5/31/10
(Kiev,
continued) The first afternoon and evening in Kiev were a blur. I know I didn’t
go out to eat with my roommate, so I must eaten food from the food bag (chips
and nuts and an orange, probably) in the room.
The next
morning, we had a bit of an orientation to the trip as a whole and to Kiev in
particular, and we were asked to choose our optional tours for the whole trip.
Then we left
on the bus for a city tour of Kiev. I believe we started out with the “Great
Gate of Kiev,” a painting of which was inspiration for one of Mussorgsky’s tone
poems in “Pictures at an Exhibition." When we got out to explore, there was some question about where the
actual gate entrance was. But I found an opening, barred by two gates with
heavy, medieval, iron grill-work, and with pointed spikes at the base on either
side of the stone-and-cement gate tunnel. So that was probably the gate entrance, back in medieval times, when Kiev was a fortress town. Someone suggested that this wasn't, in fact, the "real" gate of Kiev; that it had been destroyed during the war and this was a reconstruction.
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| The Gate of Kiev |
Then we drove
around the town, stopping first at St. Sophia, the most ancient church in Kiev
(built during the 11th century) and one of the few not destroyed during
the Communist era. We were able to take photos around the grounds of the
church, but not inside the church itself. The glittering contrasts of gold
above green cupolas, and white towers rising into the blue and white sky is
stunning. But going inside the church itself, with its feeling of height, the
mosaic of Mary, the brilliant, gilded iconostasis with its recently constructed
(Polish metalworkers) replica of the previous gate (melted by the Soviets or
Germans during WWII), the gilded paintings in the cupola high above the main
floor of the church, all lent the interior a truly otherworldly air. Mosaics on
the wall are pale in comparison to the iconostasis, but they add a special softness
to the otherwise overwhelming intensity of the alter area.
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| St Sophia |
After we left
the church, we saw a model of the city and also a statue of Vladimir the Great
(“the Baptist” – or was it Yaraslov the Wise? Maybe both). We then wandered to an overlook
from which we could view the city and the Dnieper River. Leaving the church through the baroque-era
bell tower, we came out onto the large main square from which we saw the
reconstructed St. Michael’s church painted in heavenly blue.
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| St Michael's Church |
Then the bus
took us to another overlook from which we could see the city and the river, as
well as the domes of the Cave Monastery, which we visited the following day.
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| Cave Monastery at a distance |
That evening
we heard a talk by a young Ukrainian man who seemed pretty savvy in the ways
of modern Ukraine. The average monthly wage is quite low, but a lot of people
apparently have cars and nice apartments. There seems to be a large shadow
economy in the country, and he made it obvious that palm-greasing is standard
operating procedure. He blames this modus operandi on the period of economic collapse of the USSR (in
the ‘80s) when barter and bribery were the only ways to function, and these habits
persisted after national freedom was achieved in 1991.
We had dinner
at a Ukrainian restaurant with horseradish vodka in a tumbler to drink and smoked pig fat on bread as
appetizers! A wonderful group of musicians played folk music that reminded me a
lot of Klezmer music (with violin and accordion, etc.).
