A visit to Western Ukraine
My last visit to the Carpathian region, called Subcarpathia or Zakarpattia, was a two day one, thanks to my friends Laci and János, a local citizen of Ukraine in Homok. Laci, my childhood friend provided the transportation by car from Budapest and János, UT5DA was the guide. About 10 am on July 29th we arrived in Csap where János was waiting for us and took us on a guided tour through the region. We went to the most notable places, the Uzhgorod (Ungvár) and Munkács historical fortresses, stopped at several towns and markets, and met some very active hams and marveled at their radio stations.
We had a busy schedule and by the end of the day we were ready to plunge into the swimming pool of our motel in Nagyszöllős (Vinigradov).
On the 30th we went to the historical Verecke Pass where in 896 a.d. Duke of the Hungarians led his people to their new home in the Carpatian basin. Hungary was established. We laid a wreath at the memorial, had lunch there at a picnic table and headed back to Munkács. There we met the Dean of the State University who is also a ham and had a brief conversation about his work and ham radio. Then we went to the market to get some cranberries for Laci and headed back to the border. On the way there we stopped for dinner at Nagydobrony at the restaurant called Golden Stork. We said thanks and good bye to János at Csap in the mddle of a rainstorm, waiting in our car until his bus arrived.
Weí got back to Budapest by 1 a.m. next day, pretty tired but happy about our trip.
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