Churches of Kiev

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2014--Kiev

Fortunately my stomach had settled down from the prunes I ate by the time I went to bed.  I slept well and awoke refreshed this morning. 

I'm still amazed at how close my apartment is to everything here.  Today, I essentially made the same circular walk as yesterday, but I made it in reverse and concentrating on the churches along the way. 

My first stop was St. Michael's Monastery, a beautiful, impressive complex.  Some kind of public address was being made outside beside the church.  A man sat in a military jeep with a small crowd, including at least 3 crews from TV stations, around him.  My guess is that it was something to do with the war and the current cease fire.  Anyway, I walked into the church and looked around.  It was somewhat of a typical orthodox church with lots of icons and with the paintings looking like Greek youths.  I wandered around to the back of the church, and many monks were walking out of the housing units towards another building.  It was almost noon, so they may have been heading to lunch, but maybe they had a class session or something.  They all wore long black robes.  It was amazing how young they were and how many of them there were. 

Next, I arrived at St. Andrew's Church Museum.  (They call churches museums here when they have an admission fee for tourists.)  Its onion domes reminded me of Fabergé eggs, since the gold decorations were raised dollops above the green surfaces of them. 

The walk from there to my next site was lined with souvenir stalls selling everything imaginable--stacked dolls, McLenin t-shirts (among others), mugs, and other items.  Those led me to the Golden Gate, a recreation of a gate along the ancient walls that surrounded Kiev centuries ago. 

The last church on my tour was the St. Sofia Cathedral Museum, the oldest standing church in the city built from 1017 to 1031. There are original 11th-century mosaics and frescoes inside.

After that, I sat at Park Shevchenka for a while to watch the students leaving the university buildings and crossing it on their way to a late lunch or to the main streets nearby. 

I needed some groceries, so I walked from the park to a shopping mall called Gullivers which was nbearby.  The supermarket was a bit upscale, and it didn't have everything I wanted.  But I bought some ham for sandwiches, a piece of roasted chicken breast, some meat patties, some sausages, some potatoes to cook, half a loaf of bread, a liter of drinking yogurt, and two beers.  It was a close call.  It took all but about $1-worth of my local currency.  Therefore, tomorrow is a day to search for a bank with a good exchange rate for changing money. 

In the late afternoon, I started planning the adjustments to my trip through Georgia and in Armenia caused by the fact that I will be here 5 days longer than I originally expected.  I wrote a long e-mail to the people I stayed with in Georgia with some questions for them about my modes of travel.  (Mini-buses will be best because they are faster.  But I needed to know whether I can take my luggage on them and, if so, would I be expected to pay for an extra person for the space they would be occupying.  I also needed to know if Saturday would be okay for travelling to Armenia or if it would be better for me to go on a Friday.  And, finally, I had to ask them if they or the neighbors could put me up that one night--either Thursday or Friday according to when I should head to Armenia.)  If their answers make it all work out, I will add a second night to my stay in Batumi, since it is new to me and since I can't really see much in half a day there, and I will stay only 1 night in Tbilisi which I already know well.  That will leave me with 6 days to explore Armenia instead of the 9 I originally thought I would have.

Tonight, I had potatoes with the roasted chicken and one of the beers for dinner.  Tomorrow, I'll probably have some of the sausages with more of the potatoes and with mustard.