Kiev continued

Kiev, Khreshchatyck st.

A night of rest was welcome after a long day of playing! We woke fresh and ready to go; although, we weren’t exactly sure why we bothered taking a shower because we knew that sweating would be the first activity of the day. We started the day by walking right past McDonald’s and not eating there! We were on the hunt for a little блинчики (bleencheekee) stand (it is their pancake which is more like a crepe, quite tasty). To cross the main streets in Ukraine you go under the streets, which is not entirely strange, the strange part was while under the street it opened up to an entire city underneath the city! We found ourselves walking through a mall 3 stories deep! Wow! So the trick is being able to pop out on the correct side of the street, there are so many turns that it is easy to get spun around. Tony did very well at this, only a couple times the whole weekend did we pop up and realize we needed to go back down and get to the other side of an intersection. With a little map studying and a small hike uphill we found the bleencheekee stand, breakfast at last.

Playing in the fountain, everyone does it!

We enjoyed our little breakfast, let the kids play at the park and began our trek back to the flat with the intention of finding the “western” grocery store along the way. Kiev was bustling at 10:00 in the morning; people walking, shopping, visiting and who knows what else. We found the store and it was nice to cool off a little (remember, they only cool buildings 3-5 degrees below ambient temperature). Sometimes it’s just a cruel tease, you think it’s cool in the building but soon realize that it was simply a matter of perspective. We picked up blueberry jam at the store to take to Slavutich and a few yogurts and fruits and water for the flat. They did have small jars of peanut butter and tobasco sauce with a very high price tag. Other than that, the store seemed to have all the same stuff as the other magazines (i.e. grocery stores in Ukraine).
After dropping things off at the flat we took off on foot again to tour some of the churches in the area. We walked through fountains to cool off, took pictures of beautiful statues and architecture and looked at beautiful local art. We headed past yet another McDonald’s and ignored all the little vendors with magnets, magnets and more magnets to sell (must be a desirable souvenir). I certainly don’t need a magnet with fake caviar on it. I’ll be looking for some items that are a little more authentic. We managed to find St Sophia’s and we looked around at the beautiful buildings and read a little about the history. We climbed to the top of the bell tower and looked at the city. The girls did a great job and made it easily to the top (only about 4 stories up). One of the best parts about climbing a bell tower is the natural air conditioning, ahhh such a nice breeze!

Top of the Bell Tower

We continued on to more sites and stopped for juice and snacks as needed to help the kids press on. On this particular day it was hot but not too hot since there was a little overcast, so we were all managing pretty well. We enjoyed listening to local artists sing and play instruments as we strolled around town. As we were trying to find the metro we came to St. Andrew’s cathedral and a very old part of town. The cobblestone street was more like round stones scattered all over the street. Very very bumpy. We finally found all the cool vendors with the “good” souvenirs, but they were all closing up shop because it was 6pm. At this point we had a critical decision to make; Tony wanted the girls to ride the metro but we were not sure where it was exactly or how much farther we had to walk to get there (which was downhill, and if we never found it would be a long hard walk back uphill – Seattle type hill). We actually had not eaten a real meal all day, we stayed the kids off, but mom was beginning to fade. I had made note of the TGI Fridays near our flat and Tony knew that dinner at that restaurant was a priority tonight. So, option “A”, choose to possibly get more lost and have 3 cranky girls or Option “B”, walk the 3-4 miles to the restaurant and only have 2 tired, hungry, exhausted, slightly cranky girls. We chose option “B”. The girls did absolutely wonderful, they are really impressing Tony and I!

We arrived at TGI Fridays, slumped into our “non-smoking” seats (right next to the bar) and attempted to cool off with the “air conditioning” and bottled water. Our waiter knew enough English to help us out and we managed to order our meal before Tony and I fell asleep, but we weren’t sure we would get to eat it before we fell asleep. Once we stopped we realized how exhausted we were; we praised the girls for what a remarkable job they did on our day of touring! I enjoyed every morsel of my cilantro that was included with my quesadilla and once Tony’s steak finally came it was very, very good. We ordered two chocolate desserts to share and Tony was hoping that would make up for the McDonald’s disaster from the night before. Although the meal was good and more like home I informed him that the incident was still going in the blog! Good thing Tony and I didn’t eat for most of the day because dinner was surprisingly expensive. I still plan on eating there almost every time we go to Kiev, I can get cilantro they serve real burgers and steaks, yum.  We strolled down Khreshchatyk street, watched the city really come to life and got to bed sometime after 10:30pm. What a day!

On our last day we skipped a real breakfast again (one of us is getting tired of that), toured around a little and met Tanya and Sasha for lunch. They took us to a very quaint Ukrainian restaurant; the only problem was that we had to bring all our luggage with us. This is the day that we learned to pack much lighter (at least if we have to tour with our luggage)! We tried potato & mushroom filled dumplings and cherry filled ones for dessert. Ry had bleencheekee with blackberries (which I always forget is actually our blueberries), she enjoyed it anyway. Sasha had the salt shaker lid come off and dump in her soup (YUCK), but our waiter said there was nothing he could do for her, wow! We had a very nice time and some good laughs.
After lunch Tanya got us a “cheap” taxi (the girls argued about that politely for a while) and Sasha accompanied us to see the Arc of Friendship. On our way we saw other interesting sites and a beautiful park. This is where the wonderful blueberry jam we bought to have at home turned into a disaster. As Tony was adjusting our load to make it easier to carry, we forgot about the jam; suddenly Sasha and I saw black blobs of goo dropping behind Tony! We soon remembered the jam, but it was too late, some of Tony’s clean socks and underwear were the first casualties. It made a curious mess on the pavement and I held my breath as 2 brides walked by in their beautiful pure white gowns and came centimeters from touching the jam!!! Whew!! After Tony’s heroic effort in cleaning up the mess, not getting stung by the bees, and hoping the rest of our clothes were untouched, we continued on our weary walk to the Arc. With ice-cream for the girls we caught a taxi to the bus station. With this taxi ride we narrowly missed a fender bender (an inch, maybe)! When paying for our bus tickets the lady grumbled and threw the money back at us, Sasha did not even understand except that maybe the money was not in a good order. How can we understand if a local Ukrainian does not understand?! Sasha told us not to worry about it, it is just many workers disposition, grumpy! Uuugh!

We met Sasha’s husband Sasha (yes, Sasha one and Sasha two). He seemed very nice and we look forward to getting to know him better. We waited inside the nearby…you guessed it…McDonald’s to escape the heat. Sometimes I think it is worse going into a building, my body realizes how hot it was and then really sweats and wants to shut down. I went to buy four bottled waters, which should have been easy; I knew how to ask in Russian but the employee could hear my accent, rolled his eyes, retrieved the English menu and asked me what I wanted. I repeated my request, also in English and I had to choose gas or no gas (they like bubbles in their bottled water, most Americans do not). Everyone told me it’s so nice and easy to order at McDonald’s, its familiar food and most employees speak English. Well, I have been to 3 different McDonald’s every experience has been miscommunications, annoyed employees, different names for the burgers, non-English speaking employees (for me), or service that takes a decade; sorry, I really do not want to go back into a McDonald’s, I’ll take the Russian speaking restaurants with Russian menus!

View from our window on Khreshchatyck St. in Kiev

On the hot sticky bus ride home, stuff kept falling out of the air vents onto us (looked liked dried up dead bugs), gross! Did I mention that it was very hot and sticky?! We enjoyed the sunflower fields and storks when we weren’t nodding off. Lastly, I learned that even the cows are supposed to move out of the way of the bus, that was nearly the last time this cow crossed the road! After a big weekend, Salvutich and our little cottage was a welcome site!