Chillin' in the Ukraine

Day before yesterday I flew down to Kiev with mom. We took a tupelov which was new for me. Not as shabby as I thought it would be- they actually have some improvements over the western airplanes. The seats don't have to float so they can fold up like theater seats and the backs can fold down so people get by more easily. Flight was short, less than two hours.

We met a driver at the airport and drove into Kiev. The hotel Dnipro was ok. Good service downstairs, almost as nice as a motel 6 upstairs. It was really cold, so we went back down and got them to bring up a space heater. We met our tour guide and driver downstairs and took an overview tour of Kiev. Stopped off at a few churches, embankments, etc. Had dinner at the hotel's "Munich Bar," which was surprisingly passable.

The next day I struck out alone early to check out an overlook near the hotel. The tours we took that day were St. Sophia and to the cave monastary. Both of these places were really cool- the exterior of st. Sophia had been completely renovated in the baroque style but the interior remianed in the 11th centruy slavic-byzantine. Amazing frescos and mossaics. The Lavra cave monestary was a sprawling complex only fairly recently returned to the relgious order. (The Communists destroyed hundreds of churches, or converted them into museums of Athiesm and Darwinism.) We ducked down in the caves which were a narrow labrynth of passages lined with mummified remains in glass coffins covered with emroidery. The church took out the electic lighting and everyone shuffled around with candles down there. VERY claustrophobic down there with the people, the low ceiling, narrow passages and smoke. I did buy some holy honey from the monestary's apiary.

For dinner we went back to the hotel and had a lite early dinner. Good mushroom soup. Went to bed early. The next morning, mom and I got up and wandered around the neighborhood. We were actually stopped by the police and had our passports inspected. I half expected to be hit up for bribes, but we're not in Russia, so they just handed them back over.

The other interesting thing was while we were there, the Ukrainans were heading to the polls for parilmentary elections. The recent democracy there has led to a very active and enthusiastic politicizaion. There were flags everywhere of the different parties and supporters marched, and waved banners and flags everywhere we went.

Flew back around noon sitting in the same seats we flew over on. The Kiev airport is working on becoming more modern, with a clean, open, and airy addition to the main terminal. Picked up a dark chocolate Toblerone for snack. Nasty traffic back into town, took us about two hours to get home from the airport.