Sunday, Aug. 29, 2004 - 5:05 p.m.
It is Sunday afternoon here. Tooled around Kyiv and he checked out the ancient cave monastery here. To hear the monastic chant emanating from the churches while golden domes glisten in the sun-it brought chills to me and lifted my spirit. It was truly beautiful.
It's mind blowing how much of this city is between 200-800 years old. There would be more that was older were it not for the war destroying much of the city.
Visited a monument to the artificial famine of 1933 where approximately 10 million Ukrainians were starved to death by the communists. There has been so much fighting on this land, so much suffering, it truly is heart wrenching. During the seige of Kyiv which lasted over 700 days, over 200, 000 civilians were killed.
back to food...Another favorites as far as dessert goes is ice cream. They LOVE their ice cream here; and it's excellent creamy quality. Even the cheap stuff is like Hagen Daz. They also love their coffee; there are coffee shops all over the city (all over all cities I visited) It's served in the Turkish style with small cups-almost like espresso. There is very little sludge on the bottom, but the coffee is strong and good. They usually serve it with cream and sugar on the side.
Meats served at the main course have been chicken; pork and beef. Pork and beef are served like cutlets and fried. The preferred coating is egg batter though some have been breaded.
Butter is used abundantly here, as is, I beleive from the taste of some things, lard. I ordered Kasha the other day and it had a small lake of clarified, golden butter nestled in the middle of it. It was delicious!
Not sure if I mentioned that my current room is overlooking the Olympic Soccer Stadium. I think I stayed on the same floor and almost the same room last time I was here in '90. The view looks similar. No soccer or track going on-all eyes are on Athens...
The hotel has been remodeled since the last time I was here. It is the best of the three hotels we've been at and at par with many American Hotels.
Kyiv is beautiful. There are parks everwhere and flowers. The monuments often get very filled with flowers (and sometimes champagne bottles!) as people come there to take wedding pictures.
Ahh, flowers...people buy and give them regularly here...When people are met at train stations, they are greeted with flowers. Women are seen regularly in the markets buying flowers. They bring them home and use them to brighten up their homes. It goes back to the Ukrainian "Philosophy of Beauty" which I spoke of in my last entry.
Tons of ideas and melodies have been buzzing around my head. I think I may make a different album than orginally planned-one that comes from the experiences of Ukraine.
Tomorrow we go on a cruise of the Dnipro river. It's the third largest river in Europe and divides Ukraine in half both geographically and psychologically. The Western half if the country is closer to Europe and Ukraine is spoken much more often. The eastern half is closer to Russia and Russian or a Russified Ukrainian is spoken. Unifying these two halves is an ongoing challenge but I beleive a common national heart is forming.
There are casinos everywhere-the governments way of making a few extra bucks, I believe...
I've got some more time off so I'll probably chill alittle and people watch.
