We arrived yesterday mid-afternoon, didn’t have a lot of energy because we had only slept maybe three hours during our travels the night before, but we managed to do a neighbourhood stroll to orient ourselves to the central town, and to enjoy a bowl of delicious borscht, served here with black bread and thin slices of lard (Geoff ate mine – as cold lard is not for the faint of heart!). Then today, we met a guide and did a walking tour.
This colourful and beautiful building is part of the University here.
And here is a 1998 reconstruction of the former main gate of the old fortified city. Impressive!
The street art is very interesting. This is a carving, from a dead street-tree, which portrays a Scythian goddess. It was done by an anonymous artist, no-one has ever stepped forward and taken credit!
And next, a character from a Russian kids’ cartoon, “Hedgehog in the Fog”, with his new friend Geoff. Quite a marked resemblance, don’t you think?
And this wonderful sculpture/statue, I am honestly not sure what to call it, is just one striking piece in a park that contains many such mosaic sculptures. Really unusual and very pretty.
This one is for our friends Andrey T. and Andrej K., and my brother Andrew, because it is the church of St Andrew. It was built by Catherine the Great because when she came to Kiev, there was no private royal chapel, and she did not want to worship amongst the hoi-polloi. It is the only church in Kiev without bells because, of course, nobody needed to call anyone else to come to service.
I think that finishes the update for today. Tomorrow morning early we set off for a day tour to Chernobyl. I will provide an update in due course.
Hope everyone is having a great week!
I am familiar with the Hedgehog in the Fog cartoon. It is considered to be funny by many but it is not for me. I think you have to be in a somewhat “altered” state to be into it…LOL
Absolutely love that pillow statue though – it is so adorable!!!