Ukraine (3)

Last weekend, Marta (flatmate), Oksana (another interpreter) and me went to 2 of the most interesting villages in the Carpathian region; Yaremcha and Kolomia.

We started with Yaremcha on Saturday. A one-way trip going to the village cost about 10 Hrivna, and it took about one and a half hour to reach there. Yaremcha is well known with its lush, scenic greenery with beautiful stream running down the hills around the area. There were numerous resorts that were filled with a lot tourists from various countries. Unfortunately, there were nothing much we could do other than walking up and down the road and upstream and downstream. They have quite a descent market selling souvenirs of the Ghussul (the Ukrainians coined them as the ‘People of the Mountains’). Wecame back to Ivano-Frankivsk and stopped by a restaurant for lunch, and I was recommended to try a traditional Ukrainian dish called ‘Bonushch’. It’s a porridge made of corn with mushrooms.

There might be some error that I have made in my earlier writings, i guess. Yaremcha does not have the highest peak in Ukraine. The highest peak is Mount Hoverla, which is also within the same region, and the university have arranged an excursion for me and my professor to go there one day, expenses fully-covered!

The three of us went to Kolomia on Sunday. Kolomia is pretty much like Taiping (Perak, Malaysia), a peaceful semi-village with friendly community. The area is well known for its Museum of Eggs. They produce a lot of finely-painted and decorated eggs every year, and the demand is highest during Easter. I didn’t buy any souvenirs because I don’t want my money to be spent on something that could have broken even before I get back to Cardiff!

The weather was extremely hot during the weekend. I guess it might even reached 30 degrees.

I may have made some mistake previously in eplaining about the faith of the Ukrainians. Actually, the 2 biggest factions of Christianity embraced by the Ukrainians are the Greek Catholics AND Orthodox sects. However, most of their celebrations follow the calendar of the Ortodox’s, for example, Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of January, not 25th December as what we usually know. There are a other differences between the 2 sects, but I may explain sometime later.

I’ve made more friends now. One of them is from Vietnam (he even invited me to play takraw the first day i met him!) and 2 from Turkmenistan. All boys. So far, I have yet to make friends with any Ukrainian boys. Zhung, the Vietnamese, invited me to play football this week with his friends, and I think this might be a good idea to make more friends.

I may also write about the history of Ukraine in my future post. It’s very interesting. We have the influence of the Slavic culture on one end, and the USSR on the other end, with Christianity mixed and blended in between!