Sightseeing in Kyiv April 23, 2012

Marcia, Sister Vasil'eva, Brother and Sister Callister on the Metro.

Brother Vasil'ev

Brother and Sister Sherwood

Jay and Brother Sherwood

Underground Metro Tunnel

Jay and Marcia

Marcia on the long escalator going up from Metro tunnel to street level.

The Golden Gate. Originally built in 1017-1024 A.D.   Restored in 1983. Gate into City of Yaroslav.

Front Entrance of Golden Gate

Looking through front gate to doors.

Prince Yaroslav the Wise, founder of the City of Yaroslav.

Brother Sherwood, Jay, Marcia, Sister Sherwood, Sister Vasili'eva, and Brother and Sister Callister.

St. Sophia Cathedral Bell Tower

Our group in front of the Bell Tower of St. Sophia Cathedral.

St. Sophia Cathedral

Looking from St. Sophia Cathedral towards St. Michaels Cathedral.  Brother Vasil'ev in foreground.

A happy photographer!

St. Sophia Cathedral

Some guy on a horse.  Does it look like Jay?
Monument to Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.

You see lots of sidewalk artists displaying artwork.  Some of the paintings are really nice.

Lots of souvenir outdoor markets.

Ukranian nesting dolls.

St. Andrews Cathedral.  They are doing construction on it, so this is about as close as we could get.

A closer view of St. Andrew's Cathedral.

A famous statue in front of St. Andrew's Cathedral.  It honors heroes of classical hit movies "After Two hares".

Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.  It was the Communist Government building when they controlled Ukraine.

Front view of the above building.

Bell Tower and entry into St. Michaels Cathedral.

Another view of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Another view of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Marcia finally got to take a picture.

It's important to know where the WC is.

Brother and Sister Vasil'ev.   They are a wonderful couple serving  with us in the Temple.  He is also a sealer.  We really love them, and happy they like to go with us.

Men also need to know where the WC is.

Two babushkas begging by entry to St. Michael's Cathedral.  We all gave them some money.

Brother Sherwood and Jay.

Looking from St. Michael's Cathedral towards St. Sophia's             Cathedral.

Diplomatic Academy.

These two men were responsible for the Russian Language.

An ice cream stand.  Yes, we all had a cone.

A carousel downtown for children.

We ate lunch at a little Ukranian cafeteria.

We're on our way home!

Our Everyday Life in Ukraine

On our way to the grocery store.  Sister Tanya Rudenko works in our laundry.

A babushka and her dog at her coffee stand.  She sells coffee, tea, candy bars, etc.  Cars pull over and purchase from her.  She takes the place of 7-11 or Maverick.

Someone making a purchase.

She is here everyday.  Even when it was bitter cold.

The closest grocery store to the temple.

Another view.

Looking back towards the Temple.  Right front is another Babushka selling drinks etc.

One of the underground tunnels we walk through to get to the store.  It's okay during the day, but we would hate to walk through it during the night.

These are the stairs we go down to the tunnel that takes us under the road.  We would go down these stairs every time we went to the grocery store or had to catch a bus.

This is the walkway under the road.  They would have these about every mile.  It was the only way you could cross busy roads.

This is the type of bus we usually rode on.

We didn't ever take these smaller buses.  Even though they were the right number, they didn't always go where you needed to go.

These city buses were the best.  We were always glad when we could get one of them.

Standing in front of the Golden Gate on our way to Stake Conference.  Left to right: Balls, Marcia, Sherwoods & Callisters.

Leda doing Marcia's hair.  It's nice that she will come to our apartment.

Off to do our grocery shopping.

Temple patrons headed to the temple.

Little children have it made in the winter!

The snow-packed walk from the bus stop to the temple.

Jay in his red fox shopka on the snow-packed walk.

This was a common sight in the winter.  Moms or Grandmothers pulling the little ones on these cute sleds.  They didn't remove snow from the side walks so it was the best way to take the children!