Kiev, Ukraine

Kiev is one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe...and it shows ; )  I had the chance to travel there, to work with a videogame developer in the former Soviet Union.  As a kid growing up, I was engrossed in the Cold War - I was fascinated by the U.S.S.R. and thought that some day, I would actually serve a mission there.  That didn't work out, but I still managed to learn a few words of Russian by putting stickers on several household items in my room, growing up.  I can still remember how to say "Good Morning" in Russia from the Reagan years ; )

I didn't have a great deal of sight-seeing time in Kiev, but enough to get a good feel for the city. Before sharing travel photos, I have to tell you about one of the strangest experiences I've ever had on-the-road.  I stayed at a decent hotel - by Ukranian standards.  It was quite obvious that I wasn't a local (I tend to stick out in foreign countries).  A man at the front desk of the hotel approached me with a large binder in his hands.  Basically, it was a catalog of potential wives.  I'm not even joking.  Inside this binder, were pages after pages of women that I could essentially "buy" and take back to the U.S. as a brand-new bride.  I tried to politely tell him I was flattered, but that a wife wasn't part of my itinerary on this trip.  Can you imagine putting that on an expense report? ; )

One of the most beautiful places that I saw, was St. Michael's Cathedral:

This particular monastery was founding in 1108 - but they've obviously taken care of the structures.  The cathedrals in Kiev - and most of the former Soviet countries - are dominated by the Russian Orthodox style - which I think is just gorgeous.  Another awesome example of this is St. Andrew's Church:

You can't talk about a visit to the Ukraine, without talking about food.  I L-O-V-E trying the local cuisine while I'm traveling.  The food in Kiev didn't disappoint.  Believe it or not, one of my favorite dishes was borsch - basically beet soup.  Normally, I don't enjoy beets, but I loved the way this little restaurant prepared it.

M-m-m good!

I also like to try the local mass transportation system.  In this case, it was the Kiev Metro.  Usually, it doesn't take too long to figure out how the trains work.  This was NOT the case in Kiev.  I had two of my smartest engineers with me and it took all three of our brains to make sense of the system.  I had an easier time in China!  All of the signs are in Cyrillic - which is difficult to pattern-recognize:

Here's me trying to figure it all out - not a pretty sight:

Say what?

One of the nicest surprises during the trip, came when we went to visit the game developer in Kiev.  We arrived at the address and found that the company was housed inside of a GIANT, old Soviet-era space rocket facility.  I can't tell if they did research on space rockets, or actually manufactured parts there...but this poster at the entrance really made me stop in my tracks.

It's an indication of the change in this country.  You might remember the Ukraine, because the city of Chernobyl is in this country.  There is a huge fascination with the Chernobyl disaster - and the game being developed by this company took place all around that area.  They went there and took a bazillion photos of abandoned buildings, houses and streets.  It was seriously creepy - perfect for a scary videogame!

On a sad note - while traveling around the city, it became evident that the Ukranian economy had taken it's toll on the citizens.  I saw several families really struggling to make ends meet.  In fact, I saw several places where families were growing potatoes in their yard, just to have something to eat.  It broke my heart.  It reminded me of some of the Latin American countries that I visited.  I don't know if any of the oil wealth has reached Kiev, but I hope things have gotten better.  In many ways, it explained why that man approached me with the giant binder - people were willing to do anything to escape the poverty there.

I'm just glad that the tourism continues to support some of the beautiful buildings and cathedrals, so that they're preserved for some time to come.