Footprints on Cobblestone: The big picture and the fine print

Ever since I read in my "lonelyplanet" Ukraine guidebook that tourists can ascend Lviv's central clock-tower, I knew that this would be a stop on my tour here. This morning I decided to venture out and see the city from above. Well, unlike the top floors of tall buildings in America, which you usually access by climbing into an elevator, the clock-tower's roof was accessible by climbing up 4 flights of stairs to the ticket booth, then what seemed like a thousand stairs up to the top. I guess I should have expected that there would be so many stairs, but it felt like it took forever to get up there! Anyway, I kept telling myself it was worth it, and in the end it definitely was--the view from the top was amazing! I had a great (and scary) time walking around the (shaky) metal platform and looking out above the fence (complete with limb-size slats). I guess I should have also remembered that I wasn't climbing just any tower, but that this was a clock-tower. Meaning, the bells on top would ring. And ring they did. I jumped a little, but luckily there weren't too many other people to see. The way down the stairs might have been a little scarier than the way up, since like many stairs here, these wooden ones were very worn and therefore all pointed downward. There was also very little lighting inside the tower. But I made it! And I'm glad I went.

Next stop was the airport to pick up my dad...and his luggage! I'm glad someone on this trip can enjoy the simple pleasure of having your luggage arrive with you. We ate a quick lunch and then headed to the central archives in Lviv to do some more research on Kolomyja and Zborow. The archives are housed in an old monastery, so the inside is dark and gloomy. And smelly. We, with the help of Alex and his wife, looked through pages and pages of records, and while we were unsuccessful for the records pertaining to Zborow, found a lot of family names in the Kolomyja property owner records. And, although we were unsuccessful for Zborow, as I said to Alex, it feels better to have looked at the records and to know that there's nothing there than to know the records are there and not have looked at them.

Speaking of looking at records, just a few minutes ago I was looking over my dad's dad's papers to see where exactly he lived before the war. I don't know how I missed it the first many times I looked at these same papers, but his address was right there on the page! I'm glad we have an address to visit there now instead of trying to look for one in the archives. But for now, we're in Lviv until Sunday morning, when we'll resume our travels. Shabbat Shalom from Ukraine!