December 26th - tourists

Living in Orlando, we see a lot of tourists. Today, we were them.  As promised, Victor acted as our tour guide, showed us the sights of Kiev and we were the tourists to the utmost. It was warmer, about 40-45 degrees much of the day, and a slight drizzle all day. Fun sightseeing weather, huh? We followed Victor ALL day, most of it walking. Some areas reminded me of Boston (historic looking and cobblestone streets) and some were more like San Francisco (big hills). Dan's knees really started to bother him at the end of the day, but he was pleased it hadn’t happened until this point in the trip. We started our journey walking through the botanical gardens (like Boston Common, but older and not as well maintained) and then saw St. Vladimir’s Cathedral and St. Sophia’s Cathedral.

While at the first cathedral, Victor told us it was not very old – only built in the 1700’s. (Ummm, we're from Orlando - that's old!) St. Sophia’s is really a whole complex of cathedrals some of which date back to the 1100’s. Most has been rebuilt by a preservation society (that of course charges admission to help with ongoing efforts), but there are places where they have left the original stonework so you can see what it looked like in the 1100’s. Amazing. So much beauty and detail and impressively large buildings... there are detailed depictions of Biblical events on every bit of wall and ceiling. I can read the Cyrillic alphabet well enough to sound out some of the writings (like the apostles’ names) and a few had descriptive signs in English, but for most of the time we were simply in awe of the detail and magnitude. I wondered as we explored how many workers it took and how they built without cranes, etc. There are no photographs allowed inside, but I tried to take as many as possible outside without getting the camera wet. (I’ll work on sorting and posting those when we get home.)
     Up to this point, we have resisted buying ANY souvenirs knowing they would just add to our luggage. (We also thought it best to wait till the end of the trip since everything here is cash based. I’d hate to run out of money for food because I bought too many matruskas!) Those of you who know me well know that was very, very difficult. Victor once told me that our paperwork was among the best, most detailed he’d ever received. Today, I told him there are two things I do very, very well – organize paperwork and shop! The good news for him is that we had previously perused the outdoor market (the one we went to is only about a city block long) while waiting for our SDA appointment so we had a very detailed list of everyone we wanted to shop for and ideas of what to buy. I think we got everything on the list except for the Harley Davidson Kiev t-shirts. (Special apologies to our Harley fans – we couldn’t find them again.) Thinking about it now, a fly on the rainy wall of the market would have probably gotten a pretty good laugh watching us. Even with the detailed list, it took quite a while to select each item with the recipient in mind and negotiate with each vendor. The vendors all spoke enough English to get their jobs done, so negotiating was my job. Dan, Rebecca and Victor all followed along. Rebecca mostly just watched and Dan paid each vendor as I got my total. After shopping, it was time for something every adopting family seems to do while in Kiev – visit “The Fat House” for lunch. You can envision it as a Golden Corral of traditional Ukrainian foods in about 1/5 the space. You also get each item you select on its own plate and pay per piece. All considered, it was a lot of food for the money. All four of us ate for 126 grivna – about $16.

     The next stop of our rainy, tourist journey involved a subway ride. The subway itself was very similar to Boston, NYC or Atlanta, but the escalator down… wow! I commented on how long our escalator down was and Victor replied, “Just wait. The next one is twice as long because the station is at the top of a hill!) Yikes! We exited at the Arsenal station (old arsenal building nearby still showing mortar wounds) and took a bus to the Kievo-Pechersky Lavra. It is commonly known as the Caves Monastery. There is still an active monastery above ground and it is considered a religious shrine as well as the headquarters for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The history of the caves dates back to 1051 when a monk came to Kiev and started living in a cave. Eventually, it was expanded to include many caves and a series of tunnels. Some monks spent their entire lives in the caves writing and praying. Being that at many places the actual caves are only 2 feet wide and 6 feet tall, Dan chose to avoid the stairs and waited for us in the chapel above. After reading my travel book about the caves I was highly intrigued, but a little concerned I’d find it… creepy. After the monastery itself moved above ground, the caves became a place where monks and other saints’ bodies have been laid to rest… not in vaults, in glass cases. Understand my concern now? Victor assured me it would be okay and that I could not come to Kiev and not visit the caves. He was right. The bodies are almost perfectly preserved in glass cases. Some believe it is because of the moistureless climate and others believe it is the “miracle of saints.” Whichever you choose to believe, they are also shrouded in fine, embroidered linens/satins. The only “body” you can actually see is some of the hands. (A big relief to me – I had visions of Indiana Jones movies… didn’t really want to look in someone’s face that died in 1200.) If you arrived at the Caves Monastery early in the morning on a beautiful day, you could probably spend most of a day exploring all the churches, museums and caves, but that was not our case. It was the end of the day, getting dark, and many sections had closed already, so we called it a day and took a taxi home to our little studio apartment. It’s not home, but it felt good to be warm, dry and in a comfortable chair.
     I’m supposed to be sure to tell you that first thing this morning I suggested to Dan that he turn on the television. We actually have not watched ANY television since we’ve been here. Well, okay, we’ve watched about 15-20 episodes of “House” and a few movies on our laptop, but nothing ON the television. It is all in Russian, you know. Yesterday morning, however, I was not really ready to be awake (hadn’t slept well) and we had a very energetic, ready to go, 10 year old. I’m pleased to say that just like kids are kids wherever you go, there are Saturday morning cartoons, too. Rebecca and Papa watched some cartoons while I finished waking up, checked e-mail, and made breakfast for the three of us. Today, incidentally, Dan said he didn’t want to make a habit of always turning on the television. (Can someone please go pick Dale up off the floor? I’m sure he’s in shock at both statements.)