Prior to my visit to Kyiv, I imagined 3 days in this beautiful city would be sufficient. It was not. With a limited travel itinerary for the Ukraine, I am happy I included Kyiv but sad to be leaving it. I need to return. Though smaller than London, Paris and Istanbul, the city of…
Saint Sophia’s Cathedral: As one looks towards this cathedral it’s outward beauty is clearly visible but its real beauty lay hidden in its scars. If walls could talk, these hold a novel filled with stories. I struggle to find words adequate enough to describe both the outward beauty of Saint Sophia’s Cathedral and the spiritual…
The highlight of my visit to Kyiv is Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra. After leaving the Park of Eternal Glory on the hillside bank of the Dnieper River, the shining golden domed monastery site, Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra. beckoned to us. Upon stepping through the gate, one could almost feel the quiet presence of all the saints that walked…
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…
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…
