Our Journey from Ukraine to the Baltics 
via Trains, Planes and Automobiles 

February 9-21, 1999

 

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Bev Kubik's Diary 

My wife Beverly and I finished with Ukraine 99, our medical and optometric mission to Transcarpathian Ukraine and proceeded to visit our brethren in Lithuania and Estonia. There is no easy from western Ukraine to the Baltics because a regular visa is required for train passengers traveling through Belarus.  To get the visa we had to go to Kiev. But, we found that there was as twice weekly flight from Kiev to Vilnius, Lithuania.  So, we took an overnight train to Kiev from Khust. Then flew to Vilnius, then had a chauffer drive us to Kaunas, the home of Henrikas Klovas.  In the following three set of photos we would like to share this trip with you.

Crossing the Carpathians from Mukachevo  to Lvov. A blizzard was beginning. We just  missed one of the centuries biggest storms A trestle     In Kiev - monument to the victory of the  Soviet army over the Nazi's. The statues depicts the Mother Country--Rodina Pecharskaya Lavra, viewed across  the Dnieper River    On our Air Ukraine flight from Kiev to Lithuania!  Our  30 seater plane had only a handful of passengers,  some of whom were from Chicago Our meetings with a Lithuanian Publisher for  future booklet printing The charming "Freedom Street" in Kaunas. Kaunas reminded us of a mini-Paris Henrikas and Beverly Cathedral of the Warriors

A high elevation Carpathian settlement viewed from our train in almost blinding snowfall   A winter wonderland A church just restored in Kiev Ice fishing on the Dnieper River A cold drab day In Kaunas, Lithuania.  Henrikas Klovas and  Beverly in front of the Red Cross Hospital Cathedral of the Warriors in Kaunas Winter street scenes of Kaunas Henrikas wife Vijole and daughter Vidmante with grandson Dovydas Vidmante showing me book about Lithuanian landscapes