Tourists in Kiev

We stayed put in Kiev for our April Easter vacation, playing tourist and host to Kim's mom and stepdad, Shirley and John.  It was fun to be able to relax and see the sites and sounds of Kiev, and to show off our life to family.

The weather wasn't particularly agreeable for being tourists, rather rainy, windy, and, for a few days, downright cold.  Fortunately, Mom and John came prepared.  We spent the first few days doing our regular routine things in life:  grocery shopping (which takes hours!), going to the produce market, watching Angela horseback ride, going to church.  On Monday of the week we took Mom down to Independence Square and showed her the main road called Kreshatek.  During the weekend this road is closed to traffic, so it is a great place to stroll - that is when it is warm enough.   The street is full of brand name shops like Marks & Spencers (British), Gap, Espirit, Adidas, Zara, etc.  I think the prices jump by at least 25% down on Kreshatek, so it is not a place we shop or frequent very often.  There are some good restaurants, however, and we took mom to one of our favorites.

Monday was John's (Pop Pop) birthday, and we took him to our very favorite restaurant, The Cave.  This restaurant is within walking distance from our apartment and it is a regular place for KIS staff.  They specialize in Georgian (that would be the country, not the state!) food and have the absolute best chicken "shashlik" on the planet.  This is a grilled marinated chicken that about melts in your mouth.  Combined with grilled vegetables, hummus, babaganoush  (eggplant dip), and pita type bread, it is a culinary experience.

Ken and I had made arrangements with a Ukrainian teacher at our school to be our tour guide for a couple of days.  She planned two days of site seeing.  The first day we went to Independence Square and multiple cathedrals.  It was a day of walking and we were pretty beat by the end of it.  Here are some photos from that day:

 Independence Square

A statue of the brothers and sister who founded Kyiv

In front of St. Sophia's Cathedral

Government building

St. Michael's Cathedral

Statue of the Apostle James (I believe)

St. Michael's

A view from St. Michael's toward St. Sophia's - seen through the middle of the statue.

St. Andrew's Cathedral - closed for renovation

We had hoped to visit and walk down Andrevsky Street, a popular touristy shopping street.  However, with the EuroCup 2012 looming, the street was torn up in renovations.  So instead of walking down the street, we rode the funicular (see below).  The funicular took us close to the Dnipro River. 

 Funicular

After we had lunch at a restaurant called Pazata Hata - a Ukrainian buffet, we went to the Chernobyl Museum.  Not many people realize that the Chernobyl disaster occurred only about 60 KM north of Kiev, and it has significantly impacted Ukraine for years.

Wednesday was Angela's 16th birthday and we celebrated the day at a place called DreamTown - a huge mall with shopping, food, and fun.  There is an ice rink, a skating rink, bumper cars, a movie theater, an aqua park, curling, and a huge arcade area.  Angela had two friends with her, Renee and Katja, and the highlight of the day was that Renee got her ears pierced for the first time and Angela got her ear cartilage pierced.  You will have to ask her about how they did it.  That is a story only she can tell.

On Thursday, Olga was our tour guide again.  Fortunately the day was gorgeous!  We began our tour at the Famine Museum.  This represents Ukraine's version of Holodomor, what they consider to be a man-made famine by Joseph Stalin to assert control over Ukrainian nationalism.  To learn more about this event of the 1930s, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor.  The museum was very interesting.

View of the Dnipro River

Statue representing the Great Famine of 1932

After the museum we walked to The Lavra, the largest monastery in Ukraine.  This is a very old campus originally built by monks and improved upon by the Ukrainian Orthodox church.  As we were in the week leading up to Orthodox Easter, many special events were taking place at Lavra and we got to go inside several of the cathedrals and browse through some stands set up.  We also went to a miniature museum and met the artist of these miniatures.

Entrance to Lavra

Lavra's view of the Dnipro

This is the southern part of the huge Lavra campus.

In the lower right you can see a priest who just left one of the monasteries

This is part of a giant egg sculpture made with individual eggs.  In Ukraine, hand painting eggs is a specialty called Pisanki.  These are beautiful Easter colors, but Pisanki can be found throughout the year.

When you enter a cathedral, you have to cover your head.

An egg made of roses.

Olga, our tour guide and friend

Mom and John were able to meet many of our friends, although most had left for their own holidays.  We did have Easter lunch with a great group of people, so we did celebrate Easter.  We also watched the people of Kiev celebrate Orthodox Easter.  Each family buys a basket, makes a special bread, and has the bread blessed by a priest.  We watched as family after family went to a local cathedral near us and then went to the park and enjoyed a picnic.

We enjoyed our last few days with Grandma Shirley and Pop Pop before they headed home.  I am hoping that other people can come and visit so we can show them the sites as well.