Is it possible for a place to be both drier and more humid? If both can be true, then that certainly would explain my experiences in Ukraine. At least today was a rare moment of parity as both I and my companion were being pounded similarly by the sun. (As a side note, I don’t think the Weather Channel app I’ve been using during this trip has been right more than twice.). Today was freakin’ hot. When the breeze was up, it wasn’t too bad, but the moment there was a lull… ugh. But about the day’s events…

Today, after a quick run by the market for a couple things to help stay awake tonight (the taxi to the airport comes by at 3am) and a couple comestible souvenirs, it was time to head down to the war memorial I mentioned in my last post.

I like to read up on things (when possible) before I visit them, and it seems like this museum has had an interesting history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Great_Patriotic_War,_Kiev and http://www.warmuseum.kiev.ua/eng/history.shtml. It is interesting that something that was once so despised is now considered by most to be a symbol of national pride. It is most definitely impressive, and while it wasn’t crowded today, there did seem to be a steady stream of people.

What is a little curious is that this major visitor attraction (most text and announcements are done in Ukrainian, Russian, English and French) isn’t all that easy to get to. You’d think a place like this would warrant some metro stop — hey, the Hydropark has one — or special mass transit route, but no. As it was, we ended up coming in the back way, which sucked because you had to climb a lot of steps and it was freakin’ hot today. But I and my ankle managed to survive somehow.

That was pretty much it for the day, but then those three paragraphs took up 6 hours. Being the first of June and a Saturday, there was something going on in Maidan Plaza, but it seemed eminently missable. It was back to the apartment to use up the remaining leftovers (I will need to do a separate post on the meals I had during this trip), get things packed up and then try to catch a few zzzs before the taxi comes.

While I am always keen to maximize the time I spend at most travel locations, I kind of wish I could have scheduled in a couple extra days. This trip was during Memorial Day week, which gave an extra day that I used on the front end for getting here. But it really would have been nice not to have to be on the first flight to Amsterdam, so as to make the connection to Portland. Next time it would be great to have a midday flight to AMS, get a good nights sleep in an airport hotel, and then catch the Portland flight the next day. Yeah, that would be nice.

Well, that’s it for the live reporting of this trip. I’ll get pictures and additional filler material posted once I get back home and get settled in again.