the cuz comes to visit

Since one of my cousins lives where I used to live in germany, it made sense that we see each other while we’re on the same continent…in his own blog, he says that Kyiv/Ukraine wasn’t originally on his list of places to travel…but then I moved here, and he was able to find a cheap flight, so he figured, why not?

His flight arrived really really late one Friday night…and by late, I mean after midnight…it was supposed to land just before midnight, but was a few minutes late…I tried taking public transport to get to the airport to pick him  up, but didn’t make it the whole way…I found the spot where a bus is supposed to pick up to take people to this particular airport (this is the same airport into which I flew when I landed here, Kyiv’s Zhulyany airport) but after waiting for 20 minutes, I never saw the bus…I did howeva see plenty of other buses…I don’t know how often this bus is supposed to come, it could be only once an hour, for all I know…anywho, I started to worry about making it to the airport in time to meet the flight…so I called a taxi…I could’ve taken one of the taxis sitting by the train station, but I knew they’d be more expensive, partly because I don’t speak any Russian or Ukrainian…one of my coworkers had given me a number to call for taxis, and I knew that that night at least there would be an English speaker working, so it was easy enough to get a taxi…phew!!

I got to the airport and had to wait for a little while, I entertained myself by walking in circles…I also found giant scales, so I was able to weigh myself…or at least try to do so…I don’t know how much my clothes, and shoes weigh, so I don’t know how much to subtract from the weight I could see…

Since I’d already flown into this airport, I knew what my cousin would be going through upon arrival, I’d warned him the airport was “primitive.”…the tough thing about waiting is that you don’t hear a plane come in, so you don’t know for sure when to expect anyone to come walking through the door…there is a sign on the outside of the door saying do not enter, but that didn’t stop a heck of a lot of people from constantly opening it up, trying to see if their loved ones were in the customs line yet…finally, he walked through the door…I called another taxi, and for less than $10 we arrived back at my flat in around 20 minutes!

My flattie and I had already pulled out the sofa bed in the lounge, so my cousin and I arranged the sheets, chatted a bit, and each went to bed…I woke up earlier than he did the next morning, probably b/c I’m used to waking up early every morning…he was also coming from germany, which is an hour behind, so he was still on that time…that morning we chatted, and eventually had breakfast…the internet guy came to the flat and set up wireless internet, so my flattie and I weren’t dependent on a single cable for both of us…not too long after he left, my cousin and I left, and I started showing him “my” city…

We walked to the subway, which isn’t a difficult walk…it’s a 20 minute walk, but really easy…I showed him how to buy a few tokens, and off we went…go figure, it takes longer for me to walk to the subway stop every morning, than the actual time I spend on the train…(if we ever move flats, we want to be closer to a subway stop)…we got off the train at the same place I do every morning, the main square in town…translated to English, it’s Independence Square…I don’t know if that has always been the name, or just since the country declared independence from the former USSR in 1991…on one post in front of the central post office glass covers graffiti created during the riots/demonstrations of the orange revolution in 2004…when I read about that in the guidebook I was expecting great graffiti, but it wasn’t anything exciting…not at all…

We started by walking down the main street that splits the platz in two…krushchek street is basically the translated name…on weekends, the street becomes a pedestrian zone, its nice to walk down the middle of the street…it’s full length is about a kilometer, I don’t know how often people actually walk the whole thing…it’s a wide boulevard, with typical communist architecture on both sides…according to lonely planet, the square and this street are the places to see and be seen every weekend…there are definitely a lot of people hanging out…

When we first came out of the metro, we saw a giant stage set up…I had no idea what was going on, but it was clear it was some sort of rehearsal…I found out from my flattie a couple days later that various groups were rehearsing for a weekly dance contest tv show that is filmed every Saturday evening…the cousin and I watched for a few minutes, it made me laugh…then we walked all the way down and back up the street…at one end of the street is a covered market, I think its called the Arabian market…I don’t know how that name came, or even if its correct…lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as meat and fish…I bought raspberries, which are my favourite fruit, and one I wish I could have year round, and daily…sooooo good…right now, they seem to be cheaper here than in the states!

As we walked back toward the platz, we started following the walking tour lonely planet has for Kyiv in the guidebook…we found most of the stuff listed, though not all…we walked by government buildings (including the president’s office, where we took the required “family member is in the same city at the same time, we should prove it” photo) churches, parks and more…we wandered through a couple grocery stores,(he bought happy hippos at one of the stores…I had no idea the name was anything more than a game from my childhood!)  and down a street filled with souvenir vendors…we saw heaps of couples having wedding photos taken…apparently Saturday afternoon in late summer is the best time to get married/have photos taken…

The cousin got a new camera recently, and both of us love to take photos, so we spent plenty of time doing so…trying to get good angles, good focus, etc…fun…at least, I think it’s fun…

I think we finally returned to my flat around 1930…I took him to the grocery store that is conveniently close to the flat (it forces me to go outside, but distance-wise it’s probably the same distance as my closet grocery store was in seoul) and we figured out what to do for dinner…a very simple meal of pasta, veggies and chicken…

The next morning we were up really early…and by really early, I mean we were out of the flat at 0730…I’d decided to make Sunday our UNESCO day…we started by taking the subway to arselnalna station, which is really close to the dnipro river…we followed everyone exiting the station, down the street…a 15 minute walk later, we arrived at Kyevo-Pecherska Lavra…at some point i'll probably write solely about the lavra, as i took heaps of photos and there is plenty of history to bore you with...according to lonely planet, this is the holiest ground in all of the three east Slavic countries of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus…I’d read that entrance is free before 9am, and we arrived at 0845…not that the entrance fee is huge, it’s only about $3…arriving before 9 meant most of the people there were locals wanting to attend a service…arriving at 10 or later means that most of the people there are tourists, often with very noisy tourist groups…we were there early enough to get heaps of great photos, and really wander around the area w/out feeling smushed by others…

the lavra is divided into an upper and a lower section…the upper section has an entrance fee, the lower does not…the lower section is mainly known for the “caves”  (pecherska means caves)…a greek guy named st antoniy founded the lavra in 1051, after orthodoxy was adopted as the official religion of what was then called kyivan rus…he and his follower dug out a bunch of tunnels and cave like rooms, where they and other monks worshipped, studied and lived…the weather in Kyiv is such that when these guys died, their bodies were naturally preserved…so now, when you walk through the catacombs, there are glass caskets to be seen, presumably with bodies under the blankets…it’s rather dark down there, we didn’t pick up candles on the way…

These caves weren’t what we were expecting…reading the guidebooks, each of us thought we’d be seeing actual caves…we didn’t realize we were in the cave area until we walked into a tiny little room with the first casket…the walls are painted, and there is lighting in some areas…the hallways are tiny, you can only walk in one direction…if you have issues with claustrophobia, I’d highly suggest skipping this spot…since we were clearly not pilgrims, or believers in the faith, we didn’t get to see all the caves…there are a couple spots where additional tunnels branch off, but monks are sitting there, and the only way you get to walk into the “extra” tunnels is if you are a believer…

Also in the lower area are a couple more churches, and a graveyard…

Over the wall of the graveyard, you could see the area I wanted to go to next…rodina mat…the formal name is the “defence of the motherland monument”…a 62m tall statue of a female warrior…on our way to the statue, we walked through a flower exhibition…flowers arranged into sculptures, including a birthday cake to celebrate ukraine’s 20^th birthday as an independent nation…

From the flower exhibition, we headed toward the big lady…lonely planet says there are nicknames of iron lady and tin tits…the cousin and I found those names amusing…I’m not sure I would’ve come up with either of those on my own…there is a museum at the bottom of the statue, though we skipped that…also according to the guidebook, somewhere in the museum there is an entrance to an elevator that takes you to the top of the lady’s right hand…maybe I’ll do that before I leave the country…or maybe not…we ate lunch in front of the lady, it was a lovely view over the city on one side, and the river on the other…also near the feet of the statue are two tanks, and soviet sculptures…kids (and adults) climb all over the tanks, which are now painted blue and yellowish orange, with flowers on them…not very intimidating, as tanks normally are supposed to be…

From there we walked to another metro station, and took the train back into the center of town…our next stop was st Sophia, the other UNESCO sight in town…a large cathedral…after figuring out which entrance tickets we wanted (there are prices for several options: entrance to the grounds, entrance to the church, entrance to the bell tower, and tours) we entered…sadly, there is some construction/renovation happening around the church, it’s impossible to get the beautiful photo you see in books and on postcards…both of us wondered when the renovations and whatnot would be finished…walking into the church was impressive…the initial entry area is filled with a display of the history of the church…that is, a history since directors of it’s foundation have been named…there was a brief history in each director, and what they’ve accomplished, as well as a model to scale of the entire complex…in St Sophia we were able to go up stairs, and see the church from a higher level…definitely the coolest part of seeing that church…we both loved it…we wandered around the grounds, and ended the visit by going up the bell tower…there are several floors worth of stairs, it’s a workout…you’re able to look out over the city in all directions, the views are fantastic…with the clear weather, it was fantastic…I’m glad we did the climb, I don’t think as many people do that…

After St Sophia, we walked back toward maidan (the square) and passed my school along the way…I pointed it out…we took the metro back to my flat, and relaxed for a while…the cousin and I checked as many football scores as possible…my friend violetta called right about then, and we set up dinner…so the cousin and I walked back to the metro and met up with violetta…she took us to a cafeteria style restaurant…all sorts of traditional foods, you pay for what you take…dumplings, soup, salad, tons of main courses, etc…between the two of us, we had lots of food to try!! Eventually, we took the train back to my flat, and called it a night…the two days of walking all over the city was great, but my legs were pretty tired…I need to be doing that sort of walking a whole lot more…

The next morning we both woke up slowly…it was originally supposed to be the first day of classes, but the school decided to put that off for a day, as the school wasn’t completed…the extra day gave the contractors a bunch of extra hours to finish quite a bit, and clean a whole bunch more…plus, it also gave us the chance to do a lot of prep work for our lessons…my cousin came with me to school, just to kill his last couple hours before going to the airport…we called him a taxi, which picked him up directly at the school…super convenient…he and I had walked to maidan to try and get a taxi there, but the price of that taxi was 4x the price of the taxi we called!! I know prices are higher in the city center, but that taxi driver was ridiculous…he tried to say the airport was far away, but we knew it wasn’t nearly that far…anywho, early the next morning he emailed me to say he’d gotten home safely, despite the chaos he found when he arrived at the airport…

The next day, I started my first day of teaching at my new school…