Say goodbye, it's Independence Day

A fabulous weekend in the city.  On Saturday, a bunch of kids arranged to go to the World War II museum here in Kiev.  As much fun as that sounded, I blew it off and went to the beach.  We, three cute boys and I, got off the metro at the “Hydropark” stop.  To get to the beach, we had to walk through a Soviet-era amusement park.  There were rides, games, shwarma stands and people trying to make money by having tourists take photographs with their animals (snakes, horses...).  The park was bordered by woods, and I came upon a woman and her daughter feeding dog food to two tiny wild puppies, while their wolf-like mother supervised.  It was a display of true kindness that these women buy dog food specifically to distribute to strays.  Finally, we made it to the beach. Although it was littered with cigarette butts and beer bottles, it was still beautiful.  The beach is on one bank of the Dnieper River, affording an incredible panoramic view of Kiev.  I was snapping photos of the giant monument “The Mother of All Russia,” which is, ironically, the site of the WWII museum where everybody had gone.  I swam, sunbathed, read, ate shashlik (shish kabob), drank beer and just chilled the f out.  It was great having such a relaxed day; I really needed it.  The best part was when I sat down and talked with a woman who had brought her beautiful one-year old cat on a leash to the beach.  The worst part was when I was ordering my lunch and felt something furry on my back, turned around to find a fat old man standing a few inches away, who accidentally tickled me with his chest hair.  Gnarly.

In the evening we went out for pizza (really cheap and surprisingly good), then met up with some Muscovites from our hotel.  Together we went down by St Sophia’s cathedral for a spectacular fireworks display, the opening Independence Day festivities.  We goofed off for a while in Independence Square, just drinking beer and appreciating the Saturday night fashions.  Then we came back to the hotel and watched What About Bob.  A perfect end to a perfect day.

Today was Independence Day proper, so we got up at the crack of nine to eat breakfast and head down to the main thoroughfare for the parade.  When I heard about the parade, I pictured, if not floats, at least a marching band.  Instead, it was a display of military prowess, featuring tanks, missile-launchers and aircrafts.  Not exactly the Fourth of July.  It was more like a reminder to the world that Ukraine can, if pushed, defend itself.  Actually, this was even more interesting because it really highlighted the differences between this culture and mine.  Plus, it was incredible to be in Kiev for this holiday.  I now realize how proud Ukrainians are of their country.  This is another key cultural difference...

Now it’s the early afternoon.  Some kids are getting ready to go to the monastery at Lavra for a concert and some light spelunking.  I might skip it, though.  I’ve had just about all the fun I can stand for one weekend.