Homeland

Ivano-Frankivsk is a city in western Ukraine. It has been my home for about eight years since I started studying in college.

One of my earliest memories about Ivano-Frankivsk is when I once got lost and felt scared. I thought it was an old and terrible city and I actually wanted to cry. Now, when I think about it, it sounds funny, because I love that city with all my soul.

Ivano-Frankivsk was named in honor of Ivan Franko, Ukrainian writer and usually people don’t really know about this city. It is a small and quiet city near the mountains.

Ivano-Frankivsk is the only city in Ukraine with the golden dome on the administrative building – the town hall. Created by the Polish, it has a long history. Now you can go up and see a wonderful view of the city, but my favorite place is a little further and is called Stometrivka.

Stometrivka is the most popular place in the city and means “one hundred meters street”. Actually, there is more than one hundred meters. On the street there are a lot of shops, boutiques and restaurants, and every day, every night musicians play world popular songs or Ukrainian traditional songs. You can hear it from every place, sometimes people can dance or just stop and listen. A lot of painters do things like exhibitions and markets. Also they can paint your portrait for a small price right there.

All of these things make this place actually magical. At night there are a lot of lights, you can buy the best coffee in the world and street food and just walk and laugh, take pictures and even get wet if you decide to walk inside of fontaine.

You can feel love and life in this place and the smile never leaves your face when you see the nice and kind people who are just enjoying their day.

Ivano-Frankivsk changes every year and every day, in fact – every moment. For the last ten years it has been getting better and better. From the old and boring city, it has changed into the best city for cyclists – most parts of the city have special tracks. In the Park of Shevchenko you can see sakuras and magnolias in the spring; on the lakes – swans, ducks and turtles. Parts of the old city have never changed, you can always feel the atmosphere of old Europe, but the most important thing?

The people have never changed too!