A Nice Little Getaway

After a semester and a half (or more!) of language school, we decided it was time to take our first formal vacation.  We wanted to go somewhere in western Ukraine, where we'd hear more "clean" Ukrainian (that isn't mixed with a lot of Russian).  We enjoyed visiting the city of Lviv during our team's annual conference last summer, so we added that to our list of possibilities.  We decided to go to a little town called Kolomia first, where we could visit the "Pysanka Museum," and then on to Lviv.  We took a plethora of pictures during our trip (yes, we did narrow the selection down A LOT!), so we'll tell you all about our vacation through our "picture journal!"

Stop #1--Days 1 & 2
Kolomia, Ukraine: Home of the "Pysanka Museum"

Settling in for the overnight train ride from Kiev to western Ukraine.  This was before we made our beds.

We stayed at "Hotel Pysanka."  We arrived mid-morning, showered, and went to visit the museum, which is next door to the hotel.

The entryway of the museum was full of photographs of men and women who paint the eggs, or pysanky (pronounced pee-san-kee).

Interesting "egg art" adorned the museum walls.

The details that go in to painting these eggs--REAL eggs!--is incredible!

This was Andy's favorite egg.  Of course, it depicts a deer hunter.  :)

A basket of beautiful pysanky (or decorated eggs) is a common Easter decoration.

A golden egg with the painting of an Orthodox church.  Other intricately-designed flower eggs are in the background.

These eggs were a little larger...maybe they were goose or duck eggs?

More egg art on the walls, as well as traditional embroidered cloths.

Of the thousands of eggs in the museum, we didn't see any two the same!

The Pysanka Museum actually looks like a big pysanka (singular, pronounced pee-san-ka)!

An Orthodox Church in Kolomia...in the process of being painted.

Another Orthodox Church.  It was pretty much empty except for a grandmother who appeared to be teaching her twin granddaughters how to worship the icons inside the church. 

We stopped for dessert at a little cafe!

We were in the small town of Kolomia for a little over 24 hours.  In that time, I think we covered the entire downtown (and some of the outskirts) two or three times!  Unfortunately for us, many of the people spoke Russian (not the Ukrainian we had hoped for) and were not very used to foreigners...and therefore were not incredibly friendly to us.  We took a lot of self-portraits.  :)

A statue of a fallen hero from World War II.  Notice the strong, muscular physique--a typical Soviet depiction.

A Catholic (we think) church...notice the structure is different than the onion-domed Orthodox churches.  We walked up right as the priest was locking the doors...so we didn't get to go in this one.

Not far from the Catholic church was an Orthodox church with onion domes.

We fooled the couple that took a picture of us...although they were speaking English to each other, they spoke Ukrainian to us because they apparently didn't pick up on the fact that we're not native Ukrainian speakers.  We felt very accomplished in this moment!

Statue of Myhailo (Michael) Hrushevsky-- prominent Ukrainian politician, historian, and academician--in a school courtyard. 

We ate lunch at a little pizza place called "Senor Pomidor," or "Mr. Tomato."  Andy liked the painting out front.  :)

Enjoying one of the large city parks and the beautiful fall colors!

Fall...picture perfect!

Here comes winter...

Stop #2--Days 3, 4, & 5
Lviv, Ukraine: "Ukraine's Cultural Capital"

We took the train to Lviv from Kolomia (about a 3 hour ride).  We checked in to the hotel around midnight, so we didn't notice the beautiful view until the next morning.  Our room overlooked this park!

Morning walk in the park...after sleeping in, of course!  :)

Tourist shots...the stone church is St. Andrew Church.

St. Andrew's Church doesn't look like much from the outside...

...but on the inside it's absolutely breathtaking!

Intricate details everywhere you look!

On to the Armory Museum, where you're greeted by this big bronze man.

"A knight in shining armor"...doesn't look very romantic to me!

We never knew that swords and other weapons were so detailed and intricate!

Thankful for the glass cases...

Andy found his new hunting tools...  :)

Carved wooden barrel pistols...three of hundreds!

No wonder the knights rode horses...their armor could weigh over 40 pounds!

This picture doesn't do the swords justice.  If Andy were standing closer, you could see that the tallest ones are about 10 feet!

Haha...the knight's chain mail (part that is worn under the metal pieces) looks kind of like a person creeping up behind me!

St. Eucharist Dominican Church

Inside the Dominican Church.  The detail and beauty in the old churches is amazing!

The bell tower of The Virgin Mary's Assumption Church

Lviv's famous "Market Square" in the center of town.  The famous Black Stone House is on the left and is now a historical museum.  There are many local legends as to how the stone turned black, but the most probable is the result of oxidation of the white lead coating over the centuries.

Our wanderings around the city lead us to several old churches!  This one is St. Peter and Paul's Jesuit Church.

A trip to Lviv is not complete without a visit to the Lviv Chocolate Factory!

"Snow" is best when it comes in the form of white chocolate!

Yes, if you couldn't guess, this painting is made out of milk, white, and dark chocolate!

A view of the Dominican Church from the Clock Tower in the center of town.

Overhead view of the Latin Church (from the back)

Market Square looks a lot different from this high up!

Over 400 steps, more than 200 feet high...this hike is not for those who are afraid of heights!  What a great view!

A cool shot of Market Square with the shadow of the Clock Tower

Ukrainians LOVE high heels...and several of them climbed to the top of the tower with weapons like these on their feet!  I'll stick to my tennis shoes, thank you very much!

Going down is a lot easier than going up.  The stairs in the tower are steep and narrow!

The weights and cables that make the clock work.  It is still a functioning clock, and we were actually at the top when it struck 11:00!

Next stop: the Historical Museum, inside that black stone building that you saw a picture of earlier.  The first room in the musuem was devoted to traditional Ukrainian clothing.

The embroidery designs and colors of an outfit have a long history of symbolism representing certain regions of Ukraine.  You could tell where a person was from by the way they dressed!

Beautiful traditional pottery and ceramics like these are common in Ukraine and other surrounding countries.

Trivia Question: What is this?  If you guessed a telegraph machine, you would be correct!

The Ukrainian flag with the coat of arms.

Andy's highlight of the museum: a really old wagon with a small, newly painted canon.  Interesting...

Old Polish money.  They must have had big wallets...these bills were huge!  (Lviv is located near the Ukraine-Poland border).

Live statue!

Taking a short break from walking...

Lviv is known for its beautiful theaters.  We thought we'd buy tickets for a show, so we found a children's theater online and then bought tickets the next day.  Our thinking was that the actors would be children and the language would be fairly easy to understand.  Plus, if we didn't understand, there would always be the beautiful architecture of the theater to admire.  Right?  Not so much.  This was the back alley of the theater, and also the most interesting part of the whole thing.  The theater was a little hole-in-the-wall.  But it makes for a fun story, nonetheless! 

Nor were the actors children...  We saw "The Little Prince" in Ukrainian.  We understood some, but it was hard to follow.  Luckily the show was only a little over an hour long!  (And now "The Little Prince" is on our reading list because we're curious)!

St. Andrew Church at night.  This was Cassie's favorite church.  Every time we went by, we stopped in to admire the marvelous beauty on the inside.

Night view of the Dominican Church dome and Assumption Church bell tower

We ate dinner on the roof (7th story) of a well-known local restaurant!

You can't see it very well, but on the roof of the restaurant is a statue of a chimney sweep.  He is holding his hat, which is hollow.  You can throw coins and try your luck at making it in the hat.  Our teacher said that the legend is: if you make it in the hat, you will return to Lviv again.  We didn't make it in the hat...  :(  Haha!

Every evening, the owner of the restaurant rings the bell and then the dragon (at the top) shoots fire out of its mouth.  Very interesting, and it certainly drew a big crowd!

The streets in Lviv are cobblestone and have not been paved.  It really adds to the architectural beauty of the city.

St. George Cathedral

St. George Cathedral is on a hill overlooking the city...great view!

We stopped by this cathedral on a Sunday morning when it was full, so we didn't get a good look inside.  Instead, we took some pictures of the outside.  The sky was beautiful that morning!

You might be wondering, "Why all the pictures of trees?"  Well, our area of Kiev is surrounded by a concrete jungle of grey, drab, Soviet high-rise buildings and not a lot of trees.  We tried to capture the beauty with our camera every chance we got!

Another little church on our self-guided "old churches" tour...St. Maria Snizhna Church.

St. Michael Church...this was our last stop on the church tour, but the city is full of many more churches and cathedrals!  Lviv does not have close ties to the Orthodox religion, which is the main religion of much of Ukraine.  Since Lviv is close to the western border of Ukraine, it was known as a cultural hub and was home to many cultures and religions.

Inside St. Michael Church

We stumbled across a war reenactment in Market Square.  We didn't gather any other details, but it was neat to watch!

We took a train tour around the Little Center of Lviv.  We opted for the English commentary...hence the headphones!

The Lviv Theater of Opera and Ballet as seen from our train tour.  We might try stopping here the next time we're in Lviv and forget about the children's theater.  :)

Our train!

Lviv was founded by King Daniel of Galicia and was named in honor of his son, Lev, which means "lion" in Russian and Ukrainian.  Lions, like this one at City Hall, can be found all over the city.

The Boims Family Chapel (built around 1610), which served as a burial place for rich city citizens.  The once-white stone carvings depict the sufferings of Christ.  (Note the orange sign on the door...we got there too late to take a look inside).

Jesus mourning in Gethsemane can be seen on the dome of the Boims Chapel.

We climbed up to High Castle Hill on our last night in Lviv.  You can see one of the church bell towers in the distance.

They DO have deer in Ukraine!  Haha...  :)  We saw this interesting statue outside a restaurant on the way to High Castle Hill.

Lviv at night (from High Castle Hill)

Our train left Lviv around 10:30 at night, so we spent the evening walking around the city.  We saw several street performers who were playing with fire!  The result on our camera looked really cool!