Kiev (Day 3)
On the third day in Kiev, Igor picked us up at 8 am and we had him drop us off at the same Internet Cafe that my mom and sister used the day before. We also wanted some breakfast and so I told Igor that we would be back in 2 hours (he was surprised and asked me if we would spend 2 hours on the Internet. I explained that we also wanted to eat.) We ate at a near-by restaurant that turned out to be Georgian (the former Soviet Republic of Georgia not the US State.) It was nicely decorated and cozy. They had menus in English, but the waitress didn’t understand English and so I had to get a Russian menu so I could order. We all got Russian pancakes filled with either strawberries or cream cheese - I got the cream cheese ones. It was very good. Afterwards we went to the Internet Cafe for an hour.
Then we had Igor bring us to Independence Square (Майдан Незалежності in Ukrainian and Площадь Независимости in Russian.) It is the Red Square of Kiev. This time it was snowing and cold. I told Igor we would be back in 2 hours. We took pictures and I mailed the post cards I had. This is the square where the protesters demanded a free election (without influence from Russia) during the Orange Revolution (Помаранчева революція in Ukrainian and Ора́нжевая револю́ция in Russian) in November 2004. We walked from Independence Sqaure to St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery (Михайлівський золотоверхий монастир in Ukrainian and Михайловский златоверхий монастырь in Russian.) It was destroyed by the Soviets in the 1930s and is slowly being rebuilt. When we were walking up to St Michael’s there were thousands of little candles and signs marking the anniversary of the Soviet-imposed Ukrainian Famine (Голодомор in both Ukrainian and Russian) of 1932-33 in which 6 million Ukrainians died.
Then we walked down the street to Saint Sophia Cathedral (Собор Святої Софії in Ukrainian and Собор Святой Софии in Russian.) It was built in 1037 and is the burial place of Yaroslav I the Wise (Ярослав Мудрий in Ukrainian and Ярослав Мудрый in Russian.) I lived and studied in Yaroslavl, Russia which he founded in 1010 and so it was pretty cool to see where he was buried. We had to pay 2 UAH each (Hrynias) to get onto the grounds and then found out later than we had to pay an additional 20 UAH each to get into the main Cathedral. I waited for around 10-15 minutes for the lady at the cash desk to come back from her break. It was very pretty inside, but was a little too touristy (especially for a church.)
Afterwards we walked back to find Igor and he drove us to a spot where we could get the funicular (фунікулер in Ukrainian and фуникулёр in Russian) and then eat. It turns out that the funicular brought us to the same spot we had walked to before - near Saint Michael’s. It was a nice view though and very cheap. I also got to have some Sharma (which I have eaten since I left Russia in 2004.)
Then we ate at an Italian restaurant. The place wasn’t busy and there were many wait-staff and yet our order didn’t come out right. Again they gave us menus in a mixture of Russian/English/Italian and the waiter didn’t speak English so I had to order in Russian. My sister and I got pizza and my mom got soup. For dessert my sister and me got coffee drinks (her’s was supposed to be hot chocolate and mine iced but they brought out two iced drinks) my mom got cheesecake. When we were finished we had Igor drive us back to the apartment. We were so tired. Even though it was around 3 pm and we had Igor till 7 pm we said good bye to him and I tipped him again.