Living The Dream

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  Kiev, Ukraine
Thursday, October 11, 2007

The night train from L'viv was different to what we have experienced before. We bought 2nd class sleepers and this gave us a bunk in a two bunk compartment. At first, it was quite cold, then the heating came on, and I just sweated my arse off, until we arrived in Kyiv. Once there we had to experience the metro. We bought some tickets and attempted to get on with our packs. It was 08:00 and they were jam packed with Ukis. After watching about 5 go by, we squashed ourselves on. Changed metros and arrived at our stop. After a 5 minute walk, we found the hostel we had booked. It was not as nice as the Kosmonaut, nor as friendly !!!
 
Realistically, I didn't sleep much on the train, so we both crashed for a couple of hours. Once up, we hit the streets of Kyiv. Independence Square was huge with some nice monuments. We walked up to a huge rainbow shaped monument with an old statue under it. It was of a Russian and a Ukranian man being friendly to each other. Very USSRy !!! We entered a park, walked past Dinamo Kyiv's homeground and onto a little bridge. All over it were padlocks with writing showing people's love for each other. Lucy wouldn't let me place one on saying how much I love myself !!! Next up was the old palace. It's built in an Italian style, as most of Kyiv was designed by the same Italian who attacked St Petersburgh, however it was covered in scaffold. Such is life. Next door was the parliament building where the Orange revolution took place. There are still tents outside as the elections were on last week. As it was getting late, we decided to get some dinner. Afterwards, we did the Ukranian thing. We grabbed some roadies and went back to the hostel. At 0.25 pence, it would be rude not to !!!
 
Kebabs for breakfast. This is the done thing in Kyiv !!! Actually, they were pretty good. Around the corner from us is the Chornobyl museum, and as we have a trip booked, we thought we should go. It told a good story, it showed the reactor before/after the explosion and what it looked like now. Now I can't wait to go !!! We walked into the city and along the way, we found St Andrews church. The paintings inside were great. It also looked very Italiany !!! St Michaels Monastery was next. There use to be one here that was years old, but the Soviets knocked it down. Once Ukraine became independent, a copy was built and is meant to look the same. For a building that's 7 years old, it certainly looks impressive. At the other end of the road was St Sophia. It isn't a church anymore as there was a huge barney between the Catholics and Christians, so now it's a museum. The inside reminded me of the Aya Sofia in Istanbul. The murals were awesome. Our last church was St Volodymyrs. Once again there were more murals, and I just stood there with my jaw on the ground. There was nothing else I could do.
 
Living The Dream
 
For dinner, I finally lived the dream. I've had Port in Porto, Kilkenny in Kilkenny, and tonight we had Kiev in Kyiv. If I die now, I've lived the dream. My life is satisfied. I am content !!! To make sure we were really happy, more roadies were consumed. This really is the life. Roadies and Kievs !!!
 
According to the LP, if you are going to the Lavra, make sure it's not on the weekend. In the Lower Lavra, there are a couple of churches but the real reason for being here are the caves with the mummified monks. Once inside, the Ukis stop at every coffin and picture, and the kiss it and cross themselves, whilst we just look for the hands or feet that are showing, which you do get to see on quite a few of them. In the caves, as a tourist, you are only allowed to see so much. Generally there are monks there to stop you going further in with the Ukis. During the second set of caves, I followed the Ukis in, and when the monk went to grab me, a Uki woman started talking to me and I gave her a few da, da, das, and he let me go. It wasn't much different, but there were a few chapels. Once out, we hit the Upper Lavra. The churches here were nice, but the highlight was the micro minature museum. There was a chessboard on a pinhead, a flea with gold shoes, a tiny lock and key on half a hemp seed. There were loads of other things as well. To see the stuff you needed to look through a microscope. How the fuck the guy made them is beyond me. Back on the metros, we went out to see the Jewish memorial. The Nazis had killed over 100000 people in what is now a park. The Soviet memorial was huge, whilst the Jewish ones were more humble.
 
We had one last day, so after dumping our bags in left luggage, we hit the markets to buy the Ukranian dolls for our Mums, plus I needed to get Paul that Di doll he so needs !!! The prices were way more expensive than L'viv, but there were more to offer. We bought a shitload of them, but not the Osama Bin Laden one. I figured that if it was found in my pack, I wasn't ready for the rubber glove !!! We then stumbled upon the last surving statue of Lenin. Fuck knows where they are all now, but the one that is left is quite small. Maybe he is not thought of very highly anymore, but he is part of Ukranian history, a history that not long ago ended.
 
Kyiv is a nice place, bigger and more expensive than L'viv, but not as friendly. The metros are always packed, no matter what time it is. I have never seen anything like it. I do have good memories, especially of the dream, because there is nothing like eating a kiev in Kyiv !!!

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Pictures

001 Monument, Kviv	002 Monument, Kviv	003 Rainbow Monument, Kviv   Comments!	004 Soviet Monument, Kviv
005 Ukranian Monument, Kviv	006 Kyiv	007 Padlocks, Kviv	008 Palace, Kyiv
009 Presendential Palace, Kyiv	010 Government Building, Kyiv	011 Tent City, Kyiv	012 Government Building, Kyiv
013 Statue, Kyiv	014 Bridge, Kyiv	015 Mural, Kyiv	016 Mural, Kyiv
017 St Micheals, Kyiv	018 St Micheals, Kyiv	019 St Micheals, Kyiv	020 St Micheals, Kyiv
021 St Micheals, Kyiv	022 St Micheals, Kyiv	023 St Micheals, Kyiv	024 Mural, Kyiv
025 Mural, Kyiv	026 Statues, Kyiv	027 EBA, Kyiv	028 Statue, Kyiv
029 Opera House, Kyiv	030 St Volodymyrs, Kyiv	031 Lucy Living the Dream, Kyiv	032 David Living the Dream, Kyiv
033 David Eating a Breakfast Kebab, Kyiv	034 Breakfast Kebab, Kyiv	035 Chornobyl Museum, Kyiv	036 Hotel, Kyiv
037 St Andrews, Kyiv	038 St Andrews, Kyiv	039 St Andrews, Kyiv	040 St Andrews, Kyiv
041 St Andrews, Kyiv	042 St Andrews, Kyiv	043 Building, Kyiv	044 St Sophia, Kyiv
045 St Sophia, Kyiv	046 Statue, Kyiv	047 St Micheals & Traffic, Kyiv	048 Statue & St Sophia, Kyiv
049 Babushka, Kyiv	050 Lenin Statue, Kyiv	051 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv	052 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv
053 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv	054 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv   Comments!	055 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv	056 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv
057 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv	058 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv	059 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv	060 Jewish Memorial, Kyiv
061 Lavra Entrance, Kyiv	062 Mural, Kyiv	063 Lavra, Kyiv	064 Lavra, Kyiv
065 Lavra Mural, Kyiv	066 Lavra Mural, Kyiv	067 Lavra Mural, Kyiv	068 Lavra Mural, Kyiv
069 Lavra Mural, Kyiv	070 Lavra Mural, Kyiv	071 Lavra Mural, Kyiv	072 Bell Tower in the Lavra, Kyiv
073 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	074 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	075 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	076 Upper Lavra, Kyiv
077 Lavra Mural, Kyiv	078 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	079 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	080 Upper Lavra, Kyiv
081 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	082 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	083 Upper Lavra, Kyiv	084 WW2 Monument, Kyiv
085 WW2 Monument, Kyiv	086 WW2 Monument, Kyiv	087 David in Kyiv	088 Lucy in Kyiv
089 Building in Kyiv	090 Chimera, Kyiv	091 Buskers in Kyiv	092 Long Escalator in Kyiv
093 Lucy on an Escalator in Kyiv	094 David on an Escalator in Kyiv	095 Red Roses in Kyiv	096 Soviet Monument, Kyiv
097 Babushka, Kyiv	098 David Waiting for a Train in Kyiv	099 Night Train, Kyiv	100 Sleeper Train, Kyiv

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