Though numerous trains travel in every direction across the Ukraine, only one new, and very fast train travels directly from L’viv to Kyiv in the daytime, without stopping along the way. Desiring to see more of this area but discovering that driving on local roads marked only with occasional signs in Ukrainian was nearly impossible….
It was Saturday, my last full day in L’viv. I bemoaned the fact that I’d be on a train Sunday morning instead of enjoying one of the church services in L’viv. Earlier, the tour guide spoke of his attendance at a particular church service; the hotel reception person told of another. Many Ukrainians attend church services…
When choosing L’Viv to begin a quest to discover my ancestry in the Ukraine, I failed to comprehend the difficulty in traveling less than 100 km (approximately 62 miles) to the small town of Berezhany. On a map, it looked relatively close to L’viv and easy to drive to. I didn’t anticipate the lack of…
Less than 24 hours in L’viv and I’m beginning to understand what it really means to be Ukrainian. Though my family talked about the Czars, Cossacks, Revolutions and Russia stripping away their identity as a nation, I didn’t grow up in this environment. Listening to a few of its citizens, I heard sadness and distress…
Words cannot express the intensity of my feelings as I climbed into the van transporting us to Sabiha Gökçen (SAW)–an airport further south than the one we arrived in. The silent two hour drive through traffic to cross the Bosphorus bridge and head towards the Syrian border gave plenty of time to reflect upon the…
