Briefly: Kyiv II

Ok, we are ready for tourism (it was a guided tour - hence the lanyards. Kate and I were the youngest people on it by decades).







This church was 1000 years old, with multiple layers of frescoes. The Soviets would have torn it down, like they did the 1000-year-old church that used to sit opposite it, but local scholars convinced them it had a lot of "scientific value."

Lemme tell you, seventy-plus years of Soviet rule did nothing to attenuate the religious fervour of the Ukrainians. We visited the equally old "caves monastery" and crept around catacombs with tapers, and had to manoeuvre around all kinds of people holding their sick babies and rocking and whispering, or kissing the coffins of the mummified saints and crying.

Lighting a candle for Baba and Dido:


We were supposed to go see a choir that night, but Mom and I begged off to fill up on red caviar and champanski, cuz we ain't dumb