St. Sophia

According to my boss, Todd, I've been slacking on my blog.  It has been a full week - Monday (work), Tuesday (US Embassy / St. Sophia / Ballet), Wednesday (Presented to Client), Thursday (Presented to Members of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister), Friday (IBM Ukraine CSC Wrap-Up).  Hmm...now that I look at all of that why didn't I blog Wednesday or Thursday, I'm such a slacker.  OK, let's go back and start with Tuesday.

So Tuesday morning we were invited back to the US Embassy to de-brief on our assignments and the clients we worked with.  It was an interesting meeting and if you want the details it'll need to be conversations in person or on the phone.  Let's just say I think I'm a pretty good analyst and when have you known me not to be direct!  That took most of the morning so after lunch I headed off to St. Sophia's with my trusty side-kick, Paul (without his umbrella of course which meant it rained).

Paul thought Cheryl was coming with me to the Cathedral so he hadn't planned to go but when he found out Cheryl was going back to the hotel after lunch to work on her charts he said he'd come with me.  I could have gone by myself, it's not that far away and I was up for my own adventure.  But Paul didn't like the idea of me traipsing off on my own (we were told to stay in pairs and groups plus he didn't have anything better to do) so we headed on over to St. Sophia's which is about 10 blocks from the hotel.

Saint Sophia's Cathedral was built in 1037 (which makes it almost a thousand years old) and it is deceiving from the outside just how large the church is as well as the grounds around it.  You have to pay one fee to enter the grounds (3 UAH), one fee to go into the church and the outer buildings (50 UAH) and another fee to climb the bell tower (10 UAH).  All in all about $10 USD to tour some amazing architecture and history.  St. Sophia along with the Monastery Caves is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I'm grateful for all the signage in English at this location.  Not only were the maps in English but also the placards for each item displayed were in English and that made things very enjoyable.

Since you all know I wont (and in this case you can't) take pictures inside the church, it's hard to describe the beauty of this place.  Tall arches with high domes all painted and tiled, it was truly beautiful and peaceful to walk around all the hidden pockets of space within the church.  I think it was my favorite church out of all the ones I've been in here.  There were glass encased sections of exposed floor and you could see all the layers of bricks and cement that had been laid for the foundation a thousand years ago.  Can you imagine something that old?  Can you imagine what life was like in 1037?  There was no electricity, no scaffolding like we know it, the years that it would have taken to build the church itself and then all the years to decorate it.  Amazing.

I couldn't leave Kyiv without climbing the bell tower so off we set after finishing in the church - me leading the way, Paul following behind looking a little green.  He doesn't like closed spaces, as I discovered with the lift / elevator in our office building, and apparently he's not a huge fan of heights either.  He was a real trooper as we climbed the narrow winding staircase to the first level of the bell tower.  Not a bad climb or view but there was another level we could go up to.  Paul's like "you're not going up to the next level are you?"  Uh yeah!  I said he could wait or go back down but I was going up.  So like a good trusty side-kick, he comes up to the next level with me.


Not a bad climb again but the views were so much better.  I was a little disappointed because the last level has been closed off, possibly due to safety so I had to be happy with what I got.  I would have like to stay longer but Paul was ready to head down, so I was the "good trusty side-kick" in return and we headed back down.