Kyiv, Ukraine

Slept in a bit and then went for breakfast at our hotel. It was so-so, just as well we didn’t get breakfast included with the room. It was a bit surprising given how good their lunch and dinner had been.

Heather did some more research on Kyiv and it’s a hotspot for street art. Striletska St was along our way, so we walked down. There’s a few full-length murals on 5- and 6-storey buildings. Heather got a few pics to add to her street art album.

Next walked over to St. Andrew's Church. Unfortunately it was closed for restoration and we could only visit the walkway surrounding the church. There’s a great view of lower Kyiv, with the church perched right on the edge of upper part of the city.

It’s less than a 10 minute walk from St. Andrew’s to St. Michael's Monastery. The three big churches in Kyiv (St. Sophia's Cathedral, St. Andrew's Church and St. Michael's Monastery) are in a triangle, and all 10 minutes from each other, very convenient for tourists.

Bought a ticket to climb the bell tower at St. Michel’s. It’s not as tall as St. Sophia's, which it faces. We would have to have been there early morning to get good pics of St. Sophia’s, as that’s when it gets sun.

The monastery itself is free to visit. It was okay; I think maybe it should be visited before seeing the other UNESCO ones.

We tried to find a random place for lunch, and chose poorly. There’s a food stall area (sort of an open air food court) near our hotel. We tried grilled kebabs with fries, both of which were almost bad enough to make me find the place on tripadvisor to give them a bad rating.

So that was it for our touristing for the day. Showered, took a nap (the Raptors games have been at 3am and 4am our time, ruining our sleep), and then got ready for dinner.

We ate at Shoti, a Georgian restaurant and supposedly one of the more popular places in town. I made reservations, but they weren’t needed on a Tuesday as the restaurant was less than half full. We took a taxi over cause it was still 28C.

We asked the waiter for help with the menu as we didn’t know much about Georgian cuisine. It was a bit similar to Azeri food. (I had to look up the geography, I didn’t realize how close Ukraine was to Georgia). The sommelier recommended a Georgian Cabernet Sauvignon which was excellent. Overall an excellent dinner!