Ballet

Tuesday was a busy day now that I go back and look at the pictures.  US Embassy in the morning, St. Sophia Cathedral and Bell Tower in the afternoon, and then the Ballet in the evening.  Kyiv hosts the National Ballet and it is supposed to be very good.  Cheryl and I had talked about going to the ballet long before we arrived here so we knew we'd make every effort to see a show at some point.  Cheryl's never been to a ballet so she let me chose what we'd see. I really wanted to see Swan Lake, it's my favorite, so we set the date for June 4th.  We let the rest of the team know so they could decide to attend if they wanted and at first it looked like it might just be Cheryl and I going.

Surprise, surprise, Paul and Shiva from my team said they'd come along as well, after all they've never been to a ballet either.  They asked me to pick seats and get tickets so I set off to find us some good seats.  I had asked our translator Artiom for his suggestion on where to sit and he agreed that the area I was looking at were really good.

Of course, instead of going to the ticket office like everyone else, I decide to order the tickets online.  It seemed like all went well so the next day I went to pick up our e-ticket.  So far so good.  More of the team decided to go so I told them where we were sitting and they went to buy tickets too.  Only problem is they got the same seats that I got.  Seems my online reservation didn't go through so the thereat re-sold my seats.  Oh my globstoppers are you kidding me!  It's a good thing we discovered it quickly cause I can only imagine what would have happened if I had shown up with bad tickets, not just for myself but for the rest of the group whose tickets I had bought.

Sigh!  I was able to purchase two of the four original seats and then found two more that were considered good.  Just before we set off for the ballet I looked over the rules and like a good rule follower I left my camera in the hotel.  What an idiot!  Everyone brought their camera and took picture after picture.  The theater is absolutely beautiful inside (and if you are Team 1 Ukraine reading this and have pictures from the ballet please send so I can post).  It was a lovely performance, my favorite of the three acts is the second - I know it wont mean much unless you've seen Swan Lake - but it was fabulous.