puree.  It was perfect. 

 A picture of former Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, signing the guestbook at the restaurant.

 The moon over Krakow

We ended the evening with our own horse and carriage ride.

We  had to get up early on Sunday morning to fly from Krakow to Warsaw, where we made our connecting flight back to Kiev.  It was a memorable weekend.