Day 514
I was up early and packed my bags and charged my ipod while I made my lunch. I am quite the multi tasker! Around 11 am I headed to the train station.
I got lucky this time and ended up in a section with three very nice ladies. One even made my bed for me. I spend the rest of the day reading and sleeping. At one stop, like in Russia, there were tons of of people selling cheesy stuffed animals. I really don't understand the appeal!
Showing posts with label Kiev. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kiev. Show all posts
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
Where's Mummy?
Day 513
I was up early, finally, and took the metro this time to the Lara Monastery. Visiting here is to the Orthodox Church is what visiting the Vatican is for Catholics. Plus, there are mummy's!
The churches were beautiful, but half of them were closed, including the entrance to the mummy caves. No fair! After a few hours I was churched out and I left. I think I'm sick of churches.
I then proceeded to get horribly lost and walked for about an hour before I found the metro stop again. At this point it was yucky and raining. When I got back to the hostel I ended up hiding from the rain by watching a move called the Orphan (not the scary one, but a Spanish language one) and the Family Guy episodes before calling it a night.
The hostel was over booked because the snorer had asked to stay at the last minute. The girls were going to move them into the seldom used top bunk in their room but when I mentioned that he snored they decided to move me instead. Not only did I have to climb up and down with out a ladder (I almost took out another person getting down) but they kept turning the lights on and off all night. I don't know what was worse!
I was up early, finally, and took the metro this time to the Lara Monastery. Visiting here is to the Orthodox Church is what visiting the Vatican is for Catholics. Plus, there are mummy's!
The churches were beautiful, but half of them were closed, including the entrance to the mummy caves. No fair! After a few hours I was churched out and I left. I think I'm sick of churches.
The hostel was over booked because the snorer had asked to stay at the last minute. The girls were going to move them into the seldom used top bunk in their room but when I mentioned that he snored they decided to move me instead. Not only did I have to climb up and down with out a ladder (I almost took out another person getting down) but they kept turning the lights on and off all night. I don't know what was worse!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Lost
Day 512
Up late again due to the snorer I tried to hurry thru my shower and breakfast to get out and see things.
The goal of the day was to visit the Lavra Monastery. It wasn't that far away and I decided to walk. The problem was that there were a lot of turns. I crawled into my own little world while walking and forgot to make one of the lefts. By the time I had realized my mistake I was in a suburb. Opps. It took me ages to get back to where I needed to be and there just wasn't enough time to see the place in th time I had left.
Instead I hit an internet cafe and did a lot of typing. Afterwards I went to the supermarket and picked up dinner and wine. The Crimea is known for its good wine and I wanted to try some of it.
That night I went to a park with some of the other people at the hostel. It was really nice to sit outside and chat. It's just stupid that we can't have alcohol outside in the States.
The wine helped me sleep thru the snorer and I finally got to sleep at a reasonable hour.
Up late again due to the snorer I tried to hurry thru my shower and breakfast to get out and see things.
Instead I hit an internet cafe and did a lot of typing. Afterwards I went to the supermarket and picked up dinner and wine. The Crimea is known for its good wine and I wanted to try some of it.
That night I went to a park with some of the other people at the hostel. It was really nice to sit outside and chat. It's just stupid that we can't have alcohol outside in the States.
The wine helped me sleep thru the snorer and I finally got to sleep at a reasonable hour.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Emergency!
Day 511
Due to the stupid snorer in my room I ended up over sleeping. Once I had my act together I headed out and took the metro to save time.
s
My firt stop was the Chernobyl Museum. On April 26, 1986 at 1:23 am the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had a reactor explode. This is considered to be the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen. The audio guide claimed that within hours a 30 km "dead zone" was created. All the towns were evacuated, Pripyat was the largest. According to the museum the evacuation happened within hours. This, however, isn't true. The town was evacuated about 4 days later when the radioactive cloud reached a Swedish plant and they put out the warning. The cloud floated not only over the modern states of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, but also Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Holland, Belgium, Slovenia, Poland Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, France and the UK. You can take tours of Pripyat for about $175 plus free radiation, however I declined. I think I would have done it if it wasn't so expensive.
The museum was pretty well done, if a little loose with the facts. The first room concentrated on the people who gave up their lives trying to contain and control the blast. Most of these people died pretty horrific radiation poisoning deaths. For the most part the dead zone will remain until 2016, however some of the chemicals that were released are far more deadly and it could be a century before the area is truly ready for habitation again.
One section was on outside help. The first country to step forward was Cuba, Castro opened up a hospital for children with radiation poisoning. A letter from an American 4th grader read
"Dear President Reagan,
I have a suggestion. We should tell the Russians that they should enclose their nuclear power plants. We should say that we care for them because they're human beings too. We should also have more donors. We should send more bone marrow transplantation people to Moscow.
We should tell them not to feel so bad because we were down hearted also.
I am 9 and 3/4 and my favorite food is bagel.
Sincerely Joy"
I'm really just including that because it was really sweet.
The following section was pictures of those who had been left behind. It showed weddings and birthday parties. The guide said that it was meant to show how time marches on and how wounds heal. I found it to be rather sad. After that I spend some time with a section on current pictures of the evacuated Pripyat. It was really eerie. In the last room there were some objects from Pripyat, including a bit of the church. There were yards of fabric on the ceilings, one white, one black. They were meant to be birds, the black death and the white rebirth. I just found the whole thing to be odd.
Next up was the One Street Museum. It's about Andrews Descent, Kiev's most popular street. The whole thing was really quite interesting. The street may even date all the way to the 12th century. Everything seemed to have happened here. Witches were once burned here and one of the oldest theological schools in Eastern Europe was founded here in 1616. Empress Elizabeth laid the first brick for St. Andrews church in 1744. This moved onto typical house interiors. For some time in the 19th century this was Kiev's red light district. Eventually it became the place to live and a lot of the displays were on famous Ukrainians whom I had never heard of before. Eventually it moved on to the world wars. The more recent photo's and post cars were really interesting. one object was a gold toilet!
After the museum I wandered back to the hostel and grabbed a sandwich for dinner. I spent some time online working on the blog and finally got a few entries published. Later on I had problems sleeping again due to the snorer.
Due to the stupid snorer in my room I ended up over sleeping. Once I had my act together I headed out and took the metro to save time.
sMy firt stop was the Chernobyl Museum. On April 26, 1986 at 1:23 am the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had a reactor explode. This is considered to be the worst nuclear accident the world has ever seen. The audio guide claimed that within hours a 30 km "dead zone" was created. All the towns were evacuated, Pripyat was the largest. According to the museum the evacuation happened within hours. This, however, isn't true. The town was evacuated about 4 days later when the radioactive cloud reached a Swedish plant and they put out the warning. The cloud floated not only over the modern states of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, but also Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Holland, Belgium, Slovenia, Poland Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Ireland, France and the UK. You can take tours of Pripyat for about $175 plus free radiation, however I declined. I think I would have done it if it wasn't so expensive.
The museum was pretty well done, if a little loose with the facts. The first room concentrated on the people who gave up their lives trying to contain and control the blast. Most of these people died pretty horrific radiation poisoning deaths. For the most part the dead zone will remain until 2016, however some of the chemicals that were released are far more deadly and it could be a century before the area is truly ready for habitation again.
One section was on outside help. The first country to step forward was Cuba, Castro opened up a hospital for children with radiation poisoning. A letter from an American 4th grader read
"Dear President Reagan,
I have a suggestion. We should tell the Russians that they should enclose their nuclear power plants. We should say that we care for them because they're human beings too. We should also have more donors. We should send more bone marrow transplantation people to Moscow.
We should tell them not to feel so bad because we were down hearted also.
I am 9 and 3/4 and my favorite food is bagel.
Sincerely Joy"
I'm really just including that because it was really sweet.
The following section was pictures of those who had been left behind. It showed weddings and birthday parties. The guide said that it was meant to show how time marches on and how wounds heal. I found it to be rather sad. After that I spend some time with a section on current pictures of the evacuated Pripyat. It was really eerie. In the last room there were some objects from Pripyat, including a bit of the church. There were yards of fabric on the ceilings, one white, one black. They were meant to be birds, the black death and the white rebirth. I just found the whole thing to be odd.
Next up was the One Street Museum. It's about Andrews Descent, Kiev's most popular street. The whole thing was really quite interesting. The street may even date all the way to the 12th century. Everything seemed to have happened here. Witches were once burned here and one of the oldest theological schools in Eastern Europe was founded here in 1616. Empress Elizabeth laid the first brick for St. Andrews church in 1744. This moved onto typical house interiors. For some time in the 19th century this was Kiev's red light district. Eventually it became the place to live and a lot of the displays were on famous Ukrainians whom I had never heard of before. Eventually it moved on to the world wars. The more recent photo's and post cars were really interesting. one object was a gold toilet!
After the museum I wandered back to the hostel and grabbed a sandwich for dinner. I spent some time online working on the blog and finally got a few entries published. Later on I had problems sleeping again due to the snorer.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Annoyed
Day 510
I went back to the hostel and found that the door had been left open. I went up the stairs and rang the bell. The girls were really apologetic. To get in touch with me they had sent me 2 emails (I had to leave so I hadn't got them) and had called the phone number on my Hostel World account thinking that it was my cell phone. The thing is that I don't have one, it's my parents number and it was 2 am in the States. They had woken up my parents. I felt really bad about it and they felt bad too once they had asked what time it was there. I couldn't be too upset though, calling an international number to try and find me was really quite a nice thing to do. I'm just sorry that my parents lost sleep over it.
After showering I headed out to buy my train ticket out of Kiev and then set off to explore the town.
Once I had checked out Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the very communist main square, I popped into the guilded and recently reconstructed St. Michael's Cathedral. it as really quite nice. I then headed further uphill (this city is nothing but up hill) to the Spiritual Treasures of th Ukraine Museum. Unfortunately it was closed. It was, however, right next to the very pretty St. Andrews Church.
Finally on slightly even ground I found the National History Museum. It was ok, but no photos were allowed. The stone and bronze age stuff was boring. There was a rather interesting display of holograms though. Not much was in English, but my spidey sense told me that some of it was about the Austria-Hungary Empire, the Crimean War and WWI. For unknown reasons there was also a mermaid.
At this point I was dragging and went back to the internet cafe. I managed to type a bit but mostly chatted with people from home. If I'm good at one thing it is certainty procrastination!
Before heading back to the hostel I picked up dinner. I was able to barrow one of the girls computers for some time and managed to get my pictures organized and uploaded. That has been the biggest challenge recently and soon I will be able to get the blog back under control.
That night I tried to sleep early but the other person in my room, a retired Dutch man, was a terribly loud snorer and it took me a long time to find sleep. I could hear him thru my earplugs and over my ipod!
The train arrived in Kiev at 5 am and it was still dark out. I grabbed breakfast at the only place open, McDonalds as the sun came up. It then took me about 40 minutes to walk to the hostel. Most of it was up hill. I rang what I thought was the door bell and waited. I sat there for about an hour waiting and no one came. Eventually I gave up and found an internet cafe. The problem was that they were shutting down for an hour in 30 minutes. I checked my email and could see that the girls who owned the hostel had emailed me asking if I wanted directions and the door code. Why the hell would they ask and not just send them? I emailed them back and then tried to call both of their cell phones but didn't have any luck. In no time my 30 minutes were up and I had to leave.
I went back to the hostel and found that the door had been left open. I went up the stairs and rang the bell. The girls were really apologetic. To get in touch with me they had sent me 2 emails (I had to leave so I hadn't got them) and had called the phone number on my Hostel World account thinking that it was my cell phone. The thing is that I don't have one, it's my parents number and it was 2 am in the States. They had woken up my parents. I felt really bad about it and they felt bad too once they had asked what time it was there. I couldn't be too upset though, calling an international number to try and find me was really quite a nice thing to do. I'm just sorry that my parents lost sleep over it.
After showering I headed out to buy my train ticket out of Kiev and then set off to explore the town.
Once I had checked out Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the very communist main square, I popped into the guilded and recently reconstructed St. Michael's Cathedral. it as really quite nice. I then headed further uphill (this city is nothing but up hill) to the Spiritual Treasures of th Ukraine Museum. Unfortunately it was closed. It was, however, right next to the very pretty St. Andrews Church.
Finally on slightly even ground I found the National History Museum. It was ok, but no photos were allowed. The stone and bronze age stuff was boring. There was a rather interesting display of holograms though. Not much was in English, but my spidey sense told me that some of it was about the Austria-Hungary Empire, the Crimean War and WWI. For unknown reasons there was also a mermaid.
At this point I was dragging and went back to the internet cafe. I managed to type a bit but mostly chatted with people from home. If I'm good at one thing it is certainty procrastination!
Before heading back to the hostel I picked up dinner. I was able to barrow one of the girls computers for some time and managed to get my pictures organized and uploaded. That has been the biggest challenge recently and soon I will be able to get the blog back under control.
That night I tried to sleep early but the other person in my room, a retired Dutch man, was a terribly loud snorer and it took me a long time to find sleep. I could hear him thru my earplugs and over my ipod!
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