Creeped Out in Kyiv

Photo: Alec tries out my red fox hat in the hotel room.

Our $200 hotel room included the “best buffet breakfast in Kyiv.” There were the usual runny scrambled eggs, so I selected a boiled one. Unfortunately, when I got it back to my table and cracked it, I found it was not hard boiled. It was not even soft boiled. They had parboiled this egg which was so runny I didn’t want to take the shell off for fear it would run all over the tablecloth.

They also offered bacon that had only a glimpse of a frying pan. I contented myself with coffee, a banana and the usual international buffet pastries. If this is the best breakfast buffet in town, I wouldn't want to see number two.

Afterwards, Alec and I set off to explore the area around the hotel. We were about a block from Independence Square, which starred in the Orange Revolution of last year. Interestingly, there was a modern mall underneath it. Kyiv was full of activists with flags and tents and banners, in their various party colors, mostly blue or orange. There is an election later this month and street campaigning was in full swing.

From the square we walked up an icy side street to St. Sophia Cathedral. Having neither a map nor a compass, I was a bit concerned about getting back to the hotel, but Alec assured me he could handle it (and did).

We met the guide in the lobby, and drove back to St. Sophia for an extended tour. But it was interesting to have approached it from a distance on foot earlier. St. Sophia is an 11th Century Church built in a Byzantine Style. They redid the exterior a couple of hundred years ago, “modernizing” it in a Baroque style. But the inside was the same original Byzantine architecture with lovely mosaics that have survived the centuries.

Our next stop was the Cave Monastery. The early Christians decided to live in caves in the 11th Century. No one was prosecuting them. In fact, Christianity was introduced by the royalty. But they decided there was just something cool about it and hung out there. They did, eventually, emerge from the caves to create a huge area of churches and buildings above ground. One Byzantine Church we saw there survived Communism by being turned into a Center for Atheism. The frescos made it as it was easier for the comrades to put boards over them than repaint.

On the grounds they were had brightly colored onion domes they sell to small churches. We walked down to the entrance to the “near caves,” Russian-style, arm-in-arm to keep from falling on the ice. The early Christians discovered that when they buried people in the caves, they were preserved. Therefore, it must be a miracle and everyone who was buried there must be holy and have some power.

The bodies are still down there and are considered “holy relics.” They are in wooden coffins with glass tops. The bodies are covered with tapestries and only the creepy shriveled hands are visible. Alec bought some “holy honey” at the entrance as a souvenir. We were each given a single thin candle to hold between the fingers of our left hand so the hot wax would drip on our hands and not the holy relics. Our right hand needed to be free to steady ourselves as we descended into the dark and narrow cave.

The cave was barely wide enough for two people to pass each other and full of pilgrims who would caress and bow over the top of the coffins.

Is there anything cooler than being in a narrow cave with prostrating pilgrims and ancient shriveled dead guys and only one thin candle for light? I didn’t think so.

But the creep-a-thon continued. After we left the monastery, Ludmila took us to “The House of the Chimeras.” This was the home of an architect who had a part interest in a cement company. He had the exterior of his home decorated with the most bizarre collection of monsters and wild animals made of cement. (According to the Internet, an Italian sculpture, Elia Sala, actually did them.)

In between, we saw some bad 20th century sculptures, mostly provided courtesy of the Soviets. The people in Kyiv have dumped some of them but can’t really decide what to do with the rest.
This is an ancient country with a form of government that literally began last year. It's an interesting contrast.

Photo: The House of the Chimeras.