Kiev (Part 2)

The next, and final destination, was Kiev, Ukraine.  I admit, the first night we got there I was pretty wigged because it’s a full fledged city with all the crazy that comes with that, but I quickly fell in love. We did so much there that I wouldn’t even know where to begin so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking and supplement where I can.

This is one of the important political points during the Orange Revolution a few years ago. It's also just a really popular square for shopping and entertainment. On the weekends they close down the streets leading to it so pedestrians can just walk around and enjoy the sights.

This is a monument in the same square as the giant clock.

Kiev

St. Petersburg

(The monuments are so much alike...I guess there are only so many things you can do with a monument.)

This is called the Golden Gate. It was a bit of a letdown when I saw it was made of wood, but it was still very cool. It's the original entrance to Kiev where anyone who wanted to go in or out of the city had to pass through.

Saint Sophia's Cathedral, a well-known cathedral in Kiev.

Saint Sophia

St. Michael's Cathedral, another prominent cathedral in the city center.

St. Michael

A view of St. Sophia's from St. Michael's

A view of St. Michael's from St. Sophia's

A view of the city from behind St. Michael's

This was just a funny statue in a seemingly random place. Just a way to make the city a little prettier and cultured with some art. It reminds me of some of the efforts being made in Cody...

....yeah...similar, right?

This is St. Andrew's church. It was designed by the same architect who designed the Hermitage/Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, which is of course my favorite building in St. Petersburg. 

So, this was a very cute park near St. Andrew's. All of the equipment is covered mosaic-style with tiny colored tiles.  The story is that the government wanted to come in and use this piece of land for a new apartment building, but this particular spot has a really incredible view of the city, being perched on the top of a hill.  The neighbors protested because they wanted to continue to enjoy this view of the city, but the government would only stop the building if the land became of some value. The neighbors raised money and donated their own money to commission the building of this really unique park of tiles. This particular playground was based around Alice in Wonderland...loosely. You can see they took some artistic leniency with it, but it was really beautiful.

We had the chance to go to the newly dedicated Kiev temple.

My friend Allison Russian posing in front of some cupolas at Lavra. We literally were imitating exactly a pose we saw busted in all seriousness.

Lavra is a working monastery in Kiev and is a huge complex where monks live and worship. Women are required to wear a skirt that falls below their knees and keep their heads covered with a scarf or hat if they want to enter the grounds.

Me and "Big Mama".

This monument is called Big Mama and is the Statue of Liberty of Ukraine. This monument signifies Ukraine's freedom and contains one of the coolest museum's in the base of the statue which is focused around their participation in World War II.

This is another monument in the same square as Big Mama and it is freaking enormous. For some reason the one guy has no neck, it looks really awkward so we tried to imitate him.

I wanted to give you an idea of how massive this monument is, so I had my friend ninja her way down there to sit on it and compare. We discovered later that perhaps you are not supposed to get so close to it since it is usually surrounded by water.

A view of the Dnieper River from Big Mama's square.

More of the Dnieper. Please don't judge my appearance. After a week of staying in hostels...you begin to look the way you smell.

Outside of the Opera House.

We were able to see Romeo and Juliet the ballet and Carmen the opera. Romeo and Juliet was awesome! However, we could only make it through 2/3 of Carmen. The opera was in French and the subtitles in Ukranian, there is only so much culture a girl from Wyoming can take in one night.

I am officially over half-way through my time here in Russia and cannot believe it. Depending on the day I cannot believe it has gone so fast, while other days I cannot believe I won’t be enjoying smoke-free-booze-free air for another two months. Luckily the former happens far more often than the latter.  On all days I miss my family and friends though, and I am really, really grateful for Skype, which ironically was invented in Tallinn. See why I loved that place so much! Hope everyone is well.

Not Your Average Spring Break (Part 1)

 I have just returned from the best Spring Break vacation I have ever had. (Nicole, I am sure it is not grammatically correct to capitalize Spring Break, but I am going to do it anyway.) It is a little deceiving to claim it as the best, because I think it is the only Spring Break vacation I have ever had.  When I was younger, Spring Break always fell in the middle of tax season…which for those of you who are part of the nerd world understand this means no fun for the Reilly family because dad was always really busy. Then, when I finally broke free to the wild college years I was shot down by BYU because they don’t even have a Spring Break in their schedule. So, I had to graduate from college and travel all the way to Russia to have my first Spring Break experience, but it was well worth it.

Our first stop was Tallinn, Estonia. I had never even heard of Estonia before this whole Russia experience and now I am pretty sure I want to live there for the rest of my life. It is like something right out of Disneyland, only it is real. It is very sad that when I see things in real life, I compare them to Disneyland, when I am pretty sure it is supposed to be the other way around.  However, Tallinn is absolutely wonderful and the only word I can use to describe it is charming, which is how my host mother helped me describe it as when she asked how I liked it. It’s a little embarrassing that she can pick out better English words than me when it’s her second language. These smart Russians…

Here are some highlights from our time in Tallinn:

This is Town Hall, the center of Old Tallinn.

Town Hall Square is the main square of Old Tallinn.

Another shot of Town Hall.

Tallinn is a series of quirky little shops, restaurants, and cafes.

The streets are all cobblestone. I felt like I was walking through a Simon and Garfunkel song.

This made me miss my mom...less touching when you notice Allison making a ridiculous pose in the reflection of the window.

Lots of cool alleys.

These are towers and walls from the original infrastructure from the 13th and 14th century.

This is the entrance to Old Tallinn. That tower is from the 14th century, and the building you see right behind it is definitely a McDonalds...I'm telling you, Ronald replaced Colonel Sanders in the Pentavirate when he went "tets up." McDonalds is everywhere here.

A Russian Orthodox church built during the time the USSR occupied Estonia.

A view of the city

We went to a place called the Open Air Museum. It's basically an Old Trail Town times 100.  They gathered lots of old buildings and windmills from all over the country and relocated them to this piece of land

An old school house inside the Open Air Museum.

It reminded me a lot of Anne of Green Gables. 

We were literally the only people at this museum, which is just acres and acres of forest and buildings....

...sometimes it felt like we were in The Shining.