Our Day Exploring Kiev

I wanted to post some pictures from yesterday morning. These were taken before we left, on the way and outside the SDA building.

ready to go

in the car on the way

Church next door to the SDA

cool buildings

cobblestone streets

cool nesting dolls

Mike trying on a Russian hat. The salesman told him he had huge head!! hehe

Today was a quiet day. I tried to not think about what we should have been doing! So instead of sitting around and feeling sorry for ourselves all day, we decided to try and navigate the city if Kiev, on our own.

old ladies selling their wares on the way into the station

getting our tokens for the train

the train stops!

We knew we wanted to visit the Monument of the motherland. We had passed it on the way into town from the airport, on our first day. I looked it up on the map and took down some directions and hoped that we would be able to read the signs enough to find our way there. So we set out to the metro and jumped on a train.

When we exited the train we came out in Independence square. This was another place we had planned to visit. SO instead of getting straight on a bus, like we were supposed to, we decided to walk the rest of the way and see as much of the city as possible.

we came off the train and had to find the street

we had to ride this mammoth escalator. It went on forever.

Independence Square!

Cool Christmas tree in the square

This guy came over and wanted us to take pictures with him, so we did. Then he tried to make us give him a lot of money! We did not!

cool statue in the square

Kaila-ing

I tried to get a picture with these guys, but they were quite annoyed by me! It was funny  

across the street from the square are some markets

many fridge magnets

more statues

European Square

We think this was a theater of some kind. Really cool. It sat at the top of a hill!

at the theater

A short walk away. Not sure what this was built for. But it was a cool over look of the city behind it.

Monument of some kind. There were no signs on these

This ride was up on the hill with the monuments. Yep its a matrix ride!

Beautiful view, even if it was a little foggy

Ukrainian graffiti

View from lookout

Went for a walk through this park. It had cool statues and monuments.

While walking through the park, we came across this bridge that was covered in padlocks that had messages of love on them. it was awesome

An amphitheater in the middle of the park

At the end of the park was this very important looking building. It had guards all around it, but we couldn't find a sign anywhere telling us what it was.

We kept walking instead of getting on a bus and came across more cool stuff

This looks like the grave of this man, but it might just be a monument.

This was just in a parking lot. There are a lot of monuments and statues here in Kiev

It was foggy today

This is a ww2 memorial

The church you can see is supposed to be one of the oldest in Europe.

This is the entrance to the Church

Inside the walls of the Church. It is HUGE!

This is one of the bells from the bell tower.

The bell tower

some of the original brickwork. Mike showing off his Boostability shirt

some of the outside of the main buiding

Painted on the outside, Jesus being baptized in the River Jordan

first room.

the whole wall was covered in gold leaf and paintings

This is some of the original building

More walking and we found the monument that we set out to see

This was another building as we came out of the church

This cute little Babushka was just sitting there. I think she was collecting money

On the way into the monument there were these cannons. Mike wants one

The monument to the Motherland

more cannons

and a tank

then more tanks

then a bunch of soviet Military vehicles



and for no reason at all a camper. Mike calls it the EM-50

REALLY neat statues. I wish I knew the story behind them all. The monument itself is for the great patriotic war, which is what they call WW2. So all the other statues are war related.

After a long day of walking and seeing so many beautiful things, we found our way back to the square and decided to eat the only thing we could find that we understood!!

It was cold outside and so warm in Mcdonalds, the camera fogged up

It was a really fun day of walking around. The city is old but has many beautiful things. So far we LOVE Kiev. We felt pretty good about being able to navigate our way around, without a guide, and find our way back to the apartment. Tomorrow we are being moved to a new apartment and will have to start all over again. oh well!

But I wanted to list a few things that I have noticed since being here:

• There are not many traffic lights around and you kind of take your life into your hands when you try to cross the roads, even when it is on a pedestrian crossing. So at many of the major intersections you have to cross UNDER the street.
• Women like to, and frequently wear very short skirts! I know I sound like I am from Utah, but I am surprised by how short they are. They pair them with tall boots and BIG coats! It is cold!
• Fur is still hugely fashionable here. Everyone has some kind of fur on them. Mike keeps trying to get me to buy a fur coat!

• 

  this car is right in the middle of the street. People were just driving around it

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  

  They park their cars ANYWHERE they find an open spot!! I really mean that. There have been cars parked all along the sidewalks, and even one in the middle of the road. You just had to drive around it! This evening while walking along the sidewalk next to a very busy road, I wondered how they would back out in to traffic off the curb.  It makes me laugh.
• Almost everyone smokes! I knew that coming here but it is still interesting to see.
• Beer is allowed and served in the food courts. Its funny to look around and see people drinking beer instead of soda. 
• You can not give people personal space! Mike and I have been trying to be polite to people when standing in line. But if you do that, they think that you are not in line! They are not rude, they are just not afraid of being close to you.
• PDA's are very acceptible and very common.

We have found that people are very friendly, even though they look like they are not. Everyone we have spoken to, even if they don't speak English, has tried very hard to be helpful, and has done it with a smile! I am very impressed with Ukrainians
I am sure there are more things, but I can't think of any right now!

Oh I wanted to share how excited we were the other day. We went to the store and were able to recognize some Russian words. It is small but I feel very accomplished. :)