A walk in the park in Ternopil

Ternopil means "thorny field". That was certainly the case 10 years ago when I was there and lost my colleague who suddenly passed away one night. At the time we had been working in Ternopil and teaching English at the teachers college.
My next co-worker, DeAnn and I stayed on in Ternopil for a few more months before moving on to Lviv, where I taught at Ivan Franco University. I wasn't at all unhappy to leave Ternopil because of the sadness we had experienced during those months.
Several years passed and there was never a reason to return to Ternopil until we met Teresa, an English student on the train one day. We began meeting up with her a few times a month to sit on a bench in the park in Ternopil and read together in English. Usually the weather was nice, but sometimes it was cold; we would still read and chat on a bench in the park. If it rained or snowed Teresa knew of a cafe where we could sit and read together.
So we have happy memories from Ternopil now; here is a picture I took a few days ago as Pat and I walked through the same park where I walked with Avis and DeAnn.
These are giant bubbles and you can get inside and walk around on the surface of the pond. We didn't try it, but while Avis and I were there we did walk across the frozen surface of the lake one day!