Travel Week Part II
Travel Week Part II
We traveled to Kyiv an overnight train. The only major event was being awoken during the night with a Russian guard standing over us wanting our passports. At first I was a bit alarmed but after I woke up enough to begin understanding and speaking coherent Russian, I could understand that all that was really going on was a routine passport check, and that many of the other questions he was asking were nothing more than simple curiosity on his part. I think he was a bit bewildered as to why he was dealing with 3 American girls (the boys were in a different wagon) at 4 in the morning, on a train to Kyiv, traveling "Platscart" (most common class for Russians to travel), whose visa stated that they were students at SPSU, and whose Russian was understandable but not fluent.
He had to pull out his book to figure out how to fill out our paperwork. I imagine Americans crossing from Russian into Ukraine in the middle of the night aboard a train is a fairly unique situation.
About an hour later we then had to repeat a similar process with a Ukrainian border guard.
Arrival in Kyiv was I think, the first time I’ve had one of those “oh my gosh I’m in a different country moments” since coming to Russia. I think in part because Ukraine is similar to Russia, while still having just a few things dissimilar enough that they stand out in stark relief. After a few minutes looking around we realized that though all the signs were written in Ukrainian we could actually understand them.
We took a bus from the train station to our hostel for the first few nights of our time in Kyiv. After crashing for a short while, we set off to explore. Our group didn’t really have much of a plan in mind, but the receptionist told us where we could catch a bus, so we went into the city center.
Just walking from the bus stop to Independence Square one realizes how different a character Kyiv has from either Petersburg or Moscow. This city is an eclectic mix of architectural design spanning from the 10th cent to the 21st. Some how this mix works and the city appears beautiful for it. It might also have helped that compared to Petersburg, which we had left after a heavy snow-storm, the bright warm sun made Kyiv irresistible, and after Moscow’s crazy hustle and bustle, Kyiv’s laid back character felt welcoming and relaxing.
While many places are closed on Sunday in Kyiv we went to the mall food court for food. Surprisingly it was reasonably priced and none too bad. After our lunch we continued to wander about, making our way back up the hill to Sofisky Sobor (St. Spohia’s Cathedral). This is where we learned that as anal as Russian cashiers are about having small change to pay for things, Ukraine is ever stricter. I attempted to pay for a 2 grivena ticket with a 5 grieven – it didn’t fly and I had to dig out 2 ones rather than generating any change I could use a different place.
Still the Cathedral was amazing. The outside is not particularly spectacular as is common with Orthodox churches, though the fact it has 13 copulas and multiple apses and galleries is both impressive and very unique for an Orthodox church.
(Sofiskiy Sobor)
The inside of the church though is one of the better interiors of an Orthodox church I have been in. They have frescoes ranging across the centuries, models of the church as it has evolved, and cut away sections to revels the different styles of decoration from different eras.
The upstairs galleries offered more of a museum experience, while the downstairs was kept closer to the original church.
From the Bell Tower we could look out on the whole city of Kyiv below us. Unfortunately my lack of a head for heights got to me a bit so my pictures from this view aren’t amazing.
We proceeded to meander down the down to Mikhailovsky Monastery and were just in time to listen to the bells chiming the quarter hour.
Rather than go in we wandered down yet another street. This turned out to be a great plan as we ended up walking along a market of paintings for sale. Whole blocks lined with pictures of all shapes, sizes and styles. Some day when I’ve managed to save up a great some of money and have a nice house that I want to decorate, I think I’ll go to Kyiv to buy Ukrainian paintings. I saw so many there that I loved.
At the end of this street stand Andreevsky Cathedral, an impressive high baroque monument overlooking yet another vantage of Kyiv. (I think we managed 10 scenic vantage points in the time we had in Kyiv.) It was early evening with slanting soft light, down from the cathedral winds a long, twisty, cobble-stone street edged with souvenir stands and shops. We followed this street down before spotting a stair-case up to the top of another hill.
(Andreevsky)
I think this hill we discovered was a local hang out spot as it became apparent we were more than a bit out of place there, so after a short time exploring we headed back down and made our way back to the hostel where we spent the evening watch the Russian movie “Mongol” on Rauley’s lap-top. The movie was dialog heavy, with out subtitles, and dubbed into Russian from Mongolian which made it a bit difficult to follow at times, but I managed to understand a surprising amount of what was going on, and regardless of how important the dialog was the cinematography was well done and thus interesting to watch.
We traveled to Kyiv an overnight train. The only major event was being awoken during the night with a Russian guard standing over us wanting our passports. At first I was a bit alarmed but after I woke up enough to begin understanding and speaking coherent Russian, I could understand that all that was really going on was a routine passport check, and that many of the other questions he was asking were nothing more than simple curiosity on his part. I think he was a bit bewildered as to why he was dealing with 3 American girls (the boys were in a different wagon) at 4 in the morning, on a train to Kyiv, traveling "Platscart" (most common class for Russians to travel), whose visa stated that they were students at SPSU, and whose Russian was understandable but not fluent.
He had to pull out his book to figure out how to fill out our paperwork. I imagine Americans crossing from Russian into Ukraine in the middle of the night aboard a train is a fairly unique situation.
About an hour later we then had to repeat a similar process with a Ukrainian border guard.
Arrival in Kyiv was I think, the first time I’ve had one of those “oh my gosh I’m in a different country moments” since coming to Russia. I think in part because Ukraine is similar to Russia, while still having just a few things dissimilar enough that they stand out in stark relief. After a few minutes looking around we realized that though all the signs were written in Ukrainian we could actually understand them.
We took a bus from the train station to our hostel for the first few nights of our time in Kyiv. After crashing for a short while, we set off to explore. Our group didn’t really have much of a plan in mind, but the receptionist told us where we could catch a bus, so we went into the city center.
Just walking from the bus stop to Independence Square one realizes how different a character Kyiv has from either Petersburg or Moscow. This city is an eclectic mix of architectural design spanning from the 10th cent to the 21st. Some how this mix works and the city appears beautiful for it. It might also have helped that compared to Petersburg, which we had left after a heavy snow-storm, the bright warm sun made Kyiv irresistible, and after Moscow’s crazy hustle and bustle, Kyiv’s laid back character felt welcoming and relaxing.
While many places are closed on Sunday in Kyiv we went to the mall food court for food. Surprisingly it was reasonably priced and none too bad. After our lunch we continued to wander about, making our way back up the hill to Sofisky Sobor (St. Spohia’s Cathedral). This is where we learned that as anal as Russian cashiers are about having small change to pay for things, Ukraine is ever stricter. I attempted to pay for a 2 grivena ticket with a 5 grieven – it didn’t fly and I had to dig out 2 ones rather than generating any change I could use a different place.
Still the Cathedral was amazing. The outside is not particularly spectacular as is common with Orthodox churches, though the fact it has 13 copulas and multiple apses and galleries is both impressive and very unique for an Orthodox church.
(Sofiskiy Sobor) The inside of the church though is one of the better interiors of an Orthodox church I have been in. They have frescoes ranging across the centuries, models of the church as it has evolved, and cut away sections to revels the different styles of decoration from different eras.
The upstairs galleries offered more of a museum experience, while the downstairs was kept closer to the original church.
From the Bell Tower we could look out on the whole city of Kyiv below us. Unfortunately my lack of a head for heights got to me a bit so my pictures from this view aren’t amazing.
We proceeded to meander down the down to Mikhailovsky Monastery and were just in time to listen to the bells chiming the quarter hour.
Rather than go in we wandered down yet another street. This turned out to be a great plan as we ended up walking along a market of paintings for sale. Whole blocks lined with pictures of all shapes, sizes and styles. Some day when I’ve managed to save up a great some of money and have a nice house that I want to decorate, I think I’ll go to Kyiv to buy Ukrainian paintings. I saw so many there that I loved.
At the end of this street stand Andreevsky Cathedral, an impressive high baroque monument overlooking yet another vantage of Kyiv. (I think we managed 10 scenic vantage points in the time we had in Kyiv.) It was early evening with slanting soft light, down from the cathedral winds a long, twisty, cobble-stone street edged with souvenir stands and shops. We followed this street down before spotting a stair-case up to the top of another hill.
(Andreevsky) I think this hill we discovered was a local hang out spot as it became apparent we were more than a bit out of place there, so after a short time exploring we headed back down and made our way back to the hostel where we spent the evening watch the Russian movie “Mongol” on Rauley’s lap-top. The movie was dialog heavy, with out subtitles, and dubbed into Russian from Mongolian which made it a bit difficult to follow at times, but I managed to understand a surprising amount of what was going on, and regardless of how important the dialog was the cinematography was well done and thus interesting to watch.
posted by gewreinn at 2:41 PM (St Petersburg time)
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