KIEV

Today we are in Kiev, which is a much more beautiful city than I remember from 20 years ago, and I have some really wonderful memories from that time.  It has changed monumentally with independence, though our guide tells us that the beautiful changes are lately the result of corruption and officials getting rich because they were previously associated with the communist party and were in the right place at the right time to benefit from privatization.  On the other hand, Ukraine has never been independent in its entire history, so, perhaps in the long view, twenty years is a short time to learn to run a democratic country. 

As tourists, however, we mostly visited old churches and monasteries that survived communism, or have been rebuilt to look like they might have been before WW II.  

we looked at a lot of places from the bus, then had a very interesting tour at Sophia and another at the cave monasteries.  St Sophia is no longer a church but is still a holy site to many. It is also a Unesco world heritage site. About a couple hundred  years ago somebody got the bright idea to go over the frescoes with oil paints. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside st Sophia's, but the other pix are from the oldest monastery in Kiev. 

And finally shopping.