Kiev this week!!!

We have traveled all around Kiev this week!!  Debbie and I have had a couple of great adventures so I wanted to post pictures to show you how we have spent some of our time here in Kiev!!

The Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Ukrainian: Києво-Печерська лавра; Russian: Киево-Печерская лавра), also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is an ancient cave monastery in Kiev. It was founded in 1051 by monks Anthony and Theodosius, and has become an important center of Orthodox Christianity in Kievan Rus'. It's ongoing development and construction followed for the next 9 centuries. The word "pechera" means cave in the Slavic tongue. The word "lavra" is used to describe high ranking monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Lavra buildings looked like small towns with their own streets. In Greek "lavra" means "the street".

While we did not get to go to the caves, we had a great time exploring this beautiful place. 

 

The front of one of the buildings

There was an outlook place on one side… the gold domed building in front is the Monastery that is directly beside the Church!  It was a beautiful view… in the background, the Left Bank of Kiev.

A bit of a zoom in shot of the Left Bank!

 

Kiev's statue of the Motherland is a memorial of the Great Patriotic War (World War II). The statue itself is 62 meters (203.4 feet) tall, the overall height is 102 meters (334.6 feet).

 

This is the backside of that building pictured above.  Isn’t it beautiful!!!

 

We took this tour on Friday.  Friday’s and Saturday’s are very popular for weddings in Ukraine and people from all over come to get married at this church.  It is not uncommon for 20-30 couples to be married here in one day!  I caught one couple here under the arch getting some photo’s.  The wedding dresses here are just beautiful as well!!

On Sunday, we went to church at the Kiev International Bible Church, which I spoke about in my previous post.  After, Jamie, a gal that I had met there last week, took us to this Ukrainian Restaurant for a traditional Ukrainian meal.  Let me tell you that it was definitely traditional.  We were there for almost 3 hours and had 4 courses.  It was so yummy!  I had to take this picture of one item in particular on the menu!  “Fat with Garlic”  DISGUSTING!!  People eat it here though!  YUCK!!  We didn’t order it!!

We ordered Perogi’s with potato and mushroom (left) and Pelmeni (which are like little ravioli’s with meat inside, left).  It was such a yummy lunch!!  We also had Borsht, and Blinki’s (I will explain what each of those is in a later post..they almost need a post all to themselves!!  LOL)

 

This was inside the restaurant…doesn’t it look like it was outside?  Very neat!

 

This restaurant was very private.  We were in our own little room and there were little places like it all over the restaurant.  There were only a handful of tables that were actually out in the middle!

 

Me and our waitress!  She was so very very nice!  I believe her name was Luba, but I am not quite sure.

 

I will post more of the rest of our week tomorrow.  I am getting very sleepy and still have to shower and get things ready to go to the embassy in the morning!  Goodnight all and come back for more pictures!  I will have some pictures of Jake when I post tomorrow!!!