РОДИНА (Family)

On Sunday, my parents and I had a rare experience of discovering relatives still living around the tiny village of Kudynivsky, outside L'viv in Ukraine. This is precisely what we came here for, and yet better than what we could've hoped for. When my great-grandfather Damian Kruck lived here, it was about 1890 - 1915, and he left for the U.S. knowing that war was approaching and conditions were probably terrible.  (my dad is pictured above-right)

When we drove down the dirt road off a highway, immediately an old little babushka came out to the street and tried greeting us, since there are rarely cars passing through.  My mom showed her a photocopy of our relative from a Massachusetts newspaper, with Russian description of his name and background, and she immediately ran inside to change her clothes so shold old walk us a few houses down, to the one "Kruk" in town.

There is one remaining Kruk in Kudynivsky, Eurgen (with the white hair, below), who embraced us lovingly, explained a few things through our friend and driver/translator Max, and showed us both where his parents and grandparents are buried in the town, showed us the church (which was just finishing services) and then he called up all of his children and nephews and nieces (in nearby Trenobil, maybe a half-hour away) to come over and have lunch with us.  They were incredibly friendly but even with a translator, we could barely exchange a few sentences.  Nonetheless, we exchanged addresses so we can send each other news and pictures.  The town itself was as rural as I imagined, but incredibly cute and begins at the end of a long several-miles long field of yellow mustard  flowers. This day was unbelievable.

the woman who helped us, below 

a typical house in the village

Eurgen's chickens with an old wooden horse and cart wagon (we asked how old it was, and he was like "only 15 years")

Mom trying to figure out our relations with Eurgen's daughters

Eurgen with two of his daughters and us, in front of the barn which is the oldest building on his property - they think this barn was there when my Grandfather and his Grandfather (either brothers or uncle and nephew) lived there, too
 

The village's beautiful little orthodox church

One of many decorative gravestones in the town cemetery (not one of our family's) - the curly spiral  seems to be distinctive in this area, we saw many fences with it as well.

LOVE L'VIV!

Dobre Ootra (good morning),

I'm at an internet cafe in L'viv, Ukraine and I can't tell you how much I love this romantic city.  But I have to admit, it's embarassing that I blew it -- before I left the U.S., one of my final tasks was to make a list of key words that I should write down both phonetically and in the Ukranian alphabet ahead of time.  HAD I DONE that, here's what I wish I knew how to say besides the few basic words that I do know (hello, OK, yes, no and thank you):

- Capuccino please

- One more capuccino, please

- Thank you very much

- That building is so beautiful

- That building also is so beautiful

- All of these buildings are incredibly beautiful

- Can you please divide that by 8? 

- (or) Can I borrow your calculator?

The currency has to be divided by 8 to get to a U.S. dollar equivalent, but it almost doesn't matter because my bus or tram ride costs 7 cents, my capuccino costs 75 cents, any lunch or dinner entree is about 3 dollars (therefore I always order two desserts) and souvenirs are about 4 to 10 dollars max. 

My parents and I took for granted we could get by (like in other European countries) with college students, waitresses, and hotel clerks that speak very good English but that was really selfish and naive of us.  Also my dad can speak a little Russian, and all Ukranians speak Russian, too, but it's just not the same language as Ukranian.  

We really lucked out that our front desk clerk speaks probably the best English in the entire city, and she is really welcoming of tourist questions and friendly conversation, so my mom chats with her about an hour or two a day.  As a trade off for being very close to all the sights in the old part of the city, however, our hot water has been off (unexpectedly, the hotel didn't know about it ahead of time) and only comes on for a half-hour each day -- IF that -- so we have to do this fire drill of lining up near the bathtub with clothes and soap in hand, on standby!  

We are off to Poland tomorrow and similarly didn't learn a word of Polish but I do have a Polish common words cheat-sheet printed out.

Here's some photo highlights of the trip so far.

The doors (and the architecture in general) in L'viv are very ornate combinations of iron, wood and stone.

We can't bring ourselves to buy any of the very fragile Pysanky (designed eggs), but they are absolutely incredible and also inexpensive here.

 The 4 statues on each corner of the main plaza are all garbed in Ukraine's football jerseys.

 Mary Poppins crossing!  : ) - a sign for the WC

 The below building is the Museum of History

 The main plaza, decked with outdoor cafe seating

 One of several major churches around the main plaza

My mom and I were cracking up at some of the literal translations on one menu but we really appreciate that they translated it.  This cafe had "Beer for the Ladies" on the menu where you could add cherry, apple, and other fruit syrups to the beer. I, personally, just loved the town's own beer, Lvivske, and wish they would export it!

My mom was fascinated by the many different groups of musicians playing Classical music or Folk music in front of different restaurants.

 The buildings get really pretty when the sun touches certain parts at dusk.

On the main pedestrian part of the city, all the benches are taken by old men playing intense chess, and there's usually a small crowd of old men hovering, watching what happens next.

A little girl in a Ukranian folk dress (they're usually red) and bucket hat to match : )

This is us at Viktoria Cafe last night, a place known for its streudel and desserts.  It was the ONE restaurant recommended to me ahead of time and it just happens to be across the street from where we're staying. I was the only one who ordered dinner. Mom had finished two pastries and Dad had a tart and a slab of cheesecake by the time we took this photo.

Lovely Italy and Switzerland!

Ah! Talk about a fresh breath of air. This was the view from the train right after I landed in the Zurich airport - I think the lake and town is Thun, on the way to the station where I changed, Spiez (which is so fun to say: shpeeze).

 This was our train ride up to our hotel in Murren.

View of the Alps from our bedroom - we could not believe it. A few minutes later we had cheese fondue for dinner, mmmmmm.

My mom loves to be matchy-matchy but this day we were laughing about the incidental fact that everything - everything! - matched. And it also just happened we were on our way to the light-brown / caramel-colored town of Siena which also happens to be her favorite crayola color (Burnt Sienna).

El Campo in Siena

walking to the top of the tower overlooking Siena

The duomo 

 and then off to the coast:

 At the trailhead of the Cinque Terre National Park (a 7 mile coastal hike between 5 towns)

 Locks for good luck that people leave on the trail.

 There were little red poppies everywhere in Italy which I'd never even seen before in the wild.

 eating at the top of the third town, Corniglia with cliff vineyards and the mare behind us:

 

A few more photos are coming when I get back home.

Don't miss our paragliding photos too!!

Success!

We just came off of the flight and hiked about 6 miles back into town, so I wanted to get a few pictures up quickly!  It doesn't even seem real yet.

Mom and I had to re-wiggle our schedule due to some bad rain and wind on Monday, but ended up going to Siena and Cinque Terre two days early which was gorgeous, and then came back for paragliding on the MOST glorious weather day I've almost ever seen.

The most surprising thing to both of us about the paragliding was there was almost no fear or fright to the "jump" off part, because you just run quickly and then are lifted into the air!  And the seat is so comfortable, you are just relaxed like you're on a hammock.  It didn't take much "guts" like most people imagine it does but was INCREDIBLE and I highly recommend our friends at Airtime Paragliding! (http://airtime-paragliding.ch)

I tucked my childhood quilt into my chest for protection!