Yesterday we went to Kiev. Although the original plan was to ride in by Marshrutka, we ended up having to take the rental van with the heroic Mr. Art Bradshaw as our driver. And guess who navigated? Tanya (from here) and I did the directing, which sort of went like this...
"Well, I think you turn up here. To the left. No wait, right! It's just past that thing...next to that other thing...across the street from that blue thing...How much farther? I don't actually know. Maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Or maybe more. I don't really know, sorry. The speed limit? Umm, well I know you can go at least 60 Ks. Well I think 80 would be ok. You could try 100. Well this looks right. I know I've seen those kind of trees before..."
It didn't help that the roads were abnormally thick with policemen, one every 100 yards or so along some stretches of road. But in the end we made it victoriously to the Fershette parking lot, where we changed to the metro and began a new adventure.
I don't think our driver had much faith in my navigational abilities, but then, what could I say? At least we didn't end up in Kaniv. I really thought we should make a trip there, seeing as it's such a special place and all...
I had a blast on the car ride. It was delightful to be with a vanload of people and laugh at all the jokes, gleefully discovering that I could understand them. The world is funnier with it speaks your language. I guess I've grown accustomed to being in groups where everyone is laughing their heads off about something I only half understand, and I didn't realize what a treat it would be to be with these folks! On the rare occasions that I actually catch what Ukrainians are saying in Ukrainian, I get a glimpse into their humor, but the rest of the time I am...lost. And as Elizabeth Bennet says, I dearly love to laugh!
But I haven't even got to Kiev yet. Nadia and her dad met us in Kiev to give us a tour of the city. We saw St. Sophia's cathedral, which was built in the 11th century I think, and was inspired by the Hagia Sofia in Constantinople, now Istanbul. The inside is covered in detailed mosaics and ancient paintings of apostles and Jesus and royal people. I could have stared at some of them all day. I feel like it's such an unbelievable privilege to be all the way across the world seeing something so old and historic and beautiful. History seems much more appealing than it ever did in school!
We also visited a monastery called Pecherska Lavra, and were twenty minutes too late to go into the caves that lie under the extensive monastery grounds in the middle of Kiev. Monks built the caves so that they could do their monkish living-in-poverty-thing, and later the impressive buildings up top were constructed. Quite a contrast between caves and the domed and guilded monastery! I would have loved to see down there, although I'm told it's dark and narrow and there are a lot of people kissing mummied remains of deceased monks...which is really sad, because they really do that, thinking it will add fervency to their prayers.
Here are Tanya and I on a street on the monastery grounds.
And this is part of the monastery...as I was saying, they must have given up the whole poverty idea...
This is the gate of St. Sophia's.
And lastly, a "We Love Ukraine" sign...
4 comments:
The Hagia Sophia is amazing. You should go to Turkey sometime and see it. :) Although I imagine St. Sophia is probably a close second. How big is St. Sophia, roughly? Also, I couldn't quite tell from your pictures: is the roof structure based on domes like it was in Middle Eastern/Mediterranean architecture, or is it based on something more standard like vaulted ceilings or beam support or something?
I didn't pay much attention to the construction of the building, because I was busy gazing on the paintings...I know it has 13 domes and I think it is "based on domes" like you said. Anything with 13 domes has got to be somewhat dependent on them, I would think :)
I would love to see the Hagia Sophia. From what I saw in Drive Through History, I don't think St. Sophia's really holds a candle to it.
From that and the picture in the next post it looks like it probably is dome-based. I was just curious; the use of domes in the architecture I saw in Turkey really surprised me until I began thinking about the building systems they would have had to use.
On the whole it sounds really cool. I remember the mosaics we saw were amazing; I can definitely understand being enraptured by them.
Why don't we have cathedrals in the States???????
Mattie Kate
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