Head for the Hills

Yaremche, Ukraine May 28, 2016

She said “Wow” when I told her I was an American.  A familiar reaction here. Nice to be appreciated.

She told me she was the owner of the cafe I was visiting and sat down and we had a nice long talk. 

Her English was excellent so I had my first real chat in quite a while.

She has a degree in Financial Management and wants to travel to the United States and visit New York, Chicago and California.  Seen through her eyes that sounds very exciting, but to me, of course, being here is much more so.


She loves to travel but it's very difficult or impossible to get a Visa to do so. One of the benefits we take for granted in my part of the world.

Her boy friend lives in Lviv so I figured she was the best person to talk to about how best to go back there which I will do on Sunday. 

What I found out was what I’d already figured out – the best way is the way I came – the bus from Yaremche to Ivano-Frankivsk and the train from Ivano-Frankivsk to Lviv.  Buses run frequently whereas the trains don’t.

And even though my “Ghost Train” turned out to be real it doesn’t match up well with the train I want to catch in Ivano-Frankivsk.

I’m sorry to disappoint you if you are a Ghost fan.  But although I still don’t see that train listed on line I did see a separate schedule on the side wall in the train station showing what my Google translation scanner indicated was a “suburban” train schedule with it on it.  The scanner doesn’t translate all the words and doesn’t order them well but I was able to decipher that.

I visited one of the tributaries to the main river here and saw some of the man made damns and waterfalls walking up stream as far as I could where no one else tread - at least while I was there.

And I drank some of the clear water scooping with my hand wishing I’d brought a cup as that was a little tricky and I didn’t want to fall in.

Nice to drink water from such its nice healthy container in nature..

I’m off to the town of Verokhta today. My new friend   tells me the air quality is better there than here.  Hard to believe. I guess you can improve on perfection after all,  She says the elevation is higher and there are wonderful views. 

Not a cloud in the sky.  My camera will be delighted..

Yaremche, May 28, 7PM

I'm back in Yaremche to report on my wonderful day trip to Verokhta.  One of the best days of all of (my now) four trips to Ukraine.

There were three buses when I got down  to the bus station and in the office one of the three guys in answer to my saying the word Verokhta waives his arm urgently pointing outside so I ran to the buses each in turn and he nodded no until he nodded yes and I got on the bus you see here. 

Inside it was filled except for the last 2 rows and quite dark and just  a few of the passengers were talking to each other and in hushed voices waiting patiently for the driver.

I knew I was on the right bus because the passengers I addressed with the name of my destination nodded yes.

I was noticing the road was not so bad, but then it quickly became so and I thought this is no place for someone with a bad back which fortunately I don’t have.  

I hung on the seat in front of me as I noticed others were doing and un-tensed my muscles to roll with the punches and said if these people can do this so can I.  And I could, and I did.

I noticed the passengers were crossing themselves quite frequently.  And, perhaps somewhat alarmingly there were none of the typical religious symbols hanging from the front mirror to protect us. Just playful things. As for the passengers I decided, hopefully that the passengers were just just crossing themselves as we passed religious shrines not an expression of particular concern for the bus.

In my elevated seat in the back of the bus I could not see out the front and was concerned that I wouldn't see the signs and know when we reached my destination and my stay on the bus until the next town.

Then a passenger vacated the first seat with a clear view of the road in front, I hesitated and another passenger moved to it. But when she got off  I didn’t hesitate and now was sure I’d be able to read the signs and know when to get off.

When we got to Verokhta, 45 minutes later,  the driver barked at me to get off so that was nice he was looking after me.

I then decided to find the Tourist Information Office which I’ve learned is something like Tourista Informatika in Ukraine and after walking up and down the main road and not seeing it and then up to the train station where I talked to a young woman who pointed me back to the main road and walked me 1/2 the way back I found it.
 



1

Add caption

There was no one in it, but then the guy came and of course he didn’t speak English so I asked for a map (“Karta”), as the brocures I saw just seemed to be adverts and usually there is a  local map showing a description of the important sites He didn’t understand so took me to a store and the guy there showed me a road map of the whole area suitable for driving.  But not what I wanted.

After much discussion and looking at a collections of post cards it was apparent there was no literature including books that would give me what I was looking for. 

But then I got the brilliant idea of looking on the Internet with my smart phone using WIFI or my local data plan. So I decided to grab a bite to eat and do just that. But to no avail.

Then I said to myself what I really want to do is go up into the hills and now I’m free to do that. 
as there are no “must see” sites for me. 

So I decided I would head down the hill and across the river and up into the hills.  I could go in the opposite direction which would place me closer to the train station but I just had a feeling so I went with that feeling.



Oh I meant to say that whilst in the train station it occurred to me that I should get a ticket for the “Ghost Train” to go back to Yaremche as  I had seen it there at 5:20 PM which would be a good time to arrive back there. 

I was pleased that I was able to get the ticket as I was sure I now could with my developing Ukrainian and since I had spent so much time studying the schedule board over the last couple of days that I was able to do that without a hitch. Perseverance plus motivation!


I crossed the river and then chose the path to the right where after a walking a while I decided this was not getting me up the hill and confirmed this with a guy working on constructing his house and headed back where I talked to a guy working on his tractor. 

With sign language I was able to convey what I wanted to do. go up the mountain and take pictures. Pointing to the three different paths and my camera.

He stopped working on his tractor and said a lot of things to me none of which I understood then walked away from me up the hill but turned around and signaled I was to follow him which I of course did.

We walked up the path, then he took a left into what I guessed was his property and reading my mind stood beside the Virgin Mary indicating I should take their picture.

Then we went into his house where a woman whom I suspected was his wife looked at me quite suspiciously as I imagined she was thinking what has he brought home this time.

But she warmed to me as I knew she would and became very friendly as in answer to her question I told her about  my family with a daughter and son and  particularly when she heard two grandsons.  

This conversation was entirely in Ukrainian.  Fortunately, I have learned the Ukrainian words for family so that helped and I know they always want to know where I’m from and that always gets a good response here.

While we were talking and she was warming up to me, she was cutting up some tomatoes, and some ham and sausage and laying out bread and potatoes and I really regretted that I had grabbed a quick pizza in town to fortify me for my climb up the hill.  

He poured us all a glass of coke.   I ate a bit and was (I think) able to convey that I had already eaten.


Just then a girl walked in the front door and sat down. I asked her if she spoke English and she did.  The timing couldn’t have been more providential to extend our very limited conversation up to that point.

They wanted to know how old I am (another standard question) and with her translating I found out he is 65, his wife is 45 and the girl who is his niece is 13.  Suffice it say I was the senior in the room.

I asked her where she learned English and she said school and what she plans to do when she grows up and she wants to be a programmer and where is she learning that she said on the Internet and I told her I’m a programmer and we discussed what software languages she is learning.

I didn’t want to overstay my welcome and I did want to get to the top of the mountain hill and as we had pretty much stopped eating I figured it was time to indicate that.

To my surprise the girl said she would take me up there which I thought was very nice indeed.

Before we went outside I took their picture and the girl took one of the three of us and I indicated I could email the pictures to her for them.

We then proceeded up the mountain path her leading the way at just the right pace for me to keep up without making it obvious that she was doing this.

She showed me three different small flowers from which they make tea.

I used my camera to take pictures for both the wonderful views and as a chance to take brief breaks to manage the climbing effort required without on my part being too obvious that for this ascent I was not feeling at all like a 13 year old.

00

I asked her if she plans to stay in Ukraine when she grows up and she said she hopes to go to America or maybe Poland. And why? Because of the lack of job opportunities here.  

Such a shame for Ukraine to lose their best and brightest which she certainly is because of the lack of opportunity here  which could be avoided if the elites would temper their greed, reduce the corruption and allow this country to achieve the great potential all the experts agree exists for it.



We passed through a forest towards the top which was welcome with its cool temperature. And there we saw a couple with a picnic and a horse.









I was quite relieved when we reached the top.



As we came down through the fields I got her to point out to me some of the sites - down in town that I would visit maybe the next time if I am so fortunate to return.

and it was a lot easier than going up with only one potentially treacherous fording of a stream balancing on a single board but with a fence to hold onto. 

At the bottom of the hill we stopped at her uncle’s house, she asked if I wanted to come in and I said no thank you as I needed to move down into town for my train.








I then thanked her very much in both English and Ukraine.

And she surprised me by thanking me saying -

 “Thank you.  I had  a good time“.

Which I was delighted to hear.

In town I bought and drank a bottle of water sat on a bench and talked to a guy all in Ukrainian some of which we both understood.

Then I went to the train station and waited for the “Ghost Train”

It didn’t arrive on time, but just I thought it might indeed be a Ghost Train and never show up, around the bend it came.

Inside it was quite nice.  Some people were sleeping.  Some sitting and talking. I got a nice seat with a table all by myself till the train started to fill up at the next two stations.

In 45 minutes we were back at Yaremche where I had a nice conversation with the young woman whom I had earlier talked to in the train station who came up to me wanting to continue our conversation.  

She plans to stay in Ukraine and has a job with a company which builds train engines.  She is from central Ukraine, but really likes it here in Transcarpathia because the people are so friendly here.

Indeed they are!

I took a video of the train departing and got a great shot this time of the station manager in her red hat and red sign and quite high heels as she waived it off into the early Transcarpathian
 evening.