ukraine: kyiv with a visitor

I love playing tour guide, I wish I could do it more often. (Maybe I ought to look into this as future employment? Anyone reading this know anyone in tourism or that sort of field?) Unfortunately, Ukraine isn't on most peoples' list of places to go, and is in fact a destination a number of my military friends are not allowed to visit for the time being. My friend amanda came to visit for a few days, yahoo. We met in Seoul, through rugby, she now lives in Istanbul.
Amanda was supposed to arrive at 0815 Saturday morning, but when she got to the airport in Istanbul she was told her flight was full so she was  put on another flight a couple hours later. Does it make me sound awful if I say I was glad for the delay? I was able to sleep an extra hour and clean my flat a little more.

I met amanda at the airport, we used public transport to get back to my flat. (shuttle bus then metro then bus). It's an easy trip, but not terribly fast, argh.
After relaxing for a few hours we went back into the city using the metro and bus. After exiting Arsenalna station, we walked along the street going toward Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. It's one of two UNESCO sights in the city. Along the way, we stopped at a place that shows a nice view of the left bank of the city. It's lovely.
This viewpoint is right next to the Holodomor memorial, which always gets me. It's hard to believe someone (or a government) would do that deliberately. Too many people starved, and it didn't need to be as bad as it was.

The Soviet Union never accepted responsibility for it, they always said it was poor farming, and a year of bad weather. Russia says the same thing now. Most of the rest of the world says it was done on purpose, while Stalin was trying to get everyone into collective farms. Nearly all the grain that was grown was exported, or put into locked silos to which the people did not have access. As people starved, the borders were closed, people were not able to escape. Millions died, though the official number of dead is debated. What always gets me at this memorial is the statue of the little girl who is sad and starving. (She looks particularly pathetic during winter, when she is covered in snow, as someone almost always puts a flower in her arms then as well.)

Further down the road we came to one of the entrances to the Lavra. It's the holiest complex in Ukraine, and one of the top 5 in the orthodox world. The entrance used by most people has frescoes on the walls. They're beautiful, but fading. We arrived pretty close to closing time, so we didn't have to pay the entry fee, yippee!!
I think this was the first time I've visited when trees were blooming. So pretty. I took one photo with a cherry blossom tree (it could be anything else, I don't know tree names; the blooms were pink) which I love.
As we approached the main church, I saw an open door. I know from past experience that this door leads to stairs which go to an upper level, and this door is not always open. We went up the stairs only to find that the second level was being renovated. Sheets hanging everywhere, both plastic and cloth. Boooo.

We could hear the music of the service, but could only see glimpses of the intense beauty of this church.
Back down the stairs and through a different door into a small chapel. This chapel has a side door/entrance into the main church. It's only open during worship services, I was happy amanda was able to look in. This church is brightly colored, with gold and new paint everywhere.
I also showed amanda a view over the lower part of this complex. Amanda was more fascinated by what she could see of the statue Rodina Mat, as part of the WW2 memorial. The statue is 62m tall, it's hard to miss.
We followed a path back out to the big street, and walked back to the metro station.

That was all the sightseeing we did that day, but it was still nice. We took the metro back to Khreshchatyk, and ate dinner at a steak place (a branch of an American chain, I always laugh at seeing the name written in the Cyrillic alphabet.) it was good but not wonderful; the dessert was big. Yum.
As we got back to my flat, we went through the supermarket nearby. Amanda loves walking through those as much as I do!
Since Amanda hadn't slept well the night before, then traveled and been out during the day, she was exhausted. It didn't take long for either of us to fall asleep.

The next day we got up slowly, she with coffee and me with chai. I love weekend mornings when I stay in Kyiv, I love starting my day this way.
I had a farewell party to go to, so Amanda and I figured out where to meet in the afternoon. We met up, then walked up a street starting from Maidan. This particular street hasn't really been open to traffic since the protests of last year, I don't know when it will be, if ever. It has been a memorial street, with flowers, pictures, candles, etc. I want every visitor to the city to walk this street, to get a little bit of feeling of what happened here last year.
We made it to the National Art Museum of Ukraine, this was my first visit despite living here almost four years! It's not big, which is perfect for me, as I'm not hugely into art.

This museum is two floors, with four-ish rooms with displays in each floor. The first floor hosts temporary exhibits, if I understand correctly. One of the current temporary exhibits is about heroes. The exhibit recognizes that there is no specific definition of a hero. It can be a regular worker, a soldier, a miracle maker, etc... As part of this exhibit we saw a bunch of paintings of Lenin, which really surprised me. Ukrainians haven't ever been fans of his, and with the recent passage of a law forbidding communist and nazi propaganda, it's expected that pictures and statues of the guy will be removed in most or all places around the country.

There was also a large painting depicting a dinner of some sort, I think Stalin is leading a toast. In the painting are also heaps of others who at various points held political power in the Russian empire. It's neat.
In three different places on the second floor there were young painters making copies of displayed paintings.
Then it was time for tea at a cafe.
We walked from Maidan up a street in the direction of St Sophia. At the top of the street we turned right, and walked to the entrance of St Michael. I've been told this isn't the original church, it was actually only built in 1994; it's a copy of the St Michaels that was destroyed by the soviets back in the day. (In 1938 think.)  even so, I find it beautiful.

As we entered the church, we realized there was a service happening. I've stepped into quite a few orthodox services in the past years of living here, but this service wasn't the normal. There were a number of priests standing on the middle, all of them in fancy dress. (Not just their normal black robes, they had extra gold/red garments on top, and the lead priest was wearing what to me looked like a crown of sorts. I need to ask someone what was happening.)
From St Michaels we walked to Andreiivsky uzviz, (another language calls it Andreiivsky spusk) or Andreiivsky descent. It starts next to St Andrews, and goes down a hill. Amanda and I entered the church, which is different from the other churches we'd seen during the day. From the railings around the church you can see over quite a bit of the city.

St Andrews is close to my favourite park in the city, called Mosaic park. We strolled through, watching people.
At one point we sat down to use an app on Amanda's iPad to figure out where to go for dinner.
We chose a vegetarian place, which was good but expensive considering the portion sizes. The smoothies were healthy and good.
Again, it was easy to fall asleep.
Monday I had to work all day, there is nothing to say.
Tuesday we met up early afternoon, after I finished my morning class. The weather was amazing, almost too hot! (Or maybe it just felt that way because everyone is still used to the idea of winter weather.)

I showed amanda my school, and the hedgehog statue not too far away. Then we made our way over to a bakery that has my favorite cinnamon rolls...there is just a slight glaze on them, they're perfect. Most cinnamon rolls in this country are too dry.
That was just a snack. (Snacks are wonderful, and definitely a weakness for me.)
We took the metro next, then walked to one of my favorite (if not very favourite) restaurants. Both of us wanted a meal, not just a series of snacks.
Revolution Grill is awesome. The menu is somewhat eclectic, it's not at all Ukrainian. Some Asian food, a few middle eastern items too. I had pho, plus a caramel flavored milkshake (they make their own caramel flavoring!) and pumpkin creme brûlée. It was too much, but sooo worth it.

The head chef/owner came over to talk to us, even bringing us a free dessert at one point! The restaurant has been open less than a year, so the menu is still expanding, and the chef is always curious about the opinions of his customers. The food is healthy, and the ingredients are seasonal as much as possible. I try to eat here at least once a month, just because.
The evening was very relaxed, just the way I like it :)
I had to work all day Wednesday, booo. Even worse, I had to wait a fter school to be available in case parents wanted to talk to me about student evaluations we recently completed. No parents showed up, I spent the extra hour and a half really annoyed.
Amanda and I met up for dinner, we went to a place geared toward tourists not far from Khreshchatyk st. I don't always like to do this (go to touristy restaurants) when I'm traveling, but this place has a menu full of traditional Ukrainian food. I figure every visitor has to try salo, even though we don't usually finish all that is served, hee hee.
After dinner we went to the chocolate store not too far away, and picked up some dessert. YUM!
Thursday morning amanda took a taxi to the airport and flew back to Istanbul. Thursday night I flew to Helsinki, a new city for me to explore.

ukraine: kyiv: St Sophia pysanky exhibition

this is my fourth school year in kyiv, but this is only the second year i have gone to the pysanky (very very decorated easter egg) exhibition at st sophia cathedral in kyiv...i'm guessing i just missed the first two years)
the church and it's grounds are quite close to where i work, so i decided to go visit after i was done teaching one workday...
the entrance fee for the exhibition is 10 griven...do the math, and it's less than $.50USD...cheap!!!
there isn't much to say, i just wandered around and looked at the eggs :)

czech republic: prague (something new every time)

Prague is another place I always know I can visit and see something new, no matter how many times I've been there.
I took a taxi straight from school to the airport in kyiv. Since I was flying a 'real' airline (vs a budget airline,) I got a snack and drink on the plane. Yippee! An easy direct flight, I wish that was possible more often.
I landed in terminal 1 of the airport in Prague, which is where you land when you're coming from outside the schengen zone. I thought I would see mom outside baggage claim, but she wasn't there. I checked the arrivals board and saw that ken's flight was coming into terminal 2 (schengen arrivals,) so I walked there and found mom. Ken arrived a few minutes later and I introduced the two of them.

We bought tickets for public transport and hopped on bus 119. It is super convenient, and cheap. There is also a shuttle bus to the city center, filled more with tourists than locals. It costs more, but I don't know the price since I've never ridden it. Either way, I think it's awesome that there are public, easy options to get into the city. Our bus took us to a metro stop, we rode that line to a stop across the street from our hotel. Yay!
Ken found out mom likes indian food, so he searched for restaurants in the neighborhood. He found one, so we went to mom's flat and she joined us. We walked for a bit before realizing we didn't know exactly where we were going. Ken's phone wasn't behaving, he wasn't able to find the restaurant on the map again. Fortunately it started working again after a few minutes.

Originally we thought the restaurant was indian, it ended up being vegetarian more than indian. As we entered we found out the menu was more according to how much you ate as opposed to what you ate. There was a select number of options available, you could have any or all of them, a little or a lot. You pay for a small meal or a big meal.
We all had rice, a vegetable curry, apple chutney, and a salad with cabbage and peanuts. Ken and mom had some sort of spinach patty too. The meal wasn't what we expected, but I think we all enjoyed it. And it was cheap! The total bill ended up being about $4 each!

I suppose ken and I could've gone out on the town, but we were exhausted, so we called it a night, after making plans for the next day with mom.
The next morning ken and I took the metro to malostranska. As we came out of the station, I looked to my right and saw people coming out of a door. I wanted to see where they'd been, so I walked and peeked in the door. I saw a pretty garden, so I called to ken to come explore.
Waldstein garden is pretty. Since it is only the very beginning of spring, nothing is blooming. I'm guessing in a few weeks it will be full of beauty. As we walked around a small pond, we heard a strange sound. Just after, I saw a peacock coming in to land. I had no idea peacocks can fly! There were two or three peacocks tellin at each other, it was loud. (It sounded like yelling to me; for all I know they were singing to each other.) The birds yelling at each other were all male. Two normal peacocks, and one albino peacock. It makes sense that every animal has potential as an albino, but this was a first for me. A white peacock!! Beautiful. In another area we saw two female peacocks.

Since Ken was getting hangry, we hopped on the next tram and took it just one stop, to a small platz. This is where a lot of tourists start their walk up to castle hill. It was 1100 by that point, so at the cafe we chose, I had a caprese salad. More impressive than the food was our view of the towers of st Nicholas, which was about 300m away.
We opted not to go in st Nicholas, as there is an entrance fee, and both of us have seen more than our fair share of European churches and cathedrals. Someday I will actually go in at Nicholas, but it didn't happen during this visit.

Continuing up the hill, there is one switchback, the corner of which has a nice view of the city. As we came to the top of the hill, I realized there was a crowd just inside the gates of the castle, and I could hear military style music. I quickly saw the musicians were actually standing just inside windows on the second floor, an there was a changing of the guards happening, or something along those lines. We watched the end, just because we were there.
Just outside the gates of the castle we saw a group of members of the red hat society. I've heard and read about this group, this was the first time I'd seen them. Very very cool. This group was from an area near Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

We went through the castle, and got to the front of st Vitus cathedral. The castle is very close to the cathedral, it's really difficult to get a picture of the entire front of the cathedral. You just can't back up far enough. As it turned out, we got there while the cathedral was closed for the midday, so we continued walking, on the shady side of the church. I kinda wish we had waited around, (it's lovely inside) but 40mins of waiting didn't sound like fun.
We took a photo together at the back of st vitus, as that side of the church is also quite beautiful...plus, there is a small square of sorts that allows photos to be taken with the entire side of the building in the photo (unlike the front side)

We walked past the entrance to st George's church, skipping the interior of that one as well...(another church which I have not entered, but hope to do someday)...the path next to st George's takes you past the church, and closer to the entrance of the so called 'golden lane'...it also requires an entrance fee, argh...(we didn't go in the street)...
From there we walked down the hill, passing a few musicians along the way...ken was happy to donate to the one who played freebird when he asked...hee hee...

The bottom of this hill was just around the corner of malostranska station...instead of going back up the hill, we crossed the river on the bridge next to the famous Charles bridge...not too long after crossing, ken saw a restaurant/cafe/brewery (I'm not sure which it was) and he wanted to stop, so in we went...our food took a bit longer than we expected, but it wasn't bad...(not great, not bad)...as we paid the bill our waiter gave me an orange rose 😀
We followed the street parallel to the river, coming to the tiny square at one end of Charles bridge...it's always filled with people; some are about to cross the bridge, others have just come over, and still others are just hanging out...on the platz (it's really small) are two churches that are now used for evening concerts, often with an organ...I don't know architecture all that well, but I'm pretty sure they are both baroque, which I don't particularly love, as I think it's too 'busy'...we peeked inside one of them, just because we could...

Then we crossed Charles bridge...all the postcards have beautiful photos where you can see all the statues, an it looks empty...the reality is very different...it's packed with people, and there are vendors all along both sides of the bridge...depending on your mood it's either awesome or really annoying...thank goodness ken is tall, I didn't have to worry about losing him in the crowd...
We took stairs down from the side of the bridge before reaching the end...I don't remember why, but that's what we did...there are plenty of little shops, cafes, etc...since it was a beautiful day (still a bit chilly, but there was a lovely blue sky, which made it feel warmer,) there were plenty of people out walking, sitting outside at the cafes...

A bit further along the river ken found a display of American military 'stuff'...even though the American military didn't liberate Prague itself during the war (they only made it to rokycany (sp?) in the west) many Czechs are very grateful and show it through museums and displays like this one...ken loved the motorcycle...
We got back on the bridge and walked to the end, going under the tower...(there are towers on both ends, both appear in various postcard photos)...
Not far from where we'd eaten breakfast that morning, we met mom at the entrance to vrtba gardens...it's not a well known sight, but I think its popularity is growing...the entrance isn't obvious, the sign out front isn't big or splashy...when you first go in, you can't even see what it is you are going to see...

Vrtba garden was originally a private garden, belonging to one of the wealthy folks in the city...it isn't huge, it is landscaped, and there are levels...it is a beautiful location for weddings, and when one of those is taking place, the garden is closed to the public...(meaning Saturdays in the summer are not good times to visit)...
The garden was closed during the communist years, due to its location next to the U.S. Embassy. During those years the small area in which you see beautiful frescoes was used as a pram storage room. The former mansion was used as a kindergarten.
We walked through the garden, going up each level of stairs. Some of the stairs are rather skinny, not made for large people or two people going in opposite directions.

As we got to the top level I was able to show ken why this garden is my favorite location in Prague. You can see over the entire city, and you feel like you are close to the city at the same time. (While I love beautiful city views, you're often far away, or very high up. Somehow, this isn't the case with this garden.) we sat and chatted for a while.
Eventually we wound our way back down all the stairs, and back across Charles bridge. Since mom is not as tall I had to keep an eye on her so we didn't get too separated among the crowds. Ken was still easy to see.
After we got back to the old town area, mom and I took a quick detour to show Ken a particular piece of art. I think I've mentioned it before, but in case I haven't, this is a sculpture of a guy hanging off a pole over the street. If you aren't expecting it, it's quite a surprise. It looks realistic enough to make you think (initially, anywho) that it's a real person hanging over the street. Mom says Czechs have mixed feelings about the sculpture, as it isn't very traditional.

As we came around a corner that gave ken his first glimpse of the old town square, ken said he was officially wowed. Yahoo, mission accomplished 😀
We walked past the astronomical clock, it was nowhere near the top of the hour so we didn't wait around. (At the top of each hour you get to see the twelve apostles 'march' by, it's cute, and people crowd in to see.)
A little bit further into the square ken and mom saw a cafe and they were both a bit hungry, so we sat. We could see quite a bit of the square, which was full of booths selling all sorts of stuff. Some food, some decorations, some random knick knacks, etc. The booths aren't there most of the time, mom said they usually appear around Christmas/New Years and Easter.  After we ate (all three of us chose traditional Czech food) we walked through some of the booths, coming upon a pen holding a couple sheep and a donkey. Ken had fun feeding them.

From there we walked out the other side of the square, walking under the powder tower. I can't remember why that tower is important, even though mom has told me a few times.
Not too far from the tower we got to the tram stop where we hopped on tram #5. It took us directly back home.
The next morning we slept in, then got up and packed up. Mom and I had planned to go with ken to the airport, but he had another idea. We ended up eating breakfast, then he caught a car to the airport.

Mom and I went back to her flat, then relaxed for a while. Eventually we went back out, and took a combination of metro and tram to get to Strahov monastery. Mom hadn't been there in a while, but she has memories of being there when she was younger.
The garden on one side of the monastery is big, and offers another view over the city. Absolutely lovely. We entered one courtyard and building, buying tickets that gave us entry to the cloister area. Several of the rooms around the cloister had been set up with exhibits, mostly of art. We walked through the rooms with paintings on display pretty quickly, neither of us enjoys dawdling in front of paintings. My favourite part of that area was when we stepped into the summer refectory. The entire ceiling is painted, it's gorgeous. I took a heap of photos, none of which do it justice. I got a crick in my neck from staring up so much.

We exited that area, and walked around to the entry of the church. Unfortunately, we were only able to peer inside through a couple windows in the inner doors. I don't know if the church is always open that way to visitors, or if we were there at an unlucky time. Regardless, I saw a sign indicating no photos were allowed.

At another entry we bought more entry tickets, and walked up a flight of stairs. This was the library. WOW...AMAZING...it was incredible...I'm not usually a huge fan of paying extra to take photos, but in this case I thought it was worth it.
The library is divided into two halls, the theological hall and the philosophical hall. Both are beautiful. The walls are covered with bookshelves in both rooms. In the philosophical hall the books go up high enough that a special laser is required. Both halls are now blocked off by a rope at their entrances, visitors can only peer in. Mom remembers walking where a she wanted, back when she was a student. I wonder when the library essentially closed to public use and became a tourist sight instead.
I took as many photos as I could, of course. Each hall has a lady who checks those taking photos, making sure they've paid. As annoying as that can be, it's nice to know it's tough to sneak the photos.

After getting my fill of the library, mom and I exited the entire area. A little way down the hill toward the castle, we stepped into a cafe for a snack. Both of us had sandwiches and a sweet. Then we walked all the way down the hill, and when we got to the bottom I wondered out loud why there weren't more tourists at the monastery. It's not totally quiet, but it's also not overrun; considering how close it is to the castle, I'm surprised there aren't more people walking up the hill.
We took the tram and metro back home, picking up dinner at the food court in the mall across the street.
The evening was spent just relaxing. Mom bought flights and made a hotel booking for her visit to Kyiv in May. Yay!
The next morning was the same as the previous morning in terms of waking up and packing. Then mom took me to the airport and we said 'see you later' again.
I will be back!