Wanna Bet Your Hometown is Better Than Mine? I Could Really Use the Cash...

St. Sophia's Cathedral

St. Micheal's

A monument to honor the 10 million Ukrainians murdered by Stalin

Ukrainian Flag:
The blue stands for the sky, while the yellow represents Ukraine's vast wheat fields.
We are Europe's bread basket.

My very fav church!!!
Currently there is much dispute surrounding its faith or if it should even be used for religious purposes.
It is one of four architectural landmarks of Ukraine on the List of Mankind Treasures of Five Continents. Surprisingly not very old though--last completion was during the mid 1700s.

The Golden Gate.
Kyiv's entry point for hundreds and hundreds of years.
Only a smidgen over 1500 years old.
No biggie.

The Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian National Opera House.
The inside is spectacular! Gold gilded, angelic statues and performances that move the soul. If you ever visit Kiev, catch a show. You won't regret it.

Handmade...

Random building on Khreschatyk Street--which I love to compare to the Champs-Élysées.
French got nothing on us.

Next to the local catacombs

Ukrainian soldiers!

Countries honoring the "Cities of Heroes"
Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
Cities of Heroes are certain towns from the Soviet Union leveraged as propaganda boasting of the USSR's success...versus itself?
I stumbled upon a junior Olympics celebration commemorating a series of competitions between these cities.

For most celebrations, Ukrainians begin with the presentation of a special sweet woven bread and salt, just like these two lovely ladies below.

This church tower has survived everything from the invasion of the Turks, the Revolution of 1918, World Wars and still stands proudly 900 years later.

Kashtan Ice Cream! So yummy, there's no way to say no.

National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv

Sholem Aleichem wrote on here when he lived on St. Andrew's Incline.
He was one of the last authors to promote literature in Yiddish.
His stories inspired many productions such as "Fiddler on the Roof"

Parliament---and really I have no clue why we were flying the EU flag. We have nothing to do with them...

House with Chimaeras or Gorodetsky House.

There are many legends associated with this mansion, but my favorite and most familiar is that the architect's, Vladislav Gorodetsky, daughter had committed suicide jumping into Dnieper River either because of some unfortunate love affair or because of a family feud. As a result, Gorodetsky went slightly mad and built this gloomy house in his daughter's memory.

Oh, now the president's office stands right in front of it.

This is the street next to Independence square

Look! Ukrainians really do wear red boots and vyshivankas daily.