Sunday July 18 - In Kiev

On Sunday morning, we got to Kiev, and stayed in a college seminary for the day. When we got into Kiev, early Sunday morning, we checked into the seminary right away, got settled in, showered, and ate breakfast before we headed out to sight-see at about 10. We took the Metro (subway) and then took one of the longest escalators, (we didn't ride on the longest 1/2 mile one) then we walked the rest of the way to the main square (I think it's called Independence Square). Then we walked through the market (I think it was like a mile long), and ate lunch at the traditional Ukrainian restaurant. Then since it was already 3 o'clock, we decided to go back to the seminary and finish praying over each other. Then we ordered pizza for supper. They pizza was huge! Unfortunately all of the pizza ended up with onions or other veggies on them, not to my liking. :) We tried to get to bed early as we had to leave early the next morning, but it ended up being late. We tried though. :)

All of us with all our luggage waiting to check into our rooms at the seminary.

Wow, we had a lot of luggage for 15 people!

Before getting on the Metro (subway), you had to buy a little token and then put it through these machines to get through

On the Metro

Max "holding" up the ceiling :)

"Oh no! Olivia is out in the street alone!"

A building in Kiev - In the picture above, the road is blocked off because it was a Sunday. :)

I think Max said this is like their Statue of Liberty

I just did a search on this statue, and apparently, it's the mythic Slavic goddess Berehynia, and she's protecting Kiev. Some believe that this statue has been here since Ukraine's Independence (1991) but other argue it hasn't been here that long.

Josiah in a fountain

The Three Musketeers... No... The Three Umbrella Girls!

Every one of the adoption blogs I'm following that adopts from Ukraine posts pictures of this church when they're in Kiev, so I had to post pictures too! :)

A government building

There were dogs everywhere in Kiev, this pack of dogs was outside the markets. The people there told us to be quiet not to wake their guard dogs. I'm not sure what they guarding, but we did what we were told as the dogs were huge!

I thought this was quite a wild looking van! :)

This was a dessert at the Ukrainian restaurant. It was Katya's. Katya came with us to Kiev with Max. She and Max left from Kiev after we left to go to Russia on the train to get Max's mother, and bring her back to Krivoy Rog.

I took this picture to say that I had Chicken Kiev in Kiev! :)

On the subway

Our supper

Max eating his pizza. The slices were huge!!

After a night of uncomfortable sleep in the hot rooms with out fans, we (Alice, Tim, Brooke, my dad, and me) got up early with Max and Katya to go to the airport at 3 in the morning. Thank goodness I was able to sleep a lot more on the way back than the way there. The other part of the team whose flight was supposed to leave Kiev about 10 that morning - their flight left three hours late, and they missed their next flight to Minneapolis, so they ended up spending a night in New York. (They didn't fly through Germany and Chicago like we did, they had a flight straight from Kiev to New York, and New York to Minneapolis.)

A little funny story I want to share - On the way back to the seminary, we rode a public bus. We got on to it, and we had it all to ourselves. We thought that was strange, because normally they're packed. After riding it for 15 minutes to a half hour, we got off. However, we were at the same spot we got on the bus on!!! And there had been no stops while on the bus! We got off the bus, only a few of us knowing what had happened (we got our money back), and we started walking towards a different bus stop. Brian, (not realizing what had happened), asked why the bus didn't take us to the first stop we had been at that morning. I told him to stop, and look around. Did this place familiar?? He's like "No, I don't recognize it... Wait... Isn't this the same place we just got on the bus??" I said it was and he nearly fell over laughing. It was soo funny. We walked to a different bus stop, and got on another bus, which was crowded, but we got to where we wanted to go on it. :)

Another funny thing that happened in Kiev - Brooke's flip flop broke while we were walking throught the market, so my dad, being the engineer, and Tim, tied it back together with one Tim's shoelaces. She later bought new Ukrainian flip flops (it was very hard for her to find some with out heels!).