Monday, May 20th
Another quick breakfast and we were ready to head out by 9:00. It was Inauguration day for the new president! A weird and unplanned coincidence. Our plan today was to get to the Lavra complex. It's a large group of churches, monasteries, and caves. The latter have been made into catacombs where the monks are interred. There's an upper section and a lower section. It sounds quite large!
We'll see how that goes, then figure the rest of the day out. Hopefully the inauguration won't mess too many things up. For security reasons, a number of roads in the center of the city were closed, so the buses weren’t running. Unfortunate, because the bus would have led directly to the Lavra. So we had to walk a little more than expected, and take the Metro instead.
It wasn’t a bad walk and we got to see more of Maydan Square, then Khreschatyk (the main shopping street) for the Metro. It was quick and efficient though a bit crowded. It takes longer to go up and down to the Metro than it does to ride it one or two stops! It took 7 minutes to get out of Arsenala Station. It's so deep, and the escalators are huge!
We had a pleasant walk down the street, and then into a park to see a few memorials. At the end of this path is a memorial to the unknown soldier.
Also in the park there is the Holodomor Memorial. This has a museum underneath with more information about the Holodomor, a famine in the 1930s where millions of Ukrainians starved to death. We didn't go in, as it wasn't open until 10:00.
So we continued on and reached the Lavra around 10:00. We took a side entrance, and went to the bell tower first. It was an easy climb up. The sign at the bottom of the stairs said not to climb if you were a senior citizen (in Ukrainian) or if you were 60 or older (in English). Good thing we got here now!
Nice view down the river, with the Motherland Monument in plain sight.
Another gorgeous day for vistas!
Here is the Dormition Cathedral on the left, and the Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Feodosy at the right edge of this photo.
Looking to the South again, the Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Feodosy is on the left and we have a better view of the river.
Of course, a Bell Tower needs a few bells.
This is St. Nicholas' Church, which our guidebook said is used as administrative offices. We liked the deep blue dome with gold stars.
We climbed down and wandered over the the Gate Church, which is at the main gate. It's small, but lavishly decorated.
Then the attendant told us to make sure to go into St. Nicholas’ Church, because they had fresco exhibits. So we did.
There are a few non-religious sites here also. The museum of microminiatures was really spectacular! There are about 15 exceedingly detailed miniature sculptures which were made by a single artist, Mykola Siadrystyi. This alone was worth the price of admission. No photos allowed, so please go see it yourself. He fashioned gold horseshoes on a flea, for example. And a caravan of camels, walking inside the eye of a needle. More info here:
http://microart.kiev.ua/en/gallery
From here, we started along the way down to the Lower Lavra, and ducked into the two churches along the way. The Dormition Cathedral.
And the Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Feodosy.
There was also a viewing platform for an overview of the Lower Lavra complex. So many domes, and so much gold! Spectacular in the bright sunshine, set against the deep blue sky.
Once we were in the Lower Lavra complex, we had a bit of a hard time finding the caves! We immediately found the spot to get paid guided tours, but couldn’t find the (free) self-guided entrance for a while. I guess they hide it!
But eventually we found the entrance, and bought a 3-hryvny candle to light the way (less than 10 cents). Chris got dressed appropriately, with a head scarf, and a skirt over her pants, and down we went. The near caves were smaller than I had expected and we were out shortly. The candle kept blowing out but there were lanterns along the way to reignite it.
Then we walked along a viaduct to the Far Caves, garbed up again, and headed back underground. These were a bit larger and we did some side trips through other passages, but after a while it all looked the same. Small corridors, lined with wooden crypts with glass tops so you could see the contents. The monks' bodies were almost completely covered in robes but here and there a hand was exposed. The bodies are believed to have healing powers, and many visitors were kissing the glass tops of the crypts.
We climbed back into the sunshine and decided that we we were doing very well on time. So we walked downhill to the street by the river, and had a leisurely walk to the Dnieper Metro Station.
That took us to Maydan, so of course we had to poke around and explore some more. It's a nice day for it!
The fountains were going. It reminded us that the sun was hot, and that we were thirsty.
But we sidetracked to another fountain, this one honoring the legendary founders of Kyiv. Three brothers (Kyi, Schek, Horyv) and one sister (Lybid) are depicted here.
Finally, we headed back to the hotel to cool off and regroup.
So our visit to the Lavra complex had been easy and quite a success. It wasn't too crowded because we'd arrived right around opening time. And since we'd started with the upper complex, the whole walk was downhill.
It was tempting to stay put in our beautiful hotel room for a few hours, but that's not how we vacation. We reluctantly pried ourselves loose from the sofa, and walked back towards St. Andrew’s Church to explore the Podil Area beyond it.
The first sight was this statue of Prokopiv and Golokhvastov, two characters in a Ukrainian movie. He's proposing. You're supposed to rub them for good luck. I took a photo instead.
It was a long downhill, so we broke it up with a long lunch stop at a brew pub!
Tasty sausages and potatoes. The horseradish sauce had a nice kick too. The second dish was chicken hearts with green beans and puffed buckwheat. Really interesting!
A nice relaxing lunch, and a few wheat beers and seasonal beers later, we were ready to continue.
We finished the descent to the Pharmacy museum which ended up being a pretty quick visit.
Make your own home remedy here?
Everything was old, but the age varied.
I liked the mandrake root. It really did look like a man!
Then the Chornobyl museum, which was fast as well. There are a lot of exhibits there but the captions are lacking. Even for Chris who is fluent in Ukrainian, reading the captions didn't explain much. I guess you have to get the audioguide in order to get the most detail, but we didn't want to spend too much more time indoors on a beautiful day. So it worked out just fine.
We were doing great on time so we wandered Podil for a few minutes.
There's the obligatory Ferris Wheel here. Behind it, the green church is St. Catherine's.
Then we found a nearby Metro, which we took to Khreschatyk station, where we changed lines and went back to Arsenala.
The Metro stations are really deep! Here is just one of the escalators coming out of Arsenala. You have to take two or three of these to get out of some of the stations.
So, back where we started this morning. We weren't planning to revisit the Lavra, though. This time we went in the opposite direction, to Mariinskyi Park. We enjoyed the fountains,
Later there were nice views of the Dnieper from the viewing platform.
There was a helicopter taking off below and we wondered if it was the former president going away, or something else to do with the inauguration today.
Mariinskyi Palace is in the park. It's the ceremonial palace for all things presidential, so that's why we wondered about the helicopter.
Beautiful here, but we are getting tired. It has been a long day!
We shuffled through the rest of the park, making our way down the hill and back towards Maydan. Along the way there were a few football (soccer) monuments. These two on the left are for a revered coach.
The one on the right remembers a much sadder occasion, the "Match of Death." It took place in the 1940s during German occupation. Accounts vary but one story is that a Ukrainian team was ordered to throw a match to the German team, did not, and four or five of the players were later murdered. The details are debated.
We walked onward towards Maydan, and passed a squat Soviet-appearing building. Chris thought it looked familiar - it was the Dnieper Hotel, and she thinks that she stayed there on her visit 25 years ago.
One more look at the fountains in Maydan, then we crawled back up the hill to our hotel, exhausted.
After a shower to cool off and refresh ourselves, we started to feel human again. Now it was time to head out to dinner at Kanapa, which was described by one of our friends who used to live in Kyiv as the best place in town. It is partway down the same hill that leads to the Podil district, so it will be easy to get to - and a bit of a climb back home.
It was hopping when we got there, so luckily we had made a reservation yesterday.
We started with Prosecco while perusing the extensive menu. There were many a la carte options as well as a tasting menu. We didn't want a multi-course tasting menu so we went with just appetizers and mains.
Chris chose the chopped beef. It was delicious but hard to see on the plate, as it's covered in crumbs.
I had borsch for my starter, which was served in a hollowed-out grilled head of cabbage. Pretty interesting presentation and tasty too.
Naturally, Chris then had the duck. It was served with gooseberries and mashed carrots.
And I had a veal rib chop with blueberry sauce. It came with mashed peas.
The dessert menu was great too – we had chocolate Kiev Cake and cherry varenyky for dessert. My favorite, especially if I don't have to make them myself!
All went well with a delicious Ukrainian Cab-Merlot from near Odessa. It was expensive – about $40 (1100 Hryvny) for the bottle. The food cost maybe another $45.
Tonight's meal was by far the most expensive meal we had for the entire trip. It was almost double what we spent anywhere else.
We rolled ourselves back uphill to our hotel and slept like logs until 5:30. We leave tomorrow evening for Lviv, in the west, so we'll see what else we can do tomorrow!
Another quick breakfast and we were ready to head out by 9:00. It was Inauguration day for the new president! A weird and unplanned coincidence. Our plan today was to get to the Lavra complex. It's a large group of churches, monasteries, and caves. The latter have been made into catacombs where the monks are interred. There's an upper section and a lower section. It sounds quite large!
We'll see how that goes, then figure the rest of the day out. Hopefully the inauguration won't mess too many things up. For security reasons, a number of roads in the center of the city were closed, so the buses weren’t running. Unfortunate, because the bus would have led directly to the Lavra. So we had to walk a little more than expected, and take the Metro instead.
It wasn’t a bad walk and we got to see more of Maydan Square, then Khreschatyk (the main shopping street) for the Metro. It was quick and efficient though a bit crowded. It takes longer to go up and down to the Metro than it does to ride it one or two stops! It took 7 minutes to get out of Arsenala Station. It's so deep, and the escalators are huge!
We had a pleasant walk down the street, and then into a park to see a few memorials. At the end of this path is a memorial to the unknown soldier.
 |
| Panoramic View from Vichnoi Slavy Park, Kyiv |
Also in the park there is the Holodomor Memorial. This has a museum underneath with more information about the Holodomor, a famine in the 1930s where millions of Ukrainians starved to death. We didn't go in, as it wasn't open until 10:00.
So we continued on and reached the Lavra around 10:00. We took a side entrance, and went to the bell tower first. It was an easy climb up. The sign at the bottom of the stairs said not to climb if you were a senior citizen (in Ukrainian) or if you were 60 or older (in English). Good thing we got here now!
Nice view down the river, with the Motherland Monument in plain sight.
Another gorgeous day for vistas!
Here is the Dormition Cathedral on the left, and the Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Feodosy at the right edge of this photo.
Looking to the South again, the Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Feodosy is on the left and we have a better view of the river.
Of course, a Bell Tower needs a few bells.
This is St. Nicholas' Church, which our guidebook said is used as administrative offices. We liked the deep blue dome with gold stars.
We climbed down and wandered over the the Gate Church, which is at the main gate. It's small, but lavishly decorated.
Then the attendant told us to make sure to go into St. Nicholas’ Church, because they had fresco exhibits. So we did.
 |
| Overview of Upper Lavra Complex |
There are a few non-religious sites here also. The museum of microminiatures was really spectacular! There are about 15 exceedingly detailed miniature sculptures which were made by a single artist, Mykola Siadrystyi. This alone was worth the price of admission. No photos allowed, so please go see it yourself. He fashioned gold horseshoes on a flea, for example. And a caravan of camels, walking inside the eye of a needle. More info here:
http://microart.kiev.ua/en/gallery
From here, we started along the way down to the Lower Lavra, and ducked into the two churches along the way. The Dormition Cathedral.
And the Refectory Church of Saints Anthony and Feodosy.
There was also a viewing platform for an overview of the Lower Lavra complex. So many domes, and so much gold! Spectacular in the bright sunshine, set against the deep blue sky.
Once we were in the Lower Lavra complex, we had a bit of a hard time finding the caves! We immediately found the spot to get paid guided tours, but couldn’t find the (free) self-guided entrance for a while. I guess they hide it!
But eventually we found the entrance, and bought a 3-hryvny candle to light the way (less than 10 cents). Chris got dressed appropriately, with a head scarf, and a skirt over her pants, and down we went. The near caves were smaller than I had expected and we were out shortly. The candle kept blowing out but there were lanterns along the way to reignite it.
Then we walked along a viaduct to the Far Caves, garbed up again, and headed back underground. These were a bit larger and we did some side trips through other passages, but after a while it all looked the same. Small corridors, lined with wooden crypts with glass tops so you could see the contents. The monks' bodies were almost completely covered in robes but here and there a hand was exposed. The bodies are believed to have healing powers, and many visitors were kissing the glass tops of the crypts.
We climbed back into the sunshine and decided that we we were doing very well on time. So we walked downhill to the street by the river, and had a leisurely walk to the Dnieper Metro Station.
That took us to Maydan, so of course we had to poke around and explore some more. It's a nice day for it!
The fountains were going. It reminded us that the sun was hot, and that we were thirsty.
But we sidetracked to another fountain, this one honoring the legendary founders of Kyiv. Three brothers (Kyi, Schek, Horyv) and one sister (Lybid) are depicted here.
 |
| Michael's Gate, Maydan Square, Kyiv |
Finally, we headed back to the hotel to cool off and regroup.
So our visit to the Lavra complex had been easy and quite a success. It wasn't too crowded because we'd arrived right around opening time. And since we'd started with the upper complex, the whole walk was downhill.
It was tempting to stay put in our beautiful hotel room for a few hours, but that's not how we vacation. We reluctantly pried ourselves loose from the sofa, and walked back towards St. Andrew’s Church to explore the Podil Area beyond it.
The first sight was this statue of Prokopiv and Golokhvastov, two characters in a Ukrainian movie. He's proposing. You're supposed to rub them for good luck. I took a photo instead.
It was a long downhill, so we broke it up with a long lunch stop at a brew pub!
Tasty sausages and potatoes. The horseradish sauce had a nice kick too. The second dish was chicken hearts with green beans and puffed buckwheat. Really interesting!
A nice relaxing lunch, and a few wheat beers and seasonal beers later, we were ready to continue.
We finished the descent to the Pharmacy museum which ended up being a pretty quick visit.
Make your own home remedy here?
Everything was old, but the age varied.
I liked the mandrake root. It really did look like a man!
Then the Chornobyl museum, which was fast as well. There are a lot of exhibits there but the captions are lacking. Even for Chris who is fluent in Ukrainian, reading the captions didn't explain much. I guess you have to get the audioguide in order to get the most detail, but we didn't want to spend too much more time indoors on a beautiful day. So it worked out just fine.
 |
| First Campus, National University of Kyiv |
We were doing great on time so we wandered Podil for a few minutes.
There's the obligatory Ferris Wheel here. Behind it, the green church is St. Catherine's.
Then we found a nearby Metro, which we took to Khreschatyk station, where we changed lines and went back to Arsenala.
The Metro stations are really deep! Here is just one of the escalators coming out of Arsenala. You have to take two or three of these to get out of some of the stations.
So, back where we started this morning. We weren't planning to revisit the Lavra, though. This time we went in the opposite direction, to Mariinskyi Park. We enjoyed the fountains,
Later there were nice views of the Dnieper from the viewing platform.
There was a helicopter taking off below and we wondered if it was the former president going away, or something else to do with the inauguration today.
Mariinskyi Palace is in the park. It's the ceremonial palace for all things presidential, so that's why we wondered about the helicopter.
Beautiful here, but we are getting tired. It has been a long day!
We shuffled through the rest of the park, making our way down the hill and back towards Maydan. Along the way there were a few football (soccer) monuments. These two on the left are for a revered coach.
The one on the right remembers a much sadder occasion, the "Match of Death." It took place in the 1940s during German occupation. Accounts vary but one story is that a Ukrainian team was ordered to throw a match to the German team, did not, and four or five of the players were later murdered. The details are debated.
We walked onward towards Maydan, and passed a squat Soviet-appearing building. Chris thought it looked familiar - it was the Dnieper Hotel, and she thinks that she stayed there on her visit 25 years ago.One more look at the fountains in Maydan, then we crawled back up the hill to our hotel, exhausted.
After a shower to cool off and refresh ourselves, we started to feel human again. Now it was time to head out to dinner at Kanapa, which was described by one of our friends who used to live in Kyiv as the best place in town. It is partway down the same hill that leads to the Podil district, so it will be easy to get to - and a bit of a climb back home.
It was hopping when we got there, so luckily we had made a reservation yesterday.
We started with Prosecco while perusing the extensive menu. There were many a la carte options as well as a tasting menu. We didn't want a multi-course tasting menu so we went with just appetizers and mains.
Chris chose the chopped beef. It was delicious but hard to see on the plate, as it's covered in crumbs.
I had borsch for my starter, which was served in a hollowed-out grilled head of cabbage. Pretty interesting presentation and tasty too.
Naturally, Chris then had the duck. It was served with gooseberries and mashed carrots.
And I had a veal rib chop with blueberry sauce. It came with mashed peas.
 |
| Cherry Varenyky! |
The dessert menu was great too – we had chocolate Kiev Cake and cherry varenyky for dessert. My favorite, especially if I don't have to make them myself!
All went well with a delicious Ukrainian Cab-Merlot from near Odessa. It was expensive – about $40 (1100 Hryvny) for the bottle. The food cost maybe another $45.
Tonight's meal was by far the most expensive meal we had for the entire trip. It was almost double what we spent anywhere else.
We rolled ourselves back uphill to our hotel and slept like logs until 5:30. We leave tomorrow evening for Lviv, in the west, so we'll see what else we can do tomorrow!
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