The field of gold, under a sky of blue... Ukraine

Hey guys!
Its been a while, but I'm back in business... I hope.

So, my Ukraine trip is long over.  I got back into the states in the beginning of June.  It was an amazing trip!  Ukraine is definitely a country I would suggest to anyone.  I'm hoping to make it back there soon! (We shall see!)  

The cities in Ukraine are beautiful, with their different domed churches and historical monuments (not to mention the colorful, old apartment buildings in the city center!)  

I loved driving through the country in a van or an overnight train.  You get to see the modern cities and then you see the villages where people have their gardens, hang the laundry out to dry, and take the horse and cart to the neighbor's farm.  Right now, visiting Ukraine is relatively cheap.  You can get a good amount of groceries at the store for about 150 hryvnia (which is just under $7 according to Google).  

We were living in Kyiv, but we visited the cities of Lviv (the home of the Lviv Chocolate Factory) and Odessa (Ukrainian Black Sea melting-pot).


Lviv is a very beautiful, old, European-style city.  While most of Ukraine is filled with Orthodox churches, Lviv has a unique mix of Catholic and Orthodox.  Lviv's churches aren't the gold-domed churches you see in Kyiv, but more like the churches you see in Western Europe.  Lviv shows influences from Poland, Austria, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine as it has belonged to each of the countries in its long history.

When you're there make sure you stop at the Lviv Chocolate Factory!  You can buy Ukrainian chocolates (great souvenirs!) and take tours of the factory.  They also have a "Three Broomsticks" restaurant.  Any Harry Potter fan should make sure to visit if for no other reason than to have a butterbeer and take pictures.  The hostel we stayed at was a medieval-style place called the GHOSTel.  The rooms were clean and the ladies at the front were kind and helpful!  When we first arrived they gave us directions to churches and restaurants we wanted to see.

Lviv Chocolate Factory!

Our last trip was to Odessa.  Quite honestly, I was surprised by Odessa.  I didn't know anything about the city except that it was near the Black Sea.

Old town is beautiful and at night the town is so lively!  There were musicians in a square playing for people who gathered to dance.  The beach was more crowded than a girl from rural Alaska is accustomed to but not bad.  The Black Sea is beautiful and it was the perfect way to cool off.  Spend a few hours at the beach and wander around town looking at the churches, apartment buildings, opera house (my favorite building there!), and have some coffee or tea at an outdoor coffee shop.  We didn't have much time in Odessa but the time we had there was fun and I'd love to go back.

View of the Black Sea.

The Opera House.

Take in a little dancing while you're there!

And then go for a swim in the Black Sea!

Kyiv, by far, was my favorite city.  (I'm probably a bit biased because I spent most of my 5 months there!)  I got very fond of the city and the people in the city.

The public transportation is relatively simple to use making it easy to get around.  You can use the metro to get across the city quickly but when you're in city center make sure you do as much walking as possible so you don't miss anything.  Hit Khreshchatyk Street but wander off on the side streets as much as possible.  Right on Khreshchatyk you'll find stores and restaurants you recognize (like McDonalds, TGIFriday's, and Adidas).  Down the side roads you'll find cute cafes, souvenir shops, and a gallery devoted to the Ukrainian painter Gapchinska.  Plan to go to St. Sophia's, St. Andrew's, St. Michael's, St. Volodymyr's, and the Lavra.  (They are all Orthodox churches but they are all so different from one another that each one should be experienced.)

Experience a marshrutka!  From paying the driver to finding a place to sit or stand, its always an adventure :)

The Kiev Pechersk Lavra is an Orthodox church and museum.  It was a cave monastery where certain saints were buried.  You can walk through the catacombs where reclusive monks lived.  When they died their bodies were mummified by the conditions in the caves.  Many of the bodies line the caves that you walk through so that pilgrims can pray.  The gardens at the Lavra are beautiful during the summer so make sure to wander around as much as possible.

When you're finished at the Lavra you'll be right next to the Motherland Monument and the Great Patriotic War Museum.  In Eastern Europe, WWII is called the "Great Patriotic War".  This museum is well put together and kind of just walks you through the war as it happened in Ukraine.  The descriptions for the displays aren't written in English but they have papers at each entrance that give an explanation of the room in English (and I believe in German and Spanish as well).

Another trip I would suggest (although this one will definitely need to be a day trip) is the National Museum of Ukrainian Architecture and Culture (also called Pyrohiv).  I can't give you good directions on how to get there because the way we took ended up taking us through the back entrance after a 2 mile walk... :)  Sometimes these things happen!  And it worked out amazingly for us because we met a very sweet couple who had a daughter who taught university English who just happened to be bringing her students to the museum to take a tour in English... coincidence?  Fate?  Blessings?  You choose.  Just an anecdote to show you not to worry too much about getting lost!

Anyway, back to the museum!  It's an open air museum with buildings from all over Ukraine and from different time periods in Ukraine that show you how life might be or might have been.  They also have (good) food and souvenirs!  Its worth the trip to spend the day walking around, taking pictures, and escaping the busy city.

Random Easter egg

Rent a bike!

(Don't touch the building because they're covered in some kind of chalk and, yes, the color comes off...)

If you don't satisfy your souvenir needs anywhere else you visit then stop at Andriyivskyy street.  The stands are open in the winter from about 11.30 am to 5 pm (depending on the weather) and in the summer they open at about 9 am and go on to later in the evening.  Make sure you ask around and find the best prices.  With most of the people you can haggle so I suggest trying!  Also, talk to the vendors because some of them aren't just trying to sell you things but genuinely interested in you!  

Well, if you've made it this far, I thank you!  haha this post became longer than I anticipated, but I hope you've enjoyed it and gotten some useful information from it! Go visit Kyiv!  As usual, if you have any info on Kyiv that you think is important or want to know more leave a comment.

Until next time, travel mindfully!

-Kerry