ukraine: kyiv again

I lived in Kyiv for six years. When I first moved there I never would've dreamed I would end up staying for six years. During those six years I had all kinds of experiences and adventures, including a national political revolution. One of those experiences is called Khreshchennya, or Baptism.

Khreshchennya takes place on Epiphany, the 12^th day of Christmas. In the western world, this is the 6^th of January. For those who follow the Orthodox calendar, this is 19 January. When I've been in countries or cities in the western world where this is a celebrated holiday, I've seen festivals and markets and such. In the Orthodox Christian world, there is an aspect that is a party, but it is a much more religious celebration.

Orthodox Christians imitate baptism by going into bodies of water (pond, river, lake, etc...) and go under the water. Typically they go under the water three times, crossing themselves each time.

I did this three or four of the six years I was in Kyiv, and always loved the experience. My first year in Moscow, I found a place to do it, but didn't like it nearly as much. The experience in Moscow didn't feel as real, as raw. I don't know quite how to explain it. I was super excited when I looked at a calendar and realized 19 January would be on a Saturday, which meant I could take the train to Kyiv and participate there.

The girls thought I was crazy, but chose to come with me, and I convinced them to participate too. 

The train ride from Moscow to Kyiv isn't super long, but it feels that way because you're woken up twice, in the middle of the night, for border control with each country.

On the way to Kyiv, I got pulled for a random interview with a border control officer, which was a bit scary. He asked where I'm from, why I was going to Ukraine, why I live in Russia, etc... I was able to answer the questions, but I don't think he liked all my answers. (For instance, when I said that I liked Khreshchennya better in Ukraine than in Russia.) Since the questions were mostly in Russian, and my Russian isn't very good, plus this was a legal situation, I was more than a little nervous. 

Thankfully I passed the interview and was stamped out of the country. It was a lot easier to enter Ukraine than to leave Russia, wierdly enough. That being said, the border officers of both countries were surprised to have three foreigners riding this particular train, in platzcar, or 3^rd class. Usually foreigners spend a bit more money and go for 2^nd class at the very least.

Arriving in Kyiv felt like coming home for me. I was excited to show the girls the train station, because it is what I expect for all train stations in Ukraine and Russia, but haven't had nearly as often in Russia. The main hall is giant, with a beautifully decorated ceiling.

We ate breakfast at a fast food joint across the street, then started walking. Almost immediately I remembered how hilly Kyiv is, especially in comparison to Moscow. Kyiv is built on seven hills, and walking around the city often feels like you're going up or down.

We walked near Shevchenko Park, and I figured the girls ought to at least see the front of the main university building across the street from the park. Taras Shevchenko is a Ukrainian hero, a writer and political figure. He is given general credit for inventing the Ukrainian language.

Kyiv National University is named for him, the main building is painted cherry red. 

I think it's ugly, but the exterior facade isn't what matters when it comes to a university. We were able to take our first team photo in front of that building.

More walking brought us to Khreshchatyk Street, the main street in the city center. It was built after WW2, and was built in a way to accomodate large parades of soldiers and tanks. It's wide, and mostly straight. This street has changed a lot since I moved to Kyiv in 2011. The stores in the buildings on either side change regularly, as do the coffee stalls and such on the pavements.

One store that hasn't changed is Roshen, a chocolate store. Roshen is a candy company owned by Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president. I don't know why I remember this, but the first time I ever had Roshen candy, I was in the middle of nowhere, in Mongolia. Weird. We stopped in the store, buying more than we needed, but it was worth it.

We wound through a couple more streets, before finding the office for the accomodation we'd booked, a flat in the city center. It was a challenge to find cash for the deposit, as we hadn't known we'd need that. 

(The guy said this was normal, but I've stayed all over Ukraine and this was the first time I'd ever needed such a thing.) Anywho, the flat was good and the location was good, so we were happy.

After a little while relaxing, we walked out of the flat and continued exploring the city. There are a couple UNESCO sights in the city, and I wanted the girls to see them both.

We visited St Sophia's Cathedral first, because it was super close. The foundations of the cathedral were laid in the 11^th century, but it took another 20 years to finish. (I always wonder what local citizens thought of the neverending project while it was going on. And on and on and on.) 

The layout of the building looks really similar to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

The interior of the cathedral is impressive. One of the parts I like best is the chance to climb stairs and see everything from the second level. It's a view you don't often get in Orthodox churches. It is easy to see where renovations have been done, and where things remain as they were a long long time ago.

As of right now, no particular religious branch has the right to have services in the church. It was an active church until the 1930s, when Soviet authorities wanted to get rid of religion.

They took religious art and treasure out of the church, but didn't destroy the church. It was then made into a history museum.

Near the end of the 1980s authorities told locals they would be giving the church back to religious authorities, but it was never decided exactly who would be in charge. Wikipedia tells me various religious groups have laid claim to it, so there are no active services.

We also climbed the bell tower, because there are great views of the city from up there. It's also super windy, but oh well.

After leaving the grounds of the cathedral, we made our way to Khreshchatyk metro station. We love metro system in Moscow, and I wanted the girls to experience the system in Kyiv. It isn't as extensive, or as nice, but it is still a great system, and relatively cheaper.

Our arrival station was Hidropark, so we could all take park in Khreshchennya. Ever since my first experience with this holiday, I've figured this must be the busiest day in Hidropark all year long. Getting through the turnstiles isn't easy, as there are so many people, going both ways. The ticket office normally has a queue, but this time it was just a mass of people. 

I led the girls over the bridge in the middle of the park, and we stopped to watch everything for a while. I'd tried to explain the whole thing to them ahead of time, but there is nothing like seeing it in real life. There are heaps of people all over the beaches, with a couple rowboats in the water. Random people dash into the water, go under three times, then dash back out. When they get back out they are usually greeted by family or friends, and wrapped in a towel or clothes or a robe.

We crossed the bridge, and I led the girls to a section of beach that is less busy. I wanted each of us to be able to have a photo or video with just us, not a huge mass of people.

Then we did it! I went first, then the girls. I loved it, and while I'm not sure they loved it, they were glad they did it. We finished just at sunset, and the moment the sun went below the horizon we could feel the colder temperatures.

From there we went straight to dinner. One of the gazillion sushi places has a happy hour between 1500 and 1800, buy one get one free. Obviously, we ate too much :)

The next morning Angela and I got up a little earlier, as I wanted to visit a bakery that had cinnamon rolls I loved. Sadly, when we got there, we discovered no cinnamon rolls, and very little else. I'm not sure if it was because we were there just after it opened, or if the cafe has changed quite a bit, but I was totally disappointed.

While on this walk I pointed out a couple huge building murals to Angela, I loved the murals. There is even an app that is supposed to map all the murals in the city. I don't know how accurate it is, but it's still pretty neat.

We packed up and checked out, and were able to leave our packs in the front office.

From there we walked up the hill to St Michael's, another Orthodox church that isn't far from St Sophia. This one is more photogenic, but is also a lot newer. The original St Michael's was quite old, then the Soviets blew it up in the 1930s, in their effort to get rid of religion. It was rebuilt in the early 2000s, if I remember correctly. 

When we went inside the church there was a service taking place, so we didn't wander around as much as I would've liked.

More walking brought us to the top of Andreivsky Descent, a well known street in the city. At the top of the whole thing is St Andrew's, but it was under renovation, and not open. You are allowed to go to the pavement around the church, but doing so now costs 20 griven (about 85 US cents,) even though it was free when I lived there. Argh. We didn't go up the stairs.

I convinced the girls to follow me part way down the street, to another big building mural. When we got there, I was disappointed. 

I remembered it as being brightly coloured, but it didn't feel this way anymore. Argh. Maybe I"m used to see photos on social media, where the colours have increased saturation.

We went the rest of the way down the hill, to an area called kontraktova ploshcha. (Kontrakt square, would be the English translation I think?) There is now a ferris wheel there, which strikes me as somewhat out of place, but seems to be permanent. There are regularly seasonal markets in the area, so there were still Christmas stalls set up.

We found the nearest metro station, and rode to Arsenalna. (Side note, Arsenalna is one of the deepest (if not the deepest) metro stations in the world. Getting up and back out takes a while on the fast escalators.

Our walk first brought us to the biggest WW2 memorial. Near this memorial is a viewpoint showing two memorable structures: the Holodomor memorial and the Lavra. There is also an amazing view over the river, and left bank of the city.

The Holodomor is a man made famine that took place in the winter of 1932-1933. Exact numbers have never been stated, but millions of people died. The Soviet government said it was due to the weather of the year, but there were other factors, including forced communilization. The borders were closed, so people weren't able to leave to get help, or to tell the outside world what was happening.

The memorial is a small museum, the girls and I went in to look around. There are books listing many of those who died, as well as photos and items from that time.

Next up was the other UNESCO sight in the city: the Pechersk Lavra. When we entered the grounds of the Lavra we were joined by Josh, who is someone I worked with in Kyiv. It was fun to take a team photo, since we teach at four different branches of our school.

We wandered through two of the main churches in the Lavra. One of them didn't used to be open except for service times, I guess this has changed. (Probably due to tourist interest?) The other church has one of my favourite ceilings. One side of the property has a beautiful view over the rest of the property and the river.

At that point the girls were tired and cold. Josh left us, so the three of us went back to the city center by metro. We went back to Roshen to buy more chocolate, then back to the same restaurant for more sushi. This time we took the second portions to go, but we ate the second desssert portions.

The train going back to Moscow was a lot easier, though we still had the two middle of the night wake ups for border controls. It seems easier to get into Russia than to leave!

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 :)

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…