Here were are, gang — the final set of pictures. And how about that? It only took me a whole month…
This was the last full day in Kiev; we left the apartment at 3 am the next morning to get to the airport, so this was the last chance for sightseeing and souvenir shopping. I think it was also the hottest day of my week there; even Viktoria was too hot, and that hadn’t happened before. (If anything, she was always cold, even when I thought it was refreshingly pleasant.)
The big outing of the day was to the museum of the Great Patriotic War — that’s what World War II is known as in Ukraine. (Well, they do know it as WWII as well.) Actually, it’s not accurate to say we went to the museum; we didn’t actually go into the museum, but walked the grounds instead. This museum/memorial is where you’ll find the big statue that has been showing up in my previous photos. The statue is called “Moma” (Viktoria made it quite clear that it wasn’t called “mama,” which is what you’d call your mother), and is the statue of the Motherland, or as Wikipedia notes, the “Mother of the Motherland.” As I’ve commented before, it is huge (about 100 ft. shorter than the Statue of Liberty) and visible for miles around Kiev.
One thing I kind of wish we had done was to visit the Afghanistan memorial. In some ways, the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan in the 80s was similar to the US involvement in Vietnam. I’ve seen the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., and it is very moving. I only saw a little of the Afghanistan Memorial (from the door), but it too looked like it could have a lot of impact. Oh well, maybe next time. (I’m not a big fan of wars by any means, but I think it is important to recognize the significant losses they cause, so that they might be avoided in the future.)
Well, not much else to note, I guess. It was a wide-ranging trip for me; a little more “touristy” than I usually do — I’m more interested in seeing (and, to some degree, experiencing) how people live in the places I visit — but still some great experiences.
Last Day