The direct way to the former kingdom of Dracula — to Wallachia, can be a journey along the small Ukrainian river Putila. Its length is only 42 kilometers. But it is quite enough this kilometer to collect water from the Carpathian ridges, namely from Putilla, and bring them to Cheremosh. The latter will bring them directly to the Prut, which, like a serpent, passes the power cordon of Ukraine, and on the border of Moldavia and Romania merges with the Danube, one of the most powerful and important European rivers.
Not only the Danube, but even the small Putila has its own honor guard — a dozen left and right tributaries with charming authentic names. For example: Mice, Foški or Lustun. The place of the source of the river is considered to be a stream formed on the mountain slopes of the Bukovina Carpathians near the village of Ploska. This is the Putil district of the Chernivtsi region.
The Putila River itself is not wide. Its unpredictable character manifests itself only in spring — in late April, early May. But if summer or fall feed Putila with unaccounted dose of water, it will gladly go out of its banks, flood its valley and flood people’s houses, pathetic strips of vegetable gardens and vital ribbons of roads. And it will do it as brutally as Prince Vlad Dracula Tepes dealt with people he did not want.
In the works of Ukrainian writers and memoirs of the Ukrainian diaspora, settled in Canadian and Argentine cities, often a small valley of the Putila River is called Putilshchina. One of the most interesting pages of the history of this dwarf ethnographic area is the legend of the Brodniks.
Brodniki are an ancient mixture of Turks with Khazars, Bulgars and Slavs. It is known the statement about this fiery «mix» of Byzantine chronicler Nikita Akominat. He called the Brodniki «a branch of Russian peoples, despising death». This fearless people lived in Putilshchina, but took part in all skirmishes, raids and battles that took place on the territory of Ukraine in the era of Kievan Rus. Such a Carpathian special forces. In the XIII century, the Brodniks suddenly disappeared from Putilshchina, and then, like the Phoenix bird, revived in the Dnieper valley and became the basis for the formation of the first Cossack groups. It is rumored that it was from their midst that the characterists, i.e. those few Cossack warriors who possessed supernatural abilities, amazing intuition and were able to control thoughts and juggle energies, emerged.
In addition to searching for artifacts from the Brodniks, who literally dissolved in the succession of centuries, guests of Putilshchina will be able to visit the nearby the cave of Oleksy Dovbusha, one of the main Ukrainian oprishka of the XVIII century, sit on the «Enchanted Rock», climb the Nemchich Pass or look into the waters of the lake «Bukovynskoye oko», left from the last glaciation. In Putila, the main settlement of the Putilovets district, tourists will get acquainted with the exposition of the museum-estate of Iurie Fedkovich, the main Bukovinian romantic.
Choosing holidays in Putila, travelers will be able to try to penetrate into the mysteries of the region, the most curious, but little-studied part of the Carpathians. Apart from the above mentioned, Putila’s attractions are not simply exhausted like that. On the territory of the valley you can find a church, built without a single nail, and take part in the festival of «going to the meadow» shepherds — the main keepers of the language, traditions and lifestyle of the population of this part of Western Ukraine. As elsewhere, a vacation in the Carpathians in this area can be enriched with skiing, rock climbing sessions, intensive trekking and «green rest» in hospitable farmsteads of local villagers.