More Pictures from Kiev, Ukraine!

Hi Everyone!
Well, I'm back home now, but I still have some fun pictures from my trip to Ukraine to share with you! We didn't have any internet access for the last 5-6 days of our trip, so I couldn't do updates while I was there. And then, ever since I got home, I keep falling asleep at 9pm because of jet lag! For someone who usually goes to bed around midnight, that's pretty early!


My mom and I really had a great time in Kiev. What an amazing city! We walked and walked and walked and so so many beautiful parks, churches, people, and sights. Right before I left, I realized - to my horror - that I was going to miss two weeks of Cherry Season. This was a big deal, because I love cherries so. damn. much, and the season is short. Imagine my joy to discover that it was also cherry season in Ukraine! I bought these delicious cherries from a very friendly gal on the main drag in Kiev (Kreshchatik St.)...


Then we headed off to the beautiful Pescherk park, which overlooks the Dnipro River and the other side of Kiev. After so much walking and schlepping, we were so happy to sit in the warm shade and eat our cherries (and some amazing apricots).


Our hotel was the Hotel Ibis, which was really great. The staff spoke really perfect English, which was quite helpful, and also it was easy to walk (or take the Metro) from there into the city center. The first couple of mornings, we just had some bread and fruit and cucumber in our room for breakfast, but on the last day, we decided to splurge and spend $12 each on the breakfast buffet. Friends, I am sure you are thinking the same thing I was thinking - there is No Way a vegan can get $12 out of a breakfast buffet. This is usually true, but this breakfast buffet was really great! Coffee, fresh bread (3 types!), tons of fresh fruit, jam, SALAD BAR (with sesame seeds and green and black olives!), juice... I was so stoked. I assure you, I ate more than my $12 worth!!

All in all, I really can't say Kiev is a vegan paradise. In fact, the 3 vegan restaurants that I found ahead of time on HappyCow.net all seemed to be gone & out of business (bummer!!!). But, there are a lot of great reasons to see Kiev, and with enough power bars and fresh cherries, you still won't starve to death!

I thought you might like to see a few travel pics from beautiful Kiev... First up is my sweet mom expressing our total feebleness at understanding all the signage in Russian. I actually got pretty good at reading the Cyrillic, but since I still don't speak Russian, it was only sometimes useful. Also, a couple of pictures from St. Andriyivskyy's Descent... a super beautiful old cobblestone street that fills up with all sorts of vendors on the weekend selling antiques, art, clothing, snacks and just about everything. Plus, the church on top of the hill there is just beautiful!!! Teal and gold dome for the win!

We also got to check out the First Annual Kiev Biennale, which was pretty freaking cool - especially for a couple of art nerds like my mom and me. There was a lot of really interesting and thought-provoking art... very exciting. Also, this beautiful yellow church (St. Voldymyr's) was right near our hotel and was truly beautiful inside. We were lucky enough to show up during a service, when they had a full choir singing. It was really magical.

Coming up soon - a post from Alushta, on the coast of the Black Sea!