Today Grandpa and I began our journey back in time to where Papa Chris was born and spent the first few years of his life before immigrating. As we made our way from Lviv, the city faded away into a very rural agricultural area. The land is flat with only a few rolling hills now and then. We saw fields of corn, wheat and hay. As we got closer to Bolechiv the trees became thicker and hills, valleys and rivers more apparent.
As we traveled we went through many villages and towns, all had their onion domed churches shining in the sun. The church roofs are covered in reflective metal sheeting, quite the sparkling effect. Every town had 3 things, the church, a small grocery store and a bus stop. All day we passed buses, small and large shuttling people from the little villages and towns to the bigger ones. Men, women, teenagers, mothers with strollers and children bumping along in crowded buses headed to get what they needed.
And boy were those roads bumpy!!! Once we got off the 4 lane road and onto the 2 lane road it was unbelievable. There were potholes that a small car could get lost in, roads that had been stripped for new asphalt but never completed. So we crawled along trying to not lose the transmission along with the buses, and 8-wheeler trucks. When we weren't bumping along we were busy playing kamikaze on the 2 lane roads. Here you can pass a car or two anytime you want, and if in the process of passing you just can't get over in time, no problem. The 2 lane road turns into a 3 lane and you just drive down the center. Hopefully you won't get the big rig squeeze. I forgot to mention that you also share the road with bikes, horse drawn wagons, and ladies herding cows down the road. It all makes for a interesting drive, one which is hard to get drowsy on.
We survived the bladder busting roads and made it to Bolechiv. The town sits in a valley with a little river running through the middle of the town. There's a church down at the edge of downtown and many little shops along the main drag. It was a busy afternoon and everyone was out shopping. Kids were playing in the city park and a trailer full of squeling pigs flew past me. The houses are small and fairly old. Everyone had a garden, including the shops. The men were chatting with a beer in their hands or smoking, the women were bustling around getting their shopping done and the kids were riding bikes or playing in the park. All a very typical scene. After walking around a bit we had seen it all. Nothing as we imagined but what I had in my head was about a 100 years ago.
We tried to find the town where the church was but mistook one that we were in, later Grandpa looked at a map and realized the error but it was a little town and everyone starred at us as we drove in and took some pictures.
We stopped in Stryi for lunch and took a gamble on potato pancakes with chicken and mushrooms. It was fantastic!
After lunch Grandpa wanted to head to the Carpathian Mountains but we realized after awhile that we had missed the turn off in Stryi somewhere and headed in the wrong direction. Tired, hot, and really hating the pothole filled roads we headed back to Lviv and our hotel.
We rounded out the day by watching on YouTube a 1965 movie with Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis about the Ukrainian Cossacks and the Polish empire.
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