Weekend in Kiev

Having spent the weekend in Kiev, I can now check off the box of visiting Ukraine. However I will have to return to visit the exclusion zones around Chernobyl and Pripyat. Some other volunteers and I tried to set up a tour of the area but there was too short of a notice in the one weekend. Maybe I will have a chance in the future to visit before heading back home for school.
The weekend began Thursday night with an overnight bus ride to Kiev. The bus left at 9:45pm and arrived around 7:30-8:00 the next morning. Transiting through the Transdniestr region from Moldova into Ukraine took longer than I expected, but it was a smooth transition. They collected our passports, held us for about forty-five minutes to an hour, passed back our passports and let us move on our way. There were no hang-ups on the way, only the long bus ride of which I slept very little. Upon arrival we exited into the bus station to use the restroom and exchange money, since we were given only one stop on the way. It turns out that bus stations in every country are shady. Luckily there was a McDonalds next door with much better restrooms; and of course ice cream. From there we headed into the metro to a monument park, dedicated to the victims of the “Starving”; the incidents during the 1930’s when Stalin ordered all of the food from Ukraine and Moldova shipped to other parts of the Soviet Union (mainly just Russia) resulting in the starvation of millions of people. It was a relaxing park, beautiful view of the river Dnieper and of the city. Afterwards, we visited one of many Orthodox Cathedrals scattered across the city. With cupolas of gold, Kiev has become known as the ‘City of Golden Domes’, and they are beautiful. We saw the inside of one of the churches and witnessed some beautiful, liturgical singing before descending into the crypt. It was very narrow, stone cold, and very medieval. Sarcophaguses were lining the hallways with icons and candles. I couldn’t help but thinking of how exciting it would be to sword fight down those tunnels, but I digest…

Before finally making it to the St. Petersburg Hotel near the center of Kiev, we stopped at a small café for lunch. Borshch, fried chicken, beer, what more could one ask for after being on a bus for nearly twelve hours and carrying around a duffel bag all day. After spending some time relaxing at the hotel, showering and napping, several of us decided to head towards the ‘Old Town’ district and hop on a boat tour up and down the river. It was a slow and relaxing ride allowing us to see much of the city from the riverside. The first day ended with a mediocre meal at the Sepia Pub in Old Town after the boat ride. Then the long walk home and the much needed sleep that night at the hotel.
The second day began with another walk around the city to a large cathedral. It was located down the road and directly across from one of the cathedral’s we’d seen the following night and also had a choir singing beautifully inside. It was a typical Orthodox church filled with beautiful icons and surrounded with candles. From there we headed into a market place on one of the steepest and worst-kept brick roads I’ve ever seen. However there were many souveniours for sale and many of them very affordable (at least much cheaper than Moscow). This street passed the St. Andrew’s Cathedral which was astonishing. It sat on top of a large hill and overlooked the entire city. Its architect was the same architect that had designed the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. After an hour to ourselves shopping and seeing the cathedral, we met in a park at the bottom of the hill and made our way towards a metro and back to the hotel for lunch and to change into bathing suits for the beach. The beach was fantastic. There were sections which we could pay to use (up to 50 Ukrainian bucks for one! Which is roughly seven USD) but we decided to stay in the free area. It was crowded, but everyone was having a good time. There was a crane on the opposite side of the river that had people bungee jumping from and a high bridge which people were jumping off of. I would have loved to have jumped off that bridge, but it looked pretty high. And there was always the risk of getting nailed be jet skiers whom were speeding by about as fast as they could go literally feet away from swimmers. Oh Eastern Europe. After the beach, we grabbed some snacks and hung out at the hotel until it was time to go to sleep.
Sunday was our free day. While unable to go visit the Chernobyl site, we first attempted to find the Ukrainian Military Museum. Well we found the building after some good searching (and passing by it many times) but ultimately it had moved and was located elsewhere on the street. We didn’t want to get lost using the busses to find it so we decided to grab lunch at a pub and visit the central square of the town. Fountains were surrounding the square and even the steps leading up to the central area had water flowing down there, very nice on a hot 90 degree day. We decided to stop by a scary/haunted museum where we learned all about Ukrainian torture devices (in Ukrainian) and then had to go on a haunted trail through this museum. It was short, and mostly funny. But there were plenty of things to jump out and grab you. More exciting than scary. After that we spent the rest of the day in an air conditioned Irish Pub for some Guiness and MTV. The bus ride home consisted of many more stops than the bus ride to Kiev, albeit the same driver, and a much warmer ride. We survived the very long checkpoints on the borders and arrived home around 7:30am. Kiev was an amazing place and I am definitely planning on returning, regardless of whether I travel to Chernobyl and Pripyat or not. But in the future I am looking forward to the many more weekend excursions, including a Moldovan monastery this coming Saturday and Odessa in the future!