Day 1 and 2 Kiev

On July 6, we departed Israel via an El Al flight. After name dropping my new employer (the American Zionist Movement), we were waved straight through security to the desk. Our bicycles were for once not a problem, and we were able to divest ourselves of their bulk rather quickly. This was a refreshing departure from our previous Ben Gurion airport experience which involved an hour long interrogation with four separate security officials. Ahh, Jewish priviledge. Thoroughly charmed by the El Al flight attendants handing out toys, puzzles, and games to the children on our flight, we had an uneventful flight that landed us in the central Kiev airport, along with a planeload of Orthodox Jewish tourists headed for Uman.

Jordi showing off a can of sour cream, the national food of the Ukraine

We were picked up by our new friend, Jordi, who we found on Warmshowers.org. Warm Showers is the bicycling equivalent of Couch Surfing, and is an amazing resource for anyone looking to take a bicycle trip anywhere in the world. Jordi insisted on picking us up from the airport, hosting us for two nights, finding maps for us, giving us a gas cannister for our stove, schlepping us out to the ethnographic museum out in the middle of nowhere. He was a mind boggling example of hospitality, and is one we hope to able to emulate for other tourists when we go home to Chicago.

The next two days were spent figuring out logistics and sightseeing in Kiev. Kiev is a strange, strange combination of Soviet apartment blocs, 18th century architecture, and surprisingly verdant hills. It is full of rather eerie reminders of The Great Patriotic War, otherwise referred to as WWII, ranging from Babi Yar to the Great Monument to the Great Patriotic War. Babi Yar, now a metro station, was the site of a massacre of nearly 100,000 Jews and other undesirables, and the Great Monument is a thirty story metal statue of a woman resembling Lady Liberty that dominates the entire landscape. She is occasionally referred to as Tin Tits.

We also visited a few Orthodox cathedrals and were able to conclude only that the Russian Orthodox Church loves its bling. Everything, from icons to bannisters to alcoves to grottos to altars to candlesticks was covered in gold leaf. Our favorite, the cathedral of Saint Michael, also happened to be an eye popping shade of periwinkle.

Although we neglected to take any pictures of Kiev as our camera was left on the couch two days in a row, we can assure you it is a beautiful place, full of odd monuments, beautiful buildings, hideous buildings, decaying streets, peasants selling fruit in the metro stations, metro stations that are hundreds of meters deep, and enough dumplings to sastify even Katie.

As an aside, Jordi happens to be the main importer of Catalonian proscuitto. His fridge is almost exclusively occupied by samples of ham. We could not make this up if we tried, but the above offers photographic evidence.