We've made it to Kyiv!

Greetings from Kyiv! Praise God we made it safe and sound!


Here is a picture of Ukraine as we are descending to land.

Interesting how you can buy a beer from a vending machine. I wonder how they check the age?

When we got off the plane (about an hour later than expected due to late departure in JFK because they said they wanted to accommodate a group of missionaries) we first needed to head through “pass port control”.

They needed to know where we were staying and we had simply entered “Kyiv” on the paperwork. He, with thick Russian accent said, “Kyiv is a very big city and we need the address”. I said it is some hotel and that I don’t know its address. But, remembering the advice received recently from FRUA, we said it was the “Hotel DNIPRO” and he said very well then write that down, and we did, and we then went to the next step.

Baggage Claim.

This was pretty hilarious. Lots of saran wrap. And are these checked melons? Round and round went the same bags that no one touched unless they were putting them BACK on the track after falling off at every corner!

But after about a half hour, ours sure enough came ‘round and we then went to the next step.
This is the green line of customs declaration where we just simply had to go through a security X-ray screening of our bags again (to leave the airport)?!

Kyiv is beautiful!

This picture was taken from the car window during our drive.

Here is our apartment right on the Dniper River.

Unlike the keys in Ivanovo, Russia which were big and ancient looking, our apartment key looks just like one of our American house keys. You just have to lock the door if you want it to stay
closed.

Our luxurious bathroom!


John and I are pleased to see all kinds of family activity here. This is a playground right on the banks of the river. Most families here have only one or two children with three being unusual, and I think we would stick out like a sore thumb if we would have brought all of our kids.
BTW, hi kids!

Funny how this river freezes three feet thick in winter but is 80 degrees right now!


This is a beautiful church being refurbished with ornate gold tops. To us, this was a wonderful sight to see but at the same time I can't help but wonder if the magnificent church actually deters people from coming because one can feel unworthy even walking into it. I think that if the church resembled more of an outdoor revival camp, it might attract more people.


These hardworking men were drilling for water on the church grounds.

Here are those gold tops I was telling you about.

We went to a fancy coffee/sushi shop and had very expensive coffee (worst $8 bucks I've ever spent if you don't count the experience). The check came in this. Very unusual.


We tried a restaurant that supposedly has WiFi and ordered this dessert to eat while we waited. It was filled with pears, pine nuts and apples. It was yummy but again, too expensive for my blood. We are having cup of noodles from home tonight for dinner. Sadly, they had no Internet connection either.

This is our apartment building. We are on the first floor.


We took this gorgeous (not) picture of us in front of the Dniper River. Doesn't it look picturesque?

Not from this picture.

We've walked along this strip many times today just people watching and looking at all the buildings.

This was fancy restaurant next to EKO which is the grocery store. John had to wait outside because we didn't want to put all of our computer stuff in a locker.

Here is another restaurant front. Very, very pretty.

These boys parked their bikes so that they could chase stray cats.

BTW, Tomorrow afternoon is our SDA appointment.