Kiev Part II

Cool lock on the Lovers' Bridge

We had to come back to Kiev to pick up some people from the airport coming in from Kazakhstan for a few days, so we went to the Chernobyl museum on Thursday. It was quite interesting! It was cool to see all the artifacts from there and to hear about individuals who risked their lives to shut down the reactor to save others. May of them died shortly after from the extreme exposure to radiation. The Chernobyl incident is considered the catalyst of the fall of the Soviet Union.

Palace

J took me for a walk downtown Kiev where I got to see some cool things like the old Russian king's "summer cottage", which later was used to house important guests, and now is abandoned and in a perpetual state of renovation. J explained that it has to do with government corruption, which is the same as the oldest inn in Kiev - it's a beautiful building as well.

Beautiful architecture!! Love love love. St Andrew's Church
in the background.

We walked past the friendship arch, which was built in Soviet times to depict the friendship between Ukraine and Russia. This area is similar to Churchhill Square in Edmonton - kind of a center of activity. There are bands that play there, and bumper cars for the children, lots of street food and a place to go ziplining across the river.

St Andrew's Church

After this we headed to the oldest part of Kiev, and its a very rough cobblestone street by St Andrew's Church - one of the oldest in the former USSR. Along the sidewalks there are lots of little tables set up with people selling touristy items, antiques, and handmade Ukrainian crafts.

Most amazing chocolate shop!

At the bottom of the hill there is this little store called "Lviv Handmade Chocolate" (Lviv is a very cute tourist town in western Ukraine). This store is my absolute favorite! It smelled so delicious and it was very pretty inside. They served drinks and had little cafe tables to sit down, and then they had a whole section of chocolates. The most gorgeous chocolate and the most gorgeous packaging... I was literally drooling. I was tempted to buy a wack load of chocolate, because I knew it would be delicious, but I limited myself to a bar of espresso milk chocolate.