... in response to Ukraine trip report Day 1, posted by Jski on Jan 28, 2003Day Two
Since I had managed some sleep on the flights and at the airport lounge, I felt pretty good getting up at a normal time. The day was to be nice and in the 40's, which was warmer than the Wichita I left or even Dallas the day I passed through. This was my first chance to see that breakfast was going to be much different than here at home (then again, most days that just means coffee on the drive into work for me). Cold sausage, Cereal, Fruit, Cheese, black bread and pourable yogurt would be the offering. It was all good though, but a bit much for me.....I'm assuming I'll be on the compromising end of that eventually :-)
Galina stopped by and wanted to take us to Lavra (sic), the monastery there in Kiev, as it was the day of the Epiphany and there would be many people there. I got my first taste of the subway and I must say that's one heck of an efficient operation and you can't beat the price! When we got the the Monastery it was quite crowded with people all bringing back their holy water. We walked the grounds a bit and took some photos before going to the caverns. Its a really nice place and worth a visit in Kiev. Some of the Monks are mummified in the caverns and you can view them through the glass coffins there. Everyone has a candle and the women must wear a head-covering down there. The people are packed in close together and I did catch the smell of some burnt hair a few times so I'm thinking the head covering might be a good idea for everyone with all those people so close together and all the candles.
After that we headed over to the war museum with the big statue of a woman on top. It was getting a bit brisk as the clouds remained and now the wind was coming off the river, but again, the museum was well worth the visit. I like WWII things as my Father was in WWII and told me some great flight stories growing up. There are three floors worth of exhibits there and I wished we had time to really spend a half a day there. I did take some photos of the military equipment outside (something I found ironic as 20 years ago I'm sure I would have been jailed for doing the same). Inside you have to pay extra to take pictures, but it was only 10H more. There also a little snack shop in the basement. Its here that Toma started to figure out that I drink a lot (A LOT) of coffee :-) This will come to play later. I was told that coffee is no good for me and that I must drink tea.
There's a Authentic-type Ukrainian restaurant nearby that Galina had pointed out and we had late lunch there. The food was quite good and they had some live musicians playing and occasionally strolling about (bear with me as I was bad and didn't remember the names of most restaurants we ate in...sorry). I convinced her to let us take a taxi back as neither her nor I knew the subways very well in Kiev and I wanted some time to rest before the evening (being lost in the tubes of Kiev wouldn't be the rest I was looking for :-)
Galina picked us up that evening to go to the Opera. Carmen was playing and she had managed to find us tickets. What a great place the Kiev Opera house is. I thought I would stand out being in the same clothes now for three days and those consisting of slacks and a turtle neck, but I found people to be dressed from one extreme to the other there. Toma was really dressed up nice. She has some great taste in clothing. Our seats were 3rd row main floor and center and at about $6 a piece I was amazed! (The VIP delegation from Vietnam was 4 rows behind us).
We had tried calling looking for my luggage that had yet to be delivered several times and got no answer. Finally, they answered and said they were closed. Toma called later and they acknowledged that my luggage had made it, but they didn't feel like delivering it that night and would come out in the morning. My clothes had taken on a life of there own now as they were starting their fourth day with me. If it lasted any longer I would have to feed them I was sure.
After the Opera we got a ride home and just talked for a couple hours! I was feeling better about this as every moment passed!!
Observations: Add a day to anything the airport promises.
Breakfast will now be a requirement, not an option.
It looks like coffee will be on the way out to be replaced by tea
Questions are sometimes followed by "That's impossible, you will...." and finished with the answer that she was really looking for :-)
I should set up a separate frequent flyer account for my bags as they are now touring Europe on their own.
