after ben and bo spent a couple days in lviv, they took a day train back to kyiv...i picked them up at the train station, and first things first, of course we had to find something to eat...the boys hadn't really eaten anything all day, except for a few rolls from a stranger on the friend, and a couple beers...they were famished, and i can always eat:)
after food, the next item on the list was to find a hostel for ben...we found the one he'd picked out in the guidebook...but it was full...argh...howeva, the chick who owned the hostel said a few people were going out to a bar, and said that there was another hostel very close to the bar, and that they'd take ben along...a quick subway ride and walk home, i went to sleep fast...
the next day i went to work, ben and bo met up in the city center...they told me later that they had trouble figuring out where to go to follow the walking tour suggested by lonely planet...ben is HORRIBLE when it comes to reading maps...after all the traveling he's done (he makes me look as though i've never left my sofa) you'd think he'd be able to read a map...but he can't...he's constantly getting lost...granted, some of my best travel adventures have happened because i get lost, but ben does it all the time...even when he's already gotten somewhere once w/out getting lost...anywho...it was pretty chilly that day, the boys told me they kept finding places to duck inside and warm up for a few minutes...i don't blame them...
the boys picked me up at work, we went home and dropped off my stuff, then headed to the grocery store...one of my requests of bo for staying with me was that he cook a meal for us...(he's a chef, this isn't a crazy request)...ben had come up with the idea that bo cook thanksgiving for us...i liked the idea, and cloe and her mom were keen, as they'd never experienced an american thanksgiving...bo knew what he needed from the grocery store, ben and i were there mostly just because...and, we knew it would be a little while before the food was ready, so we also picked up snacks...(hanging out with these two means nearly nonstop eating...not good for my waistline!)...
thanksgiving dinner was great...chicken, homemade stuffing, salad, pumpkin/carrot something, and mashed potatoes...YUM...we all ate too much, everyone else drank wine...none of us ate nearly the amount i remember eating when i had thanksgiving as a kid, but it was still too much...some how or another, i was the only one not drinking, and i was the only one who woke up the next morning with a headache...NOT FAIR... oh well, such is life...
i only had to teach the next morning, i was able to meet up with the boys just after noon...we took the subway and walked a bit to the lavra, one of the two UNESCO sites in kyiv...on the way to the lavra, we stopped by two memorials...one is to the soldies who fought in WWII...the other is to victims of the famine in 1932-1933...this was a man made famine, and millions of people died...there was enough food, but stalin made some decisions, and people starved as a result...it was pretty sobering to see the memorial, even more sobering to think that it shouldn't have happened at all...
there are two areas in the lavra site, the upper and lower...in the upper, the bell tower and one of the churches currently have scaffolding around them...darnit...the bell tower was covered the last time i was there as well, i'm hoping to see it without scaffolding at some point while i live here...i think there is a joke out there that it's not really a UNESCO site unless some part of it is covered by scaffolding? we still had fun taking photos...ben and i had fun making a wedding congratulations video for one of his friends in taiwan...between the upper and lower sections, we each had a snack...bo and i had snickers, ben went with hot tea...we also visited the lower area, mainly to see the caves...the caves aren't really "caves" as one would normally think of them, but that's the name they've ended up with...it's actually a set of tunnels under a church, where monks went to meditate, live, and eventually die...there are sarcophagi in the tunnels, they're glass...the bodies are covered, but a few of them have hands sticking out...as the bodies are mummified, the hands are dark and dry, and a bit creepy...eeeeee...i didn't notice this when i visited these caves before, i don't know why...
on the way from the lavra back to the subway, we stopped to eat...i ate too much, ben and bo both outdid me, and still had room for waffles afterward...the subway took us back to the center of town, and we headed toward st sophia, the other UNESCO site in town...ben and bo had already seen the inside of a number of churches, and didn't feel the need to see another, which saved us the biggest part of the entry fee to the site...instead we walked around the outside of the church, and climbed up the bell tower...i'd done that before, but the view is completely different at night, of course...
then came dinner...as always, my eyes were bigger than my tummy, but i was impressed in my resistance to eating what i ordered...bo ate most of it instead...note to self: do not eat lunch and dinner less than two hours apart...from dinner we decided to do something not very intelligent: follow ben to a bar...remember what i said earlier about ben not being able to read a map? thank goodness none of us minded the extra walking...the bar is a student bar, and the prices are redic cheap...$1 vodka shots...$1.25 beer...our total bill had 4 beers, 2 vodka shots, and two sprites, and was less than $10 total...woo hoo!! ben and bo said goodbye as we left, and the next morning i put bo in a taxi to the airport...it's always sad to say a temporary goodbye to a gapper...we always assume there will be a 'next time,' which makes goodbye a whole lot better...:)
ben moved in the next day...ever since he's been hanging out at the flat, occasionally getting out and seeing the city...mostly though he's been figuring out what comes next in his life...where he'll go, how he'll get there, and what he might see along the way to whereva he goes next...how long he'll be there, what he'll do there, etc...ben has also been working on his blog, i've written a couple posts for him:)...we've shown him the yumminess of ready made food from the closest grocery store, attempted to go bowling, etc...he and cloe have had fun with nightly glasses of wine, i've stuck with juice...(it isn't the same...even non alcoholic wine or beer isn't the same)...it's been nice to have a friend around, someone i've known for a long time...
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