Monastery Caves - Take Two

If you recall from last weekend, Shiva, Paul, Cheryl and I went to Pechersk Lavra (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiev_Pechersk_Lavra) to see the historical caves and Cheryl and I were not permitted to enter the caves because we weren't wearing a skirt.  I was undecided if I would go back this weekend because I knew I shouldn't go by myself but didn't know if any of the remaining team would be interested in seeing the caves.  When I was recapping the weekend's visit to our team and Oksana at our weekly Thursday meeting, Oksana was disappointed for me and offered to go with me again on the weekend if I wished to go back.  I'm never going to pass up an opportunity to see the sights with a local, especially with Oksana as she is so knowledgeable and willing to share her time, her city, her culture, and her history - all of it - the good and the bad.

After I managed to drag myself out of bed at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning after a night of two bottles of horilka shots, I made my way to the metro to meet up with Oksana.  I couldn't bear the idea of putting on a skirt, panty-hose and high-heeled work shoes for a day's worth of touring, so I packed my skirt into my bag and headed out in jeans and my lovely comfy grey slip on shoes (the ones my mother and daughter both don't like and wish I hadn't bought).  It was "Children's Day" on Saturday in Kyiv, so entry for students was free to museums and Oksana brought along her son for an outing with us as he had never been to Pechersk Lavra.  Oksana told me that her son had just received his National Identity Card the day before and learned how his name has been translated into English - it is now and forever Oleksiy.

We arrived at Pechersk Lavra and decided to tour the museum side of the site before making our way over to the caves.  We toured the museum of miniatures (http://www.kyiv.com/cultural-spots-kyiv/museums/museum-miniature.html) which was very cool and a museum depicting the battle between Napoleon and Russia which was also cool.  We saw a beautiful church where a Baptism was taking place and saw the new bell that is supposed to go into the bell tower but no-one is sure yet if the tower will be strong enough to support it.




After stopping for a coffee and snack, I changed into my skirt in order to enter the caves, but since I wasn't prepared to walk up and down hills on a hot day in panty-hose and high-heeled shoes, I wore my comfy grey shoes with my lovely black skirt.  My mother is cringing right now - I can hear her voice already - Samantha how could you possibly go around looking like that.  Given that no-one here knows me or will ever see me again I didn't care, it was all about comfort.  We toured both sets of caves (the Near and the Far caves) and managed to be given a "private" tour by a gentleman who had been a welder at the caves and comes now to do his prayers there.  It was an amazing experience to hear the stories about the history of the caves, and of the monks and their devotion to their faith.  It was dark and the halls were narrow and small, but it was an experience that I will forever be grateful to have had, and I am indebted to Oksana for helping me to have it.  Thank you Oksana.

It's a little after 11:00 p.m. on Sunday and I have managed to catch you up through Saturday.  I will have to fill you in on today's events tomorrow, but as I get ready to shut everything down for the night it dawns on me that I will soon be leaving Kyiv and I still have a few places that I must / need to see before I depart.  I managed to Skype with the kids today and Sydney is anxiously counting down the days till we meet in London, I'm counting down too, only five days to do.