Introduction
Day 1 - San Francisco to Prague
Day 2 - Kyiv from the air
Day 2 - Boryspil International Airport
Day 2 - First Views Of Kyiv
Day 3 - Guided Tour of Kyiv
Day 3 - Kyiv - On our own
Day 3 - Night train from Kyiv to L'viv
Day 4 - L'viv with Father Ken
Day 5 - Radekhiv
Day 5 - Vytkiv
Day 6 - Trip to Kolomyia
Day 6 - Halych
Day 6 - Ivano-Frankivs'k
Day 7 - Bazaar at Kosiv
Day 7 - Between Kosiv and Kolomyia
Day 7 - Kolomyia
Day 8 - Zvenyhorod
Day 8 - Back in L'viv
Day 9 - L'viv with Orest and Vitali
Day 10 - L'viv - Morning walk with Dad
Day 10 - L'viv on my own
Day 11 - L'viv with Dad
Day 11 - Night train to Budapest
Day 12 - Budapest
Day 13 - Budapest
Day 13 - Szentendre
Day 14 - Homeward bound

TRIP TO UKRAINE
September 19 - October 2, 1999

DAY 6 - HALYCH - Галич

Friday, September 24, 1999

When I asked Dad about some interesting-looking, castle-like ruins on a hilltop to one side, he recognized them as something he had toured on a prior visit, and asked Ivan to turn off into the town of Halych. Then he asked a woman on the street how we could reach the ruins, and she led us partway, to some steps that led up the hillside. We told Ivan to wait, and headed up.

OSHA would have hated this climb. The trail came and went, and was totally unmarked. Lots of loose gravel and treacherous drops. Maybe we were using the back way. Eventually we reached the top, and were rewarded with the ruins I had seen from below, and a really great view of the area, but no clue what it was all about - Dad didn't remember the details, and there were no plaques or brochures - indeed, aside from a caretaker, we were alone! We climbed around and enjoyed the magnificent views.

I was able to find a useful Internet reference, as follows:

"Halych - The area where the old (12th century) capital of Prince Danylo Ghalytskiy, the founder of Lviv, was located. There are ruins of the castle, a couple of churches and chapels of 14th-16th centuries."

So this is really a very important historical site.

View of modern Halych from ruins on hill above the city. River = Dnister.

Ruins of ancient fort/castle on hills above Halych.

We walked back down and I took a few quick photos of the newly-rebuilt city center, with statue of "Prince Danylo Ghalytskiy, the founder of Lviv", so I guess that internet site was on the right track. Also, apparently the name "Halych" is the root of the name "Galicia", which is what the Poles called Western Ukraine.

Just south of Halych, we came upon an open-air museum. Ivan was starting to get the hang of this (or maybe this was just the first thing we'd passed that he thought worth seeing), and pulled over as soon as I expressed an interest.

It turned out to be an historical-cultural museum, quite minimal at present, just a few buildings, reconstructions of houses of the area from about 150 years ago. This sort of museum/park is popular throughout Ukraine, apparently - I read about a huge one near Kyiv, and visited a large one (100 houses or so) right in L'viv. There was a guide on site who welcomed us enthusiastically and insisted we let her give us the grand tour.

The white cottage would have been in the area near Halych, while the log structure, fortress-like to protect against bandits, was from the area farther south, into the Carpathians, the area of the Hutsuls.

What struck me was not how they differed from one another, but how much the basic design of most of the houses (here and in the park in L'viv) was like the log cabin on Dad's father's farm near Hafford, with a hallway in the middle dividing two living areas on either side.

The guide was quite irate that I did not know Ukrainian, and seemed to hold Dad responsible. But once she got that lecture off her chest, she insisted on Dad's translating everything for me, and stopped after every few sentences so he could do it. If only everyone else on the trip had been more like her!

Just outside the park, another war monument - a sword stuck into the ground. I haven't a clue what it was about, but it's not big enough to be a Soviet creation.