Aaagh, so behind in blogging! I was too busy having adventures to take the time to write about them. But now that I'm home, the pressure's on to write it all before I forget!!
About a month ago, I went on a weekend-long excursion with the Summer School around Volyn, the historical name for a region in northwestern Ukraine. Our trip took us to Lutsk and back, stopping at several sites on the way in both directions.
One of my fellow students started out the trip with a tremendous hangover-- so much so that he had decided to perk himself up with an energy drink called "Non-Stop Day." The guys on the trip with us found this name hilarious and were soon applying it to the trip itself. As you'll see, it proved to be quite an apt moniker.
Our first stop was at the fortress in Turkaniv, used in World War I and then abandoned. Very recently discovered, so recently that borshchevik (that big huge plant with the white flowers, which causes a rash worse than poison ivy) is growing all over it, and is only just now being cleared away so people can come to see the place. What a wonder! I felt like I was exploring one of those vine-covered temples in the jungles of Cambodia.
After Turkaniv we continued on to Dubno, the site of another castle/fortress.
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| selfie on the bridge! |
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| Mishko found a cat. |
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| The banquet hall of the castle, whose moulding managed to survive. |
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| photos of the interior of the castle after World War I-- from 1925 |
The palace housed an impressive museum which contained, among other things-- books from the 1700s...
old money...
spinning wheels (this one's for Emily ;))
and lots of samples of embroidery from all over Ukraine, both modern and traditional.
Then we got to walk on top of the fortress, which gave a beautiful view of the river.
And then it was on to Ostroh.
Like the other fortresses, Ostroh held an impressive museum.
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| An old poster more relevant now than ever. It says, "Peace upon you, people!" in Ukrainian |
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| We made friends with a cute doggie. |
Finally, it was time for the last stop of the day-- the world-famous Tunnel of Love in Klevan. You may have seen it on those BuzzFeed posts about "incredible places to see before you die," and so on. It was really quite impressive,, as it went on for 4 kilometers. This meant that we could walk and walk and still be in the tunnel. The only downside was that there were tons of mosquitoes!
After our "non-stop day," we finally headed on to Lutsk. We arrived late, though, and the hotel was unable to accommodate us for dinner, so we went into town to eat around 10. And lucky me, I woke up at 3 am with food poisoning. With some Pepto-Bismol, though, I felt well enough to enjoy day 2 of the adventure!
