Introduction
Day 1 - San Francisco to Prague
Day 2 - Kyiv from the air
Day 2 - Boryspil International Airport
Day 2 - First Views Of Kyiv
Day 3 - Guided Tour of Kyiv
Day 3 - Kyiv - On our own
Day 3 - Night train from Kyiv to L'viv
Day 4 - L'viv with Father Ken
Day 5 - Radekhiv
Day 5 - Vytkiv
Day 6 - Trip to Kolomyia
Day 6 - Halych
Day 6 - Ivano-Frankivs'k
Day 7 - Bazaar at Kosiv
Day 7 - Between Kosiv and Kolomyia
Day 7 - Kolomyia
Day 8 - Zvenyhorod
Day 8 - Back in L'viv
Day 9 - L'viv with Orest and Vitali
Day 10 - L'viv - Morning walk with Dad
Day 10 - L'viv on my own
Day 11 - L'viv with Dad
Day 11 - Night train to Budapest
Day 12 - Budapest
Day 13 - Budapest
Day 13 - Szentendre
Day 14 - Homeward bound

TRIP TO UKRAINE
September 19 - October 2, 1999

Ukraine and Kiev

Monday, September 20, 1999

The last leg of the journey was via Czech Airlines. I had a window seat, and as we approached Kyiv from the west, I spent more and more time looking at the terrain below, trying to make out the strange new land I was about to visit. Finally I saw Kyiv. Its airport is about 30 miles east of the city, and since we approached from the west, we had a fine air tour of the whole area. It was a clear sunny day.

I was able to snap some good pictures from the plane.

Looking north over western Kyiv - Rail yard of Kiev central train station (whence we departed for L'viv the next night) clearly visible at lower right center. The enormous tower just above left center is the Kyiv Radio and TV Tower, the tallest (385m = 1263 feet) freestanding steel framework tower in the world. Alas, no public tours. ( Close-up photo from Wikipedia)

I was starting to feel a bit of excitement at this first view of my destination.

A bit further east - that's the Dnieper river on the top right, of course, with central Kyiv towards the bottom. The hotel where I was to stay ( The Lybid), is at the very bottom of this photo, the tiny tall building just right of center. You can see the Circus (round building) across the street. The broad street running from left to right at bottom, between the hotel and the Circus, is Victory Avenue (Peremohy Prospect) on the left, until it reaches the Circus, at Victory Square, then Taras Schevchenko Boulevard on the right. (This is a common - and confusing - practice in old European cities - street change names from one area to another.)