Kiev during the day

Next day was a four hour walking tour of Kiev.  We got to see some of the same monuments we saw last night plus the 3 largest orthodox churches in the city.  They were beautiful.  We hiked to the top of the tower at St. Sophie’s church for a spectacular view of the city.

 

Finally, we hit the road for the 9 hour drive south to Chernivtsi. (pronounced Chern-a-SEE).  Endless roads through some pretty desolate countryside that seemed to go on forever.  All of us slept off and on all day except for Sergei, our driver (thankfully).  Around 7 we stopped in Hmlinski to watch Friday Night Club.  (Zombie theme with spiritual overtones!) Then we went to Sasha Gusokov’s house for dinner.  He is Young Life’s director in Hmlinski.  First, stopping at the local market for the ingredients and eating at 9pm.  His apartment is in a 110 year old building, it was given to him by his grandfather who just passed away.  He is in the middle of a remodel that Greg has been helping with the last few months. He and his wife Lyuda and their 2 year old were our hosts.  We left at 10 for the last 3 hours of our drive, arriving in Chernivtsi at 1am.

We have been dropped off at Sasha Utkin’s house, (half the people in eastern Europe are named Sasha) he is the director for Young Life in Chernivtsi ,where we will be staying the next few days.

Dinner at Sasha and Lyuda’s with Sergei and Alyona