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Published: July 20th 2006
Today we are in Kiev and we leave tonight for Moscow. We have been unable to write as often as we would like due to the fact that there are few internet places available.
We were in the mountains the last we wrote. Yaremcha is supposedly a ski resort, but we are not sure how any industry such as that would survive there. Certainly no where near Banff or Jasper. But the food was excellent as was the vodka. We ate in a smoke house that really was! We were almost black when we emerged, but didn't care much because the shishkabob, fresh mushroom salad and corn meal with cottage cheese dinner was fantastic.
The next day as we drove to Lviv, we stopped at the very center of Europe! North, South, East and West.
Our driver next took us to Lviv, which is a beautiful city. I kept stating that I could live there! Our hotel was quite European and we were in the very center of the old town with a view to Taras Shevchenko, the famous Ukrainian poet and activist. We had a great tour through the most amazing cemetary any of us have ever
seen as well as the numerous different kinds of churches; including our favorite, the Armenian.
The train to Kiev was creaky and a little crusty. We had to buy our sheets and put them on the bunks ourselves. The bathrooms..... Oh, those Russians!
"Rah, rah Rasputin" was playing on the radio during breakfast this morning!!
Kiev is a very large city, and the capital. We saw a political rally in Independence Square (where the Ukraininans protested for their freedom in 1991), as there is an election going on here now. We went to the lavra which is the monastery here that is 1000 years old with ancient monks still mummified underground in the caves that they secluded themselves into for quite prayer. We saw many pilgrams in the caves, kissing the glass enclosures in which the mummified monks were encased. Every once in a while we could see a hand of a monk. We walked through the caves with candles and no one was burned.
The churches and domes are truly beautiful. So many of them were destryed (and have been re-built since 1991) by the soviets. Many were even turned into Athiest Museums! Lots were
storage places and others just demolished.
Shopping is in the plan for today. As well as the Chernobyl museum. Don't eat the mushrooms here!
We are thinking of everyone and we send our love,
Laura, Pawel, Lily and Ed
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