Odessa>Kiev>Kamyanets-Podilsky>Kiev

Our friend Lana on the right with her best friend Zoia in the Kiev metro.







Chernobyl Museum. Here are photos of the "bio-robots"; the volunteers who were sent in to clean up radioactive debris following the explosion at Chernobyl and died as a result. Many of them died within weeks following their services or else a few years later of cancer and other problems related to their work at the exploded nuclear reactor. We watched a video of this clean-up and these guys were given nothing but useless lead-aprons and rinky-dink shovels to do their job with - it makes you a little sick to see how little regard there was for these lives. Apparently they were offered release from military service if they did one minute of this clean-up - Chris pointed out that at the time going to war in Afghanistan was a likelihood for those in the military.





Big Momma, Rodina Mat (Nation's Mother) - the largest statue in the world which was built along with the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (WW2) in order to commemorate the defense of the Soviet Union.





View from fortress at Kamyanets-Podilsky. I wasn't able to find any information on the circle of stones in the background, although it appears to be some sort of pagan site along the lines of Stonehenge.





Fortress at Kamyanets-Podilsky in Western Ukraine.





This is St.Michael's Monastery in central Kiev. The small chapel on the left survived the demolition of the monastery by the Soviets in the 1930's.





Maydan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev - This is the public square and centre of Kiev where the Orange Revolution protests and mass gatherings were held.





Stalinist architecture in Kiev


The title of this entry gives an idea of where I've been since leaving Odessa. I left on a nighttrain to Kiev after having spent last Wednesday in Odessa exploring it's catacombs with Ilsa and Carey from the hostel. It was pretty wild to see where Soviet partisans had hid out and based their campaign against the Nazi's during WW2. The tunnels still contained such basic things as hospital beds and a kitchen but also wall etchings and paintings that glorified the Soviet Union, and its leaders, while mocking Hitler.

Arriving in Kiev the next morning was exciting and stressful all a once. I was supposed to meet Chris in Kamyanets-Podilsky the next day and it looked as if I would have to board another train that evening. Deciding to make the best of it I left my bag in a locker at the train station and decided to visit few sites in the city. Kiev is famous for its city centre monasteries and I decided to visit two of them: The Caves Monastery and St. Michael's monastery. The Caves is most well-known as a tourist attraction for the mummified monks that are interred there. The bodies are displayed in glass-topped coffins throughout the hand-dug tunnels and though they are wrapped in robes there is the occasional hand or foot sticking out - enough to give one the morbid jollies I suppose.

St. Michael's monastery was interesting for the fact that it had only been rebuilt in the past 12 years or so - it had been completely destroyed by the communists in the 1930's. Before this the monastery had stood since the 1100's and had been one of the oldest constructions in Ukraine. Although the Soviet past is always present in the decayed infrastructure, or the suffocating bureaucracy, such attempts at rebuilding are almost convincing in giving the impression that Soviet excesses had not happened.

For myself this initial taste of Kiev was enough to make me not want to leave it immediately. People are friendly, helpful and curious here and, aside from getting in and out of the metro, the atmosphere here is relaxed and pleasant. Also I simply wanted to hang out and take in the Stalinist architecture, wide boulevards and the metro with it's hammer-and-sickle emblems and bust of Communist leaders. In the end I had to leave and meet Chris in Kamayanets-Podilsky.

Taking the train out of Kiev was a bit stressful. I had ten minutes to take the train and was given the usual tourist treatment at the ticket counter, meaning I was offered only the most expensive ticket. Although pissed off when I realized the diference in cost I ended up sleeping like a baby on the train as I had a whole cabin to myself; needless to say I woke up feeling refreshed in Kamyanets-Podilsky.

Waiting in line for the bus to town I asked a girl if she spoke English and could help me find the bus I needed. Lana, it turned out not only gave me directions but was kind enough to walk around with me to help me find a hotel and also negotiate the price. She was in town to meet some of her profs but offered to hang out and show me around town. Chris arrived later that afernoon and the three of use went for dinner and drinks in the evening. At the restaurant we were overheard speaking English by Andre and his girlfriend, Olga, who invited us to drink vodka with them. Although memories of Tiraspol seemed still fresh in our minds Chris and I agreed a shot wouldn't hurt. Over the next hour or more Chris, Andre and I did shot of vodka and made petty conversation with Lana as translator. What's funny is that in this region people are often more than willing to offer you drinks for hours on end - often expecting the equivalent in return at some point - but they don't mind drinking with someone who is effectively mute. It's interesting that foreigners are sometimes such an attraction that sitting in silence and drinking with them is still considered to be interesting.

After viewing the famous fortress of Kamyanets-Podilsky, and missing out on the canyon that surrounds it, Chris and I decided to join Lana who was going back to Kiev where's she from. Hanging out in the capital with a local was enough reason to head back East. We caught an express train the next day and arrived in Kiev later that evening. Outside the train station Chris and I were able to find an apartment for rent from one of the babushkas hanging out there. We agreed on a price and showed up to the apartment content that we'd found a good deal. Unfortunately the next day we discovered that there was no hot water causing relations between Chris and I to disintegrate as he was content to do without the hot water. We ended up at a real rip-off of a youth hostel yesterday but as we're leaving Kiev today our quarrels over accomodation are over.

In the meantime Kiev has been great. We've visited the Caves Monastery again. On Sunday we visited the WW2 Museum where we saw recovered Nazi artifacts (such as boots and gloves made out of human skin) and the tallest statue on Earth, Rodina Mat. Outside of that, eating good Ukrainian food, hanging out with Lana and her friends, watching World Cup football with thousands of Ukrainians in the street and checking out Kiev's nightlife have been some of the highlights of our visit here. What's nice about this place is that it's a real gem and the locals are not yet jaded by tourism - they find out you're from Canada and the response 9 times out of 10 is genuine enthusiasm and curiousity. I can't help but feel a bit of regret that I'm not staying longer.