Unforgettable New Year's adventures in the Carpathians.
Oleg offered to celebrate the New Year in Suzdal in a monastery, the restaurant of the Ostankino tower was turning, the Catanians treacherously fled to Egypt, and in the end my lawful husband went to work ahead of schedule on perfectly legal grounds. There was a not-so-bright prospect of celebrating the New Year in proud solitude, or falling on the tail of children, relatives or acquaintances. I didn't like any of the prospects, the fantasy of the girl Dasha (it's about the subway) didn't work, the snow in Kherson was not expected, and the banal idea to celebrate the New Year in the mountains, where there should be snow. We needed like-minded people, or just friends over a drink. These were found quickly, thanks to Galina, who often organizes car tours in different corners of our vast: ) And since almost always the same company travels, for a long time of travel, everyone has already met and become friends.
So, we went to the Carpathians to celebrate the New Year.
And the first point of our winter trip was Lviv, but since we have been to Lviv a number of times, we decided to visit the park near the High Castle "Shevchenkivskyi Gai". This is an ethno-park, an open-air museum. It is divided into six small villages, which have collected all the exhibits from different regions of western Ukraine: Boykivshchyna, Lemkivshchyna and Hutsulshchyna, only about 120 monuments.
The museum is quite interesting, the area is large, and the walk after a long road was where, even there was a lake with swans and a house of an unknown architect, which needs to be improved.
No snow has been observed so far, it even started to rain in the afternoon, so it was decided to go to a hotel settlement.
Morshyn, namely the Boniface Hotel, was chosen as the place of our permanent deployment. The hotel, by the way, is very decent, my friend and I got a double room, where everything was necessary, including a hair dryer, iron, set of dishes, refrigerator and even a microwave. Upon arrival, of course, had to drink for a good start! But ...there were dishes, but there was no table, and the decision was made to use a stool, and so having built a simple pre-holiday table and placing it just between the beds, we started celebrating the New Year on December 30!
It's good that the guys from the next room woke us up in the morning, because we had to get up early on December 31, we planned a lot of programs, and there was still New Year's Eve ahead.
Therefore, after drinking a triple espresso, we got out into the air.
The company was fun, although different sizes, I even made friends with two men, one was 3 years old, the other 12 (to call them children does not return the language out of respect for them), respect for the guys! Many adults behave worse, but not now : )))
On December 31, we decided to go to nature in the Skole Beskids, namely to the Tustan Reserve. It is located near Skhidnytsia, near the village of Urich. This city is a fortress, which is both an architectural monument and a natural monument. It is somewhat reminiscent of the mountain from the movie "The Lord of the Rings" and in the morning in the fog seemed like a rather mysterious phenomenon. Its history dates back to the 12th century, when it served as a fortress.
During the construction it was decided to use the natural resource of the rock, and therefore the fortress itself was built of wood, but attached to the rock, which made the structure very reliable.
Since then, little remains of the wooden structure, but the rock still exists and looks like a castle.
There are a lot of tourists here, we climbed the stairs, and not for nothing, from a height of a stunning view!
I managed to take a picture only after dispersing the Chinese, as it turned out it was Kazakhs : ))) And there was even SNOW (it's not because I'm from Africa, but because we really have in Kherson this year) there was no snow yet).
After getting up and taking pictures, we went down for mulled wine, well, mulled wine so-so, on the top three with a minus, but something like that.
It is said here that the Cossack festival “Tu Stan! "Unfortunately, we didn't get to that. " Well, mulled wine, mulled wine, and bite it though, and we go to a beautiful waterfall for barbecue (agree, barbecue - banal, but delicious !! )! Shish kebab really succeeded, this institution has a certain Nina, right next to the waterfall, there in the yard still meets a bear (scarecrow of course).
Still there is an impressive mushroom soup, who will, be sure to try it!
Mulled wine is no longer climbing, so we decided to switch to a local environmentally friendly product (palenka, mead, horseradish, in general, who had enough energy), I decided to try the wine from wild blackberries - delicious, packed her and home for Christmas (home, by the way, appreciated).
In general, the fun was in full swing, the evening was no longer difficult and then someone suddenly remembered that today we still celebrate the New Year and that if we continue at this pace, we will not get to the airport… All brought to mind our guide, guide, clever and just beautiful Galina, who said that although the guys are drunk, but the horses are drawn, and so now we quickly go to the hotel, come to our senses, look elegant and go to the restaurant. We arrived at the restaurant on time, wow, we had time!
This time we celebrated the New Year several times because it was international.
There were 150 people of different nationalities in the restaurant - Ukrainians, Russians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, Moldovans, Odessans (this is a separate nation) and there was even one Portuguese, very colorful, clung to all our girls and went with two.
To say it was fun is to say nothing! It was inflammatory, enchanting, driving, wonderful and unsurpassed! The organization of the evening is very well thought out, there were musicians, and of course Santa Claus and Snow Maiden, and many different competitions, scenes, dances and even fire shows!
Then the gypsies came and took our tourists to the gypsy camp, that's where the fun began, they went to buy, and for some reason the Belarusians were most happy, they were so amused by our New Year's traditions, as if they were not like that. Yes, this New Year I will remember for a long time))) How we went to the hotel, I'm not very clear, but when I was still picked up the next day, but naturally forgot to wake up, and happily announced that we are finally today 1 January we go skiing, then I wanted to send this herald to hell. What skis? ? ?
I can barely keep my balance on two legs, are you kidding? ? ? It turns out that no one thought to joke, and what do you think, we went to the ski resort "Play" to ski.
[h2 And there, although half artificial, but there was snow! Lots of snow! ! ! ! !
I happily climbed the mulled wine again, but thank God my friend was smart enough and we didn't take the equipment, we got on the lift and went to see the mountains.
It was beautiful upstairs, for the fullness of feelings fell out in the snow.
But then it suddenly started to rain and we decided that once we saw the snow, we need to come up with something relaxing.
Saffron Spa was chosen for relaxation, but when I came there, it turned out that there are no places and we have to wait, but I thought it was a good sign, if there are no places, then there is a reason. After half an hour of waiting, for 350 hryvnias I finally got the desired tag and 4 hours of free time. It was possible to get high and we got high!
The complex is good, who will be on the beach, I recommend, there are absolutely all areas - a variety of saunas, swimming pools, jacuzzis, bars and more. I really liked the cedar steam room and the Roman bath. In general, January 1 after the gypsies was just that, well, right in the top ten. The only thing is that in the evening the resort is poorly lit and we left the complex, about an hour in the dark wandered in a circle and could not get to our parking lot, we already thought we would spend the night there. In general, by nightfall, finally rushed to the hotel, and got more and more I do not remember anything. But!
Here I was ruthlessly pushed out of the abyss, told that we were leaving tomorrow and that we should celebrate the holiday, I was ready to kill everyone, but the holiday is a holiday. Everything, in fact, is a failure…
On the morning of the 2nd, we were woken up by the same guys from the next room who already understood everything and took patronage over us.
Quickly collecting their money and leaving half of their belongings in the room, they left the hotel and wished to say goodbye to Morshyn. The day of departure must also be remembered somehow, so we went on the route "Golden Horseshoe of Lviv" to Zolochiv Castle. The weather in the morning somehow did not set, the Carpathians saw us off in the rain, it was a little sad.
The castle was seen naturally, the tour was listened to, the exhibits were appreciated, but that's all. It's time to return to the team, family, work.
We returned at night, but there was no fatigue, the feeling of celebration did not pass, the bus was not just noise, but full laughter, everyone shared impressions, emotions, exchanged addresses and phone numbers, I met again very good and interesting people and found beautiful parts of our Ukraine . ! ! ! ! !!
Special thanks to Galina, who took over the entire organization of the route and arranged such a wonderful New Year's adventure for us!
