Lyana’s Trip to Ukraine

No matter what kind of passport I carry in my purse, I will always stay Ukrainian in my heart (cannot truly say I will be Ukrainian in my mind because I do think in English).

A couple of weeks ago, I took a quick trip to Ukraine because of emergency circumstances. I was so happy to see my family! Probably more happy than ever before…Maybe living so far away from any kind of home made me miss my beloved Ukrainian extended family very much.

I was able to visit three places:

1. Dubno—in Rivne region. A town of about 40,000 where I was born. The actual hospital where I was born looked like a barn, no exaggeration. Now it’s a mental institution. Everything in Dubno looked so much smaller from what I remember—it’s a well known phenomenon called in Russian “kogda derevia bili bolshimi”-“when the trees used to be big”.

2. Lviv-in far Western Ukraine. My REAL Ukrainian city of Leo—the place where I lived from 3 years old till I went to UT to be a foreign exchange city. This time, I was able to see the city with the eyes of a tourist. I couldn’t believe how much it has changed even in the last 3 years. The city is preparing for EURO 2012-soccer championship that Ukraine is co-hosting with Poland. My city was revamped, especially the downtown part. Although the suburbs and poor areas still look the same…

3. Kyyiv-the capital. I flew in to Kyyiv, spent the night and left for Dubno. On the way back, I was able to spend half a day in Kyyiv, just looking around while riding in the car. Also a very beautiful, renovated city. Most of my extended family lives there. I wasn’t able to take many pictures of the city itself, unfortunately. Hopefully—next time.

Katia (my cousin) and I posing in front of the official Dubno emblem—this old fortress wall.

Right across the street, you can see this—A Music College. The reason it’s special to my whole family is because my grandpa, Vasyl Hornostai, used to be its director for many years. It definitely doesn’t look like it, but this establishment is quite famous in Western Ukraine. We used to go in there when we were little, feeling so privileged since our grandpa was in charge:)

This is the House of Culture, I believe—all decorated with Ukrainian flags, of course. You’d never guess that it used to be the Palace of Soviet Pioneers, a place where kids who were Pioneers (and most everyone was) could come and participate in different clubs, such as choir, arts, etc.

This is the apartment building where my dad used to live when he first met my mom. My grandma, his brother and family still live here.  Since my other grandma’s apartment building was across the street, we, as kids, used to run back and forward dozens times a day, just visiting and eating sweets:)

And this is my other grandma’s (my mom’s mom) former apartment building—the place where I lived when I was a baby-baby, on the third floor, end unit with that white balcony:) I know, they all look the same.

And this is some of my mom’s family—my aunt Halia, my sister Lyena, my mom, my cousin Katia and my uncle Sasha. We are standing in front of the entrance to the apartment building where I spent at least a month every summer.

In that spot, we spent hundreds of hours playing….and being chastised by other “babushkas” for being too loud or bouncing the ball too much.

And of course, we had to take a picture of the garage that used to belong to my grandpa. It was a very prestigious thing to own a garage back in the day.

And that’s me, “stealing” the cherries from the cherry trees in the backyard. I think they do belong to someone, but as kids, we used to pick them all the time.

I will never forget this place—"sadochok” or daycare. It was a few steps away from my grandma’s place, so I think we were 2 when we walked there on our own with my oldest cousin (who was 4 at the time) “supervising”. Do you like the chicken with the golden egg? My kids know that folk tale very well:)

The day after we arrived to Lviv, my sister had her second part of graduation celebrations (yes, high school graduates had multiple days of celebration). So she went to the part where at the Dominican Cathedral, their graduating class was blessed with good future, so to speak. A couple of pictures of her for you:

And here are some more photos for you from my architectural Lviv:

   

   

The City Hall is in the background.

People live there, and on the first floor is a cozy cafe.

A picture of the policemen for you:) And Andriy, my cousin’s husband. I was pretending to take a picture of him and not the policemen:)

  What’s amazing is that all these beautiful buildings are just within walking distance from each other. And there many-many others through out the city.

Antique book market.

 

This is what the houses look like in most parts of Lviv.

Tramvai—we still use these trams for public transportation.

 

And then I found this:

      

Sorry, my “W” got cut off. Apparently there is a chain of “Watsons” stores in Ukraine:) Unfortunately, my mom doesn’t get a discount because her daughters married name is Watson (yes, she did inquire about that-hahaha).

I know this blog post is not about Japan at all. See? Now you get educated in how things are in Eastern Europe too: ) We are so multi-cultural!

Hope you enjoyed a short journey through the streets of my native land:)

Good night,

Lyana