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 8 - BACK IN L'VIV
Dinner with friends; A Night at the Opera

Sunday, September 26, 1999

Back in L'viv, Orest invited us to visit him and his family in their home. Accepting hospitality from the people we visited was at times problematic. It would be rude to refuse, but we felt we might be inflicting a hardship on them by accepting. I knew from things Vitali had told me, for instance, that Orest, as a teacher, made only $50 a month, and the State was at that time six months behind on paying his wages.

We ate again, of course. Vitali was the cook, and served us the best meal of the trip, with all the traditional Ukrainian dishes, perfectly prepared. His pyrohy (boiled dumplings) and holubtsi (cabbage rolls) were especially good (and are my favorites).

Orest, son Vitali, Orest's wife and daughter.

Orest and Vitali show me the car Orest won in a lottery 20 years ago - it no longer runs.

Back yards. This scene reminded me of Germany, and seemed very familiar and comfortable, unlike so much of the trip.

Orest's mother lives with them - her maiden name was Sokil - she is my uncle Onufry's niece, but too young to remember him (she is 75, born in 1924 - Onufry left in 1919).

A Night at the Opera

I forget just when, but somewhere along the way Dad and I had decided to attend the opera. We had tickets for the performance that evening, so left Orest and his family in time to return to our hotel and freshen up, then get to the Opera House.

Cameras and the opera don't mix, so I left my camera at the hotel. Too bad, as I could at least have photographed the interior of the L'viv Opera House, which is fantastic. As was the performance, of Madame Butterfly, in Ukrainian. I had just seen it in San Francisco a few months before, and while the earlier one was more impressive for the staging and world-class singing, this one was equally moving, and no less professional. We had front-row center seats, as well, which would have cost a fortune back home. Here we paid $5 each.

Interior of L'viv Opera House
More photos of the Opera House

Below, links to photos on the Infoukes web site.