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A Hike in the Carpathians
I should have listened to my heart not my head
Rakhiv tastes of exhaust fumes. Clustered along the valley of the river Tisa in south-western Ukraine, Rakhiv acts as a collecting bowl for the motors that pass through. Almost every vehicle is old: lorries belching their way through the Carpathians, minibuses packed with shoppers grasping sacks of potatoes, and boxy Ladas, battered and rusting.
This is Zakarpattia, the former Austro-Hungarian province of Transcarpathia. The indigenous Ukrainians, or East Slavs, became known as Carpatho-Rusyns, underpinning the claim that they’re a distinct sub-group of East Slavic people. Fascinating, yes. But coming here turns out to be the worst decision I’ve ever made when travelling.
It’s 2019 and I’ve been searching for my Ukrainian cousins. The day I arrived in my father’s village, I was told they were ‘all dead or living overseas’. Devastated, I retreated into a field with my laptop, pondering how to make up for the disappointment. I decided I’d try to see something of Ukraine and planned a big looping itinerary. By the time I closed the laptop, I’d booked a string of hotels from the Carpathian town of Rakhiv to the city of Chernivtsi.
A few days later, I discovered my cousins had been there all along — and not just in the cemetery. They were very much…
