[Cz-L] Report: Impressions of Chernowitz

Report: Impressions of Chernowitz
First a big thank you to all the members of the group who during my
planning stage gave me tips and advice in connection with my planned trip to
Ukraine in general and to Chernivtsi (Chernovitz) specifically. To my
fantastic cousin/travel companion Harriet Kasow who made this trip
memorable, from the first planning stages till our final goodbyes after
touchdown at Ben Gurion International Airport. Last but not least a huge
thank you to Alex our taxi driver, guide, translator and thanks to his
athletic build, our bodyguard, he saved us lots of time and hassle and a
good companion all the way.
Like most things in life, some of the advice we received ahead of time was
good, some irrelevant and some outdated, but all of it important, since it
allowed us to see the overall picture of the planned trip.
The flight, health insurance and Ukrainian visa was arranged by my travel
agent. The Bukovyna Hotel, kosher meals and Alex the Hebrew speaking taxi
driver was arranged by a terrific Israeli tour organizer, Dan Marian (who
was born in the vicinity of Chernovitz and lived in Chernovitz several years
after the war. We also joined Dan's tour for two days during their stay in
Chernowitz and the Carpathian mountain area.)
Unlike many members of the group I must confess that I wasn't not born in
Chernowitz and its vicinity. This was the first trip to Ukraine and
Czernowitz for Harriet and me. My father was born in a shteitel about 20
kilometers north east of Chernowitz, called today, Klishkivtsi (Klishkovitz
in Yiddish) and my mother was born in Shirevtsi Sheravitz in Yiddish) a
nearby shteitel (2 miles further east of Klishkivtsi on the same
Chernivtsi-Khotin road). Only one branch of my family lived close to
Chernowitz a great-great grandfather who lived in Sadgora.
The story I remember most from my parents and grandmother about Chernowitz
was about the beautiful Chernowitz railroad station and its huge grandiose
clock. which even during the Romanian period went according to the time in
Vienna. So this was one of my many big disappointments, to see the sorry
run-down state of the central railroad station, and the clock which is now a
relatively small one and showing the regular Ukraine summer time.
Other disappointments: The catastrophic roads full of potholes (not only in
Chernowitz but in all the areas of Ukraine that we travelled on. The
archives, they simply have not yet learned to put their act together. The
cemetery (like others in the Ukraine we saw and more about this in a
separate article), difficult to walk on and or to find a grave. A directory
and map could help in finding a grave. Harriet determined to find a cousin's
grave, was lucky in finding the grave with the help of a former student of
our cousin. Who knew exactly where the grave was and took us there.
We also visited the cemetery in Sadgora, but again could not find anything
we were interested in.Again because of lack of directory and map. The
"palace" - residence of the Rebbe from Sadgora is still in a sorry state and
it looks as though no one is really seriously thinking of remodeling it.
Comparing with pictures taken about ten years ago by Guggenheim things have
changed and all for the worse.
On the positive side: The beer was really good, like some of you stated.
Eventhough I was told that one of the beers called something like Chernivtsi
Beer is no longer manufactured in Chenivtsi, but somewhere else in the
Ukraine. But we drank a good beer at one of the Beer halls that produces
their own beer.
You don't need to drink too much beer to realize how beautiful the young
Ukrainian women look. The babushkas with their "Farsheleich" wrapped around
their heads is a different story.
Chernovitz seems to be in the midst of an economic boom with beautiful
million dollar villas being built just at the outskirt west of the town at
the very end of the Red Army Boulevard. The coffee houses, bars, restaurants
are packed, and the stretched limousines are doing a thriving business on
Friday, Saturday and Sundays the popular wedding days in Chernowitz today.
Not only the brides and groom come to the wedding in these stretched
limousines but many members of the family. I was told the price to rent such
a limo for four to six hours, costs several hundred bucks.
There are many ways to reach Chernowitz. I finally decided to fly out of
Israel via Vienna by Austrian Airlines after about a 4 hour stopover we took
off with a small turbo prop(eller) DeHavilland to Lviv, the noise of the
propellers was terrible. But on the positive side, since we were only about
20 passengers the whole official process of entering Ukraine took less than
20 minutes. The officials were all smiles and didn't ask any silly
questions. Leaving Lviv to Vienna was more or less the same it took less
than 20 minutes to be processed and then we had to wait more than one hour
till our plane arrived. Yes they still use very old fashion scales to weigh
the baggage. Probably the airline officials know the weight shown is not
reliable, they do not make a fuss concerning overweight.
The trip to and from Lviv to Chernowitz by taxi takes about 4 hours thanks
to the many potholes on the way. One of the reasons I chose the
Lviv-Chernowitz route was after reading a ten year old report about seeing
all the "Fiddler on the roof" towns on the way. Sorry to say you have to see
the movie to see that today. There are hardly any "old" houses left they
have all been torn down and huge modern buildings built. The remaining old
houses have been remodeled.
Parting advice: Plan your trip at least 3 months or more ahead of time. Get
a good guide/translator/taxi driver all rolled into one person if possible
to save on expenses, ours charged USD $100 per day including extra hours,
gasoline and even making phone calls ahead of time to set up meetings for us
and visiting ahead of time places like the archives to submit our requests.
Hotels are not too expensive. For about USD $45 we stayed at what is one of
the best hotels in Chernowitz today, Hotel Bukowyna and had a very spacious
room and bed. The Stalinist era built hotel has been remodel and the staff
were very nice some even spoke English
Most important: Don't, I repeat don't set your expectations too high-, you
are not going to find everything you set out to find, you will be lucky if
you find just a few.
Aizic Sechter
Israel
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Received on 2010-06-22 05:40:46