a little Kiev

You may remember when I came back to Ukraine last Friday we stayed overnight with Daryl and Molly Porter in Kiev.























On Saturday morning we went a did a little sightseeing with Daryl. We rode the subway or METRO and even checked out the famous deepest station in the world, there are two really long fast moving escalators to get to the surface - the one pictured took 2 minutes 25 seconds to ride down; Daryl timed it. It costs 2 grivina for a token - like a quarter and you can switch all you want as long as you don't come out the top. It was built around 1960, this year is the 50th anniversary celebration.













We walked around the city centre, where the big street was closed to traffic for Saturday with booths along the street and balloons. This is the area where the Orange Revoltion protests took place.













We also walked around this monument and checked out how far it was to Washington, Ottawa, Tokoyo and even San Jose (maybe influenced by the old pop song there, music from the 70's is big here- it was what they listened to in the USSR where no one was allowed to be a rock musican so they listened to American and European stuff.)








We rode the cable car ride, walked past some famous churches and walked a long ways.........



















to a park where we found this Monument to the Russian Revolution among other things.













On the other side of the park we found the museum complex we were looking for (I am still not sure it was worth the walk, guys) and paid at the kassa (ticket booth) we walked past a number of Orthodox churches, and a monastary- many of the buildings are undergoing renovation (there was no English signage so I can't tell you much about them)















and then headed down a final cobblestone hill to the place we were looking for the catacombs where the faithful were coming through with candles, kissing the glass coffins. Then we had to walk back up the hill and several blocks from the park where we got back on the Metro at the deepest station this time,(a much shorter walk than from the city centre) and went back to the apartment for a little lunch before starting the 6 hour drive home to the village.










There are still a few dogs living on the lam in Kiev- this one was taking nap near a Metro station stairway.