The next morning we were joined the tour bus in the centre of Lviv and headed to the Carpathians. First we visited the Museum of Hutsul and Pokuttya region in Kolomyia. Here household items of the inhabitants of the Hutsul region were collected, like: elegant clothes, items carved from wood, tools, models of the interior of Hutsul houses and much more interesting exhibits.
Then we went to the Pysanka Museum, which is also located in Kolomyia. “Pysanka” is a decorated egg with symbolic ornaments. The facade of the museum is decorated with the largest 13-meter-high pysanka in the world.
There are about 12,000 exhibits of pysanka with colorful prints in the museum.
The British from London kindly offered us to take photos of us near the museum.
It is so great that people from such far away country like England are interested in the Ukrainian culture and are ready to cover long distance.
Then we went to the Carpathian mountains, to Verkhovyna village, where we celebrated the New Year and spent the next 2 nights.
The road to the destination was quite extreme: a serpentine, snowy road, and it was already dark (we drove late in the evening).
We lived in the country houses of locals surrounded by mountain landscapes, and it turned out to be much more interesting than staying in a hotel. We were warmed up, fed and also felt family comfort there.
We celebrated the New Year together with all the participants of the tour – in a hut with Hutsul songs, dances, competitions. We had a very fun and colorful 2016 and we believe that it will be like this all year long!
Author (c): Irene Melnyk
Photos (c): Nick Melnyk