Kiev - Day I

We began our visit on Saturday by walking around the city a bit. The highlights of the morning were St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral, the opera house, Khreschatyk Street (the main artery of the city) and Independence Square.

 

 

After a quick lunch we visited St Sophia's Cathedral, which is the oldest (remaining) church in Kiev and dates back to the 11^th century.

The cathedral is part of a larger complex that includes some museums and a large bell tower at the gate entrance.

As we walked around the complex, I spotted David Crosby’s long-lost Ukrainian cousin… 

The bell tower was particularly impressive – especially after we climbed to the top. I wouldn’t recommend the climb to those who have a fear of heights, but for everyone else, the resulting view is well worth the effort. From the top you could see Sofiivs'ka square in the foreground and St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery (our next stop) in the distance.

St. Michael’s dates back to the 12th century, but was largely destroyed during the Soviet era. Its current form was rebuilt during the 1990s.

The cathedral really looked beautiful while bathed in the afternoon sunlight. And it doesn’t get its “Golden Domed” moniker for nothing.

 

Next we walked down Andrew’s Descent, which is a cobblestone street that snakes down from St. Andrew’s church and is lined with street vendors selling “authentic” Ukrainian gifts.

We then visited the Chernobyl museum, and given the recent events in Fukushima, it seemed like an appropriate time to visit. There were plenty of exhibits, though many were difficult to understand since that they weren’t in English. Nonetheless, they definitely left a lasting impression with respect to the devastation resulting from the accident.

After finishing up with our sightseeing for the day, we headed back to the opera house to buy tickets for the evening’s show – Madame Butterfly. Given the prices (roughly $30 each), coupled with the fact that we bought the tickets shortly before the start of the performance, we assumed that we’d bought seats in the nosebleed section.

But we were wrong. The seats were front-row, just left of center with a fantastic view. And the performance ended up being very good, though we were a bit tired after a full day of sightseeing.

After the show we decided to grab an authentic Ukrainian meal. For her starter, Emilie ordered something that turned out to be bacon fat served at room temperature (clearly we had trouble with the menu). We both gave it a try, but weren’t big fans. I think it was called a "Ukrainian Kiss."

For my main course, I ordered Chicken Kiev. It seemed like an obvious choice – if you’re going to order Chicken Kiev, it might as well be in Kiev, right? And it turned out to be very good.

On the walk home we saw a couple of packs of wild dogs roaming the streets. They seemed to be interested in other things, so I don't think that they posed much of a threat. That said, a couple of times we saw them chasing cars rabidly so I'm glad we didn't bring the unfinished Ukrainian Kisses back with us in a doggy bag...