Brooke&Tyler Dance in Україна

Today is our main day for exploring Kyiv before we move on to our next destination. We had a slightly later start, breakfast at our hotel and then back to the bus for a city tour.

Our tour guide Tanya, was a native of Kyiv and she was a really interesting and an informative guide. Fun fact: Kyiv was founded by three brothers, the oldest of which was named Kyi. This is where the city name Kyiv came from (Kyiv is the correct spelling, Kiev is the Russian version).

Our tour was a series of short bus rides and stops at the main sights of Kyiv. The first was St. Volodymyr Cathedral (yellow church). This a church in the Byzantine style and is still an active church. We bought a candle to leave at one of the altars. In the process of buying it, I tried unknowingly to pay with a 0.10 hryvna coin (worth about half a penny). The lady of course shook her head and then I figured out how much that coin was actually worth and paid the 3 hryvni price (worth about 15 cents).

The next stop was the golden gates which was the main entrance when Kyiv was a walled city. Here we learned a bit about Prince Yaroslav, who was instrumental in the history of Kyiv and built the oldest temple here which was started in 1011 AD. Apparently he lived to be 76 which was quite a feat in the 11th century. Our guide explained that the locals here joke that his statue is called “the man with a cake.” (see photo)

Our next stop was St. Sophia. This is the oldest original church in Kyiv. We spent quite a lot of time in the main church. The exterior is now white with blue domes (in a Baroque style) but the original was with stone masonry. They have now uncovered parts of the walls to show the original stone. The interior mosaics were very interesting. Tanya was explaining that the frescoes on the walls were hidden with plaster and forgotten for 300 years, and were rediscovered by accident and then restored.

Then within the church we got to see an artistic mosaic comprised of 1500 Easter eggs called “Looking into Eternity.”

Another fun fact: the word hryvna comes from the Ukrainian word for the mane of a horse. Apparently this is because when the money was named, one single silver piece was enough to buy a horse.

Next we walked to St. Andrew, the stunning church at the top of the hill. It has gorgeous deep blue/teal domes and the colors are just stunning! It is named after St. Andrew because in the 1st century he predicted that a large city would be built on that spot (where there wasn’t a settlement at that time). We were given about 20 minutes to walk around Andriyvski Uzviz, where there are many vendors set up along the road down the hill. Decided not to get anything here as we think there will be more interesting and unique options in Lviv.

The next stop was the outside of St. Michael. This church was destroyed when Kyiv was under the USSR regime but has since been rebuilt. This site is also very important in regard to the revolution at Maidan in 2013-2014 as it was a refuge for people seeking safety. There is a memorial to the hundred heroes as well as a long wall with the soldiers lost in the ongoing war on the East side of Ukraine.

Here we saw a monument of Cyril and Methodius, the brothers that created the Cyrillic alphabet (hence the name of the alphabet). Right beside this area, there is also a mural of Nigoyan, one of the first victims in Kyiv at Maidan in 2013/2014.

Next stop, lunch! We walked through Maryinski Park to the restaurant. Another lovely four course meal (salad, soup, chicken shashlyky and potatoes, followed by crepes filled with apple). As with all of our meals, it was fresh, properly cooked, and very flavourful.

The next group plan was to go back to the market streets at Andriyvski Uzviz. This would have meant walking around shopping at the vendors which we didn’t really need to do. Deciding to skip the group plan was not a difficult decision, especially since it’s our last day in Kyiv and we haven’t been to Maidan yet. So we headed off with a few other dancers that chose to forgo the street vendors. We walked in the direction of Maidan and decided to drop the boys off for a beer so that the girls could go shopping.

Christine, Christina and I wanted to go to Всі. Свої, a very unique Ukrainian store that has only high quality products that were made in Ukraine ... Lovely selection of ceramics, furniture, and home decor. As we were shopping, we were talking about how we would have liked to buy some very impractical things to travel with - such as throw pillows, large soft blankets, or maybe a piece of furniture. We did spend quite a lot of time in there and turns out the boys were joking about us taking so long because we were buying a couch. We might have bought something like that if it would be possible to transport home! I landed on a couple notebooks with pretty patterns on them. A very inexpensive shopping trip given how much looking around we did.

We eventually made it to Maidan, the main central square. In 2013/2014, peaceful protesters started to speak/collect due to the president declining to sign the agreement for Ukraine to join the EU. The president ordered the police to beat the protesters and for months there were barricades built right in the middle of this modern city square. Around the tall obelisk in the square, they have developed a memorial of what happened. A lot of the information posted highlighted the influence of social media in the events that occurred there. Approximately 100 people died during the conflict, many of whom were civilians involved only in peaceful protest. Tyler and I would recommend watching the documentary “Winter on Fire” to learn more about the events.

Having been in Kyiv at this very place mere months before this began with Cheremosh in June 2013, I was really amazed at how much it has already been restored. If I didn’t know about the conflict, I wouldn’t have known anything had really changed this gorgeous square.

We walked a couple blocks to find a non-touristy restaurant for dinner. Highlights were a yummy tomato, goat cheese and watermelon salad and Tyler had a cool dessert - strawberry soup. This was a vanilla panacotta served with a straw berry sauce/soup. I then headed to the hotel to exchange money with Shane and Tyler went with the others to see the deepest metro station in Europe (the escalator down does look very impressive).

Another very full day! Tomorrow is one of our long bus travel days so it’s off to bed here!!

Brooke

PS Apologies for the errors in the original post... I was half asleep when I posted last night and missed some interesting autocorrects. Czytaj więcej

This morning we woke up in Vinnytsia at the very Soviet Podyllia hotel. There wasn’t much to pack up as we didn’t really have enough time to unpack anything much. The tap for the shower was shared with the sink and in spite of trying, I wasn’t able to get any hot water going. I think I warmed it up for Tyler though who had plenty of hot water.

Breakfast was not the best meal of the trip - instant coffee, tomatoes/meat/cheese and then rice with schnitzel (there has been some discussion and we are not sure if the schnitzel was chicken, pork, or fish). It was probably one of our more efficient load outs, time to hit the road for the second half of the journey from Kropyvnytski to Chernivtsi.

My main plan for the day was to sleep. Part way through the morning though, the people that wanted to play cards decided to set up right beside our seats at the front of the bus. I think some people didn’t really understand the unspoken rule that the front of the bus is quiet and the back of the bus is louder. I tolerated it for the morning but we have since established the general etiquette for the bus.

So the morning was spent trying to sleep but not succeeding much. I think Tyler played Mario Kart the entire bus ride. At one point, we had to turn back a few minutes because the other bus had a minor break down. Luckily it didn’t take very long to fix. We were about an hour behind schedule for lunch though. Our lunch stop was in Kamanets-Podillskyi which has a 14th century castle/fortress and the deepest gorge in Europe. Lunch wasn’t the favorite meal of the trip either but it was ok. Salad, soup with meatballs and a plate of stewed chicken and potatoes with a sweet and sour sauce. We took a short walk down to a vantage point for the castle to take photos and the hopped back on the bus for the last few hours of the travel day.

There was another bus breakdown after lunch. Again probably about half an hour of a pause. I was trying to watch Netflix but was sleepy so ended up napping. We arrived in Chernivtsi at 6 pm and checked in. Looking forward to our evening in Bukovyna!!!

Brooke Czytaj więcej