Day 14 – To Kremenets

Today I got up pretty early having had a good night’s sleep, ready for the day’s adventures. After we cleaned up a bit, we had breakfast again, and again it was very good. I was still full from last night and so ate very little, a few tomatoes, some cheese, maybe a few other bits and bites, and of course some tea. Luba had made another wonderful cake or torte, but I just did not have any room. But it was good, as always, they are great hosts, Michail and Luba, as well as their daughters.

Eventually we packed up our stuff, took a few photos (to follow after I’m back), said our goodbyes with hugs and kisses, and then it was time to take off. Michail led us on the first part of our route which was basically cross-country, back to where we’d join the road we first came to Mala Luka on two days ago. So we said our good-byes again, with a bit of sorrow and a few tears. It really was a great time, so nice to find and meet family from so long ago and so far away. And so we set out for more adventures.

We wound our way through the beautiful Ukrainian countryside to the small city of Skalat (listed on my great-grandmother’s baptismal certificate as the central administrative district at that time). There we visited a rather nice castle. Of course I took a lot of pictures. The castle is not that big, but still bigger than my house. I’m sure in it’s day it was important, but now there is not much to it, and you can’t go inside. It’s really more of a fortification of sorts. There are signs that it’s being fixed up.

Next we were on to Ternopil, a large city of several hundred thousand, then largest in quite a ways. We went into Ternopil to see the center of the city, but it was not really anything that out of the ordinary. Still, it is a big city and there were many people about, busses, taxis, and some traffic. When we first got there, Wojtek spied a car wash, so we stopped there–the car was quite dirty and dusty from all the back road traveling we had done in the past few days, From Sataniv to Mala Luka and Faszczivka, and then today to somewhere near Grimaliv where we again had at least a paved road. So now we are in a clean car–they even cleaned the mats.

Eventually we headed out of Ternopil, to the north. Our next destination was a castle at Zbarazh. It was a pretty large castle and nicely done, many exhibit in it. I think it cost a whole 15 hrvinia to see it, under $2, and another 5 hrvinia for a photo pass (to take photos). I got my money’s worth out of that photo pass!

Then it was back in the car and on to Vishnievits where we saw yet another castle. This one had a nice park near it, but the castle itself was closed, so I could only see the outside. When I again have an internet connection I’ll be looking into the history of some of these places, as there is a lot of Polish history connected to them.

Finally we arrived at our destination for the day Kremenets, a town of about 20,000 people or so. High above the town there are the ruins of a Polish fortress from long ago. We will go see the ruins tomorrow, it was a long day. We found a hotel in Kremenets and it was so wonderful to have a shower again, and to shave and get all cleaned up–it’s the first thing I did here.

Later on we went out in search of lunch and found a small restaurant open not too far away. We had lunch there, a small cabbage salad that was good, and a cutlet with potatoes and some fresh vegetables, and a beer. It all hit the spot. Then we took off for a walk. We walked around the center of the city, but it was Sunday evening and not much was happening. At one point we came to a park and Filip played there for a bit. After a while we found another place to eat because Filip wanted some french fries. So he had some there, and we had a beer.

We were finally home to our hotel when we came upon something amazing, a real find. It was a Greek Orthodox Church and it was not only open, but there was a service going on in it. We stopped and watched and listened for a long time. It got some good video, not for the quality of the video, because I was trying to be discreet, but for the singing. It was amazing. Maybe 8 voices singing in old Slavonic, I’d guess. It was so wonderful, we stayed for quite a while just listening.

But eventually we returned to the hotel. We’ve been traveling a lot and me even longer, and are somewhat tired. Hopefully I’ll have Internet access again soon to look up some of the places we’ve been. But it’s been wonderful, for sure!

This entry was posted in 2011 Poland Trip, historic sites, history, Ukraine. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.