After a good night's sleep we headed out early this morning to go south and visit the Monument of the Motherland, a Soviet relic that still sits up high on top of a hill. Unfortunately I didn't know we shouldn't visit it first thing in the morning when it opens. The entire area was covered in a layer of fog so thick you could not see the statue even when you're standing at the base of it. We did see it later in the day from afar and I was able to get a picture. The rest of the area, part of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, consists of Soviet monuments that we were able to see.
A few blocks away is the UNESCO World Heritage Site Kyiv Pechersk Lavra. From the UNESCO website: "The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is an architectural ensemble of monastic buildings situated on the plateau overlooking the right bank of the Dnieper River. The ensemble was formed over many centuries in organic combination with the landscape, and acts as a general urban dominant. Founded by St. Anthony and St. Theodosy in the 11th century, the monastery became a prominent spiritual and cultural centre that made a significant contribution to the development of education, art and medicine. The architectural ensemble of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra comprises unique surface and underground churches from the 11th to the 19th centuries, in a complex of labyrinthine caves that expands more than 600m, as well as domestic and household buildings from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The architectural ensemble acquired its modern aspect as a result of construction activities in the 17th to the 18th centuries in the heyday of the Ukrainian Baroque. The main monuments of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra ensemble are the Dormition Cathedral, the Trinity Gate Church, the Great Bell Tower, the Church of All Saints, the Refectory Church, the monastery defensive walls with towers, the cave complexes of St. Anthony (Near) and St. Theodosy (Far) with surface churches, the Exaltation of the Cross and the Nativity of the Virgin and the Church of the Saviour on Berestovo."
The Lavra complex was much bigger than what we were expecting and unfortunately we were only able to see a small portion of it. Here are a couple of the sights we visited within:
And finally, here is my shot of the Monument to the Motherland just as the fog was starting to lift:
Our next stop was the Holodomor Museum and Memorial. Holodomor, meaning "to kill by starvation", was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. It's also commonly referred to as the Great Famine. Prior to our trip, two of the 30+ books I read included The Harvest of Sorrow and Red Famine. I highly recommend both, although Red Famine has been updated to include recent research that was previously undisclosed.
Next we headed back to the main area, a couple of miles of walking but tons of stuff to see on the way. Mariinskyi Park was a real treat as the leaves were bright yellow and the weather was still pretty cool. At the northern end of the park is Mariinskyi Palace, the ceremonial presidential palace.
When we were back in the main area and ready for lunch we happened to pass a little cafe tucked between a few massive buildings. The cafe specialized in all of the national cuisine, so we tried the borscht, a warm beet soup that was incredibly good! I also had potato pancakes with sour cream and Jay ordered mushroom polenta.
Once we were back in the main square we walked over to Golden Gate, some of the oldest ruins in Kyiv. They're currently inside a newer building, constructed to look like what would have been the original wall gate, leading down to the river.
Inside the newer structure you can see some of the the original 11th-century fortification. During the Middle Ages much of the wall was dismantled, and during the Soviet area it was rebuilt.
After dinner we went for a walk north through the Podil neighborhood to enjoy the pedestrian walk and then took an audio tour through the Chernobyl museum.
Our evening walks for the last two days have included a lot of murals. This past decade there has a been a big push to incorporate more art across the city, including a lot of murals in some of the rundown areas, or on abandoned buildings. Here are two of the many we saw this evening.
That ends our second day in Kyiv. We have even more planned for tomorrow and will be another early day.
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