Today I went to Westminster Abbey. It’s true. Granted, Ukrainians being who they are, they call their Westminster Abbey something different and keep it in kiev instead of London. But honestly, Holy Assumption Kyivstar-Pechersk Lavra, is pretty much the same thing. If Ukraine had royal weddings they would probably be there.

The Lavra is an old, old church and monastery that has been built up over the years, and has served assorted purposes. In fact, in addition to the main cathedral (Uspensky Cathedral – there must have been a promotion over the years), I counted at least four other churches or chapels. There is also an old hospital, school and library, as well as a couple museums and park-like areas. The school and library are still used, the former for an arts academy (I walked through a garden with assorted sculpture and saw some students working on a dance routine) and the latter is the Ukrainian National Museum of Books. There is a walking tour of their catacombs, which date back to 1051, but that closes at 4 pm. (Eh, maybe tomorrow…)

In the Lavra is also what appears to be a permanent exhibition of micro-miniatures. That was actually pretty impressive. This guy (Siadristy – I had to look that up) back in the late 50s and early 60s was doing painting and sculpture on a very, very small scale. Think chess set on the head of a pin, or a rose sculpted inside a hollowed out human hair — that scale. 10 UAH (a buck and a quarter) well spent. I also ran into a couple Americans there; a couple guys from California and Hawaii doing the tourist thing. So the West Coast is well represented in Kiev this week.

In addition to the Lavra, I also dropped by a couple monuments in one of the city parks. There was also some time spent in Maidan Square, watching some of the Kiev Day events. And there were a couple ride on both their Metro (subway) system and the Kiev funicular. (Here’s where you can read all about this little cable car with the funny name.) The ointmental fly for today was the intense rainstorm that blew through late in the afternoon… and of course I didn’t have my umbrella with me. I will definitely have it tomorrow; the forecast shows a 90% chance of precipitation.

But to end on a high note, the rain ended early so Kiev was still able to shoot off their fireworks. I didn’t have a great view hanging out the apartment window, but the piece I saw was still very nice.