Douglas Easton Travel Blog - Douglas Easton Travel

February 17, 2007

Kiev, Ukraine

We've begun our busy 2007 season with a last-minute jaunt to Kiev, capital of the former Soviet republic of the Ukraine, for no other reason than we've never before visited. Kiev in the dead of winter may not be on everyone's wish list of travel destinations, but our brief sojourn has been fascinating.

Kiev, considered the mother city of al Slavic people, is strewn with innumerable churches and cathedrals. Some are more than a thousand years old. Its ornate opera house, built in the mid-1800's, glitters in stark contrast to the sturdy, blocky Soviet architecture of some of its neighbors. The Bessarabia Market is a food-lover's dream, a sort of Eastern European Balducci's, with extraordinary produce, seafood, meats, local delicacies and flowers. (Caviar was going for $170 a pound!) And the city boasts a gorgeous hotel, the Premier Palace, which compares favorably with anything one might find in Western Europe.

Much of Kiev's bustling winter commerce taking place in a series of subterranean shopping malls, each connected by passageways and delightfully shielded from the icy blast of cold air raging outside.

One of the strangest spectacles we witnessed occurred in the 11th century Monastery of the Caves (Pechersk Lavra), where many of the deceased monks lie in glass-covered sarcophagi (their corpses concealed by tapestries). The narrow passageways of the caves were crowded with devoted, candle-carrying Ukrainians. The accepted procedure appeared to be to kiss the top of each coffin and then to lay one's head on the glass as though listening to the monk (perhaps hoping he'll impart some wisdom or advice). Some of the faithful appeared emotionally overcome, and were shuffling in tears among the departed.

We hope to return to Kiev, if for no other reason than to partake of an organized tour of Chernobyl (no, we're not joking), which is offered daily. (We would have taken it, but the tour operators require five days advance notice, for security reasons.) The tour apparently provides lunch, served in the control booth of the reactor. The whole trip lasts eight hours.

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