Getting ready for our 2016 trip to the former Soviet Republics of Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia. We're kicking off with a few days in Kyiv before flying to Tbilisi and exploring the Caucasus region.

We weren't sure what to expect from Kyiv. Grey skies and Soviet architecture came to mind. Wow would we be surprised!

Our departure from San Francisco was uneventful with an on-time departure and early arrival in Frankfurt. We always arrive early when we have a long layover -- in this case 12 hours before our flight to Kyiv. We managed to pass the time hanging in the lounge resting and eating. Soon it was time to board!

We arrived in Kyiv at the ungodly hour of 1:30am. We had arranged transport from the airport to our accommodation, an apartment right in the heart of Kyiv at Khreshatyk 13. The manager Anastasia had been incredibly helpful in answering our questions, and she was going to meet us at the apartment in the middle of the night to get us acclimated.

Passport control was a breeze in Kyiv, and our bags arrived very quickly. The plan was to go carry-on only, but in Frankfurt Craig was forced to check his bag gate-side. The first of many "nyets" we would face on the trip! The next nyet was at the ATM machines at the airport. Our cards worked, but the max we could withdraw was 2,000 UAH (about $75). We were supposed to pay for our entire 5 night stay upon arrival -- so we hoped there would be some flexibility and a late payment would be allowed :).

Our driver met us at arrivals with a sign and speedily brought us into the city (driving at like 150 km/hr). He picked up Anastasia and brought us a few blocks to our apartment. In the middle of the night the entry and elevator to the 4th floor seemed a bit dodgy, but inside was a welcoming, spacious, if a little dated interior. Two large bedrooms, a seating area, balcony, large kitchen with washer/dryer and a decent bathroom awaited us for about $80/night. The best part was it is right in the heart of Kyiv -- looking out onto Khreshatyk St (the main drag) and steps from Independence Square. Anastasia showed us the free water and fruit and left us to get a few hours of sleep before we started exploring the town the next AM.

We awoke pretty early the next AM and were eager to start exploring. We walked around Independence Square and were a bit disappointed to find nothing open yet for food. We also found that all the ATMs were out of money (fairly common on a Monday morning, apparently) so we were freaking out a bit about getting cash. We did find that in the underground walkways there were signs of life with coffee shops (tons of them -- independent local gigs without a Starbucks in sight) and bakeries starting to open around 7am. We tried a couple of pastries and had a great coffee and continued exploring.

Above ground Craig managed to find an ATM that gave 5,000 UAH, but that seemed to empty it out as Efren couldn't get anything out of it. We decided to head to other parts of the city to start our sightseeing and hopefully the banks would get around to filling up their machines later in the day. We first headed up the hill (Kyiv has LOTS of hills) behind the apartment and checked out the beautiful peach-colored administrative building (we are still not sure what it is) and up to the famous House of the Chimeras We noticed memorials and tributes to those killed during the unrest in Kyiv in 2014. Very sad.

Unfortunately much of the area around the Chimeras and Presidential Palace was closed off as we learned later that there was an arson attempt at a TV station a couple days earlier. We caught glimpses of the Parliament Building and Mariyinsky Palace but couldn't get up close. Oh well. Nyet #3. What we did see and was tremendously enjoyable was all the mobile coffee stands -- literally folks just open the trunk of their car, throw in an espresso machine, and start selling coffee! The most whimsical was the car towing around a huge snail that opened up into a mobile coffee station -- very cool! Kyiv is definitely a city that runs on caffeine. We noticed references all over the place to "5-10". At first we thought it was an important date, but we investigated further and learned it refers to a political party who wants to remove the tax code. There was even a 5.10 building and coffee shop! This was our lucky place, as Efren was able to withdraw 8,000 UAH from the ATM there.

Colors are worth mentioning. The colors of the Ukrainian flag are blue and gold, and those colors adorn all sorts of things around the city. Many people seemed to be wearing maroon/brown shirts. It didn't strike us until later how ubiquitous this color was. We were told this is the color of the 5.10 party, but never were able to confirm. Speaking of the people -- wow! The Ukrainians are an incredibly good looking people. Both the men and women, almost to the person, are complete knockouts. As is the case in most of Europe, people tend to be fit. Here, the generally light-ish complexion is balanced by the most beautiful, piercing blue-green eyes. Amazing! The population also appears quite homogeneous, with very few minorities visible -- either as locals or tourists.

We continued walking through the parks (Kyiv is incredibly green) and arrived at the Devil's Bridge where lovers leave locks attesting to their love. The bridge afforded wonderful views of the Dnipro River splitting the city in two. By now it was mid-morning and starting to get quite hot -- the weather was absolutely perfect with brilliant sunshine. We made our way to the Friendship of Nations Monument and passed by the statue of Volodymyr the Great which we could really only see from the backside as he is looking out over the Dnipro. He brought Christianity to the Eastern Slavs in 989 and is looked at as a hero in Ukraine.

Soon a real eye-popper came into view -- St. Michael's Cathedral. The lovely blue structure with gold domes (again, those colors!) caused our iphones and cameras to go into overdrive. Michael is Kyiv's patron saint. Emerging from St. Michael's we headed down Volodymyrsky Street and soon spied another beauty -- St. Sophia's Cathedral. After passing the Bohdan Khmelnysky statue we entered the cathedral grounds. Applied some more sunscreen and explored the cathedral, museum, "bakery" -- we were expecting fresh bread but it turned out to be more of an armory, after climbing the belltower for amazing views of the cathedral and Kyiv. We got a 4th "nyet" here as we were supposed to see the belltower last but opted to do it first, which meant exiting the grounds and re-entering via the turnstile.

By now we were starved, and a couple blocks away was the restaurant called Spotykach that we wanted to check out. The interior was an ode to Soviet times with memorabilia and pictures all over. We at out on the patio and had an amazing lunch -- borscht (delicious), blue and gold dumplings, roast chicken and some very inventive "smoked" whitefish and deconstructed salad. Along with delicious bread. It turned out to be one of our most memorable lunches.

After lunch we wondered over to the Landscape Alley and enjoyed checking out all the whimsical and adorable sculptures. It was also fun doing people watching and seeing the kids (and adults) of Kyiv enjoying this lovely park.

By this time we were exhausted and headed back to the apartment to rest up. Anastasia popped by in the late afternoon to collect her payment (thanks for the flexibility!). The rest of the evening we wandered down Khreshatyk which is a hive of activity with folks playing music, breakdancing, etc. A very enjoyable time. We grabbed some cake and coffee and just relaxed for the evening.

Next day -- our plan was to visit the rest of the old town's sites and to visit the Podil district of Kyiv -- a quaint, flat part of town that was the old mercantile quarter. We started out with a croissant and awesome latte that was to become our favorite coffee haunt -- Lviv Croissants right across the street from the apartment. The post office was right there as well, and as it just opened there was no lines and we went in and managed to buy some appealing stamps for Efren's collection.

We headed down Khreshatyk and then walked west toward lovely Shevchenko Park and arrived at the beautiful red Kyiv University. All the college students out getting coffee and smoking on their break was a sight to see (remember, the beautiful people!). Our next stop was the stunning yellow St. Volodymyr's Cathedral accessed via a park-like lane. After a couple of 100 photos we made our way towards the lovely Opera House and arrived at the Golden Gate (Zoloti Vorota). Wasn't quite sure what to make of this odd structure -- apparently it was once the main entrance to the ancient city -- today it looks more like a novelty, albeit in a lovely location that made an appropriate pitstop (apply more sunscreen!).

We were in the vicity of St. Sophia's and St. Michael's again, so we snapped a few photos and continued past where we were yesterday and arrived at the stunning St. Andrew's Cathedral. Unfortunately covered in scaffolding, it was still a sight to behold with gleaming 5 gold towers. The real treat was descending along Andriyivsky's Descent (Andrew's Descent). Legend has it that a cross was erected here at Kyiv's founding and that it was proclaimed a great city would grow here along this steep cobblestoned very picturesque street.

At the bottom of the hill we found ourselves in Podil. By now it was getting hot, and we stopped for a little snack (mobile coffee/juice truck -- rather bus -- of course). We sat in the park a bit and made our way over to the Chernobyl Museum passing several colorful churches on the way. The museum was a somber reminder of the terrible tragedy that happened in northern Ukraine back in 1986. Tours are offered to see how the place has recovered since the disaster -- apparently it is now full of nature which has reclaimed the land that is unfit for humans. We opted against the visit (expensive, need to reserve days in advance for clearances/licenses, etc), but the museum gave a good flavor of that awful time in history.

We were looking for a place to eat after the museum visit and found a highly recommended Georgian restaurant. We were excited to get an advanced-taste of our next destination. Unfortunately the food was "meh" and we hoped to have better experiences in Georgia proper. The fun way "back up" to the old town from Podil was the funicular that ascends the steep hill back up to St. Michael's. For about 10 cents we boarded the hot and overcrowded funicular to the top. Luckily the whole ride was about 1 minute and the views were quite spectacular, although it was hard to see through all the trees and greenery.

Exhausted after a long day (Efren was super tired, Craig had blisters) we retired back to the apartment and relaxed for the evening. The next day our plan was to visit the grand mama of sites in Kyiv -- the Kyevo-Pecherska Lavra Monastery complex on the east side of town.

Next morning we grabbed a coffee at White's (our underground favorite) and took the metro over to the Arsenalna station. The Kyiv metro is reportedly the deepest in the world, and upon arriving at Arsenalna it took a solid 5 minutes of rapid escalators to reach daylight. The metro stations and trains were clean and not too crowded. The cost of a metro ticket was about 30 cents. We purchased a set of 5 tokens from the machine when we entered -- super easy.

Upon emerging at Arsenalna we walked about 15 minutes down to the Lavra complex. On the way we wanted to walk through the park to visit the famine and unknown soldier memorials, but as has become the norm the area was closed off by police. Nyet. Seemed as if there was some ceremony going on and hopefully we could check these places out on the way back.

We got to Lavra a few minutes before they opened and the guard just let us in without paying. We were immediately struck by the peace and serenity of the Upper Lavra complex. The monastery's cluster of gold-domed churches set on grassy hills above the Dnipro was a true feast for the eyes. Upon entering through the Trinity Gate Church we soon saw the gorgeous bell tower and truly amazing Domition Cathedral ahead of us. We were lucky in that services were going on at the cathedral, so we as subtlely as possible peaked in for a view and were moved by the melancholy sounds coming from the service. We wandered around snapping pictures and decided to enter the Museum of Miicrominatures. Sounds hokey, but this place was a hoot. We were the first ones there and they didn't have change, so they let us in at the student rate. Exhibits included the worlds smallest book (in contrast to the world's largest book we saw last year in Myanmar) and a flea fitted with golden shoes. Pretty amazing.

After the museum we grabbed a pleasant breakfast at the Cupola Restaurant just outside the complex and then re-entered (this time paying the entrance fee). The lighting had changed so we had better views of the cathedral and bell tower. We then walked down the very steep hill from Upper to Lower Lavra to see the famous caves. We purchased candles (to see) and headed downwards. In the caves mummified monks' bodies are preserved in glass cases and although fully clothed, on many a hand or toe was protruding. The caves are full of pilgrims who bow to kiss the mummy's cases as they are believed to offer healing powers.

After visiting the caves we were done with the Lavra complex. Thinking we could avoid the walk back uphill to head to our next destination, the Rodina Mat (Mother Ukraine statue) we headed downhill to the outerwalls of the Lavra complex and walked through the pleasant gardens. Here's where we started making some bad judgement calls. We found a dirt path up to the side that we thought might lead to Rodina Mat. After scaling the steep cliff for about 10 minutes we were greeted with a no access fence. Nyet! We headed back down and exited Lavra onto the busy highway out front. No cabs in site, so we walked along the busy road (flat thankfully, but the sun was burning!) for about 1km thinking we'd see an entrance to Rodina Mat. No luck. As we approached a busy interchange, we realized we had gone too far. We backtracked and found an uphill path to the Flower Exposition. We wandered around there a bit, found an ice cream stand which helped us cool off a bit. We continued uphill and soon saw the entrance to Rodina Mat -- pretty much right at the Upper Lavra entrance where we started! Rule of the day -- when trying to avoid an uphill stretch, make sure the alternative isn't even more uphill! No doubt we walked way more than we should have, and we both were very tired, our feet hurt, and we were teetering on the edge of dehydration. All part of the fun!

We finally entered the Rodina Mat complex and saw lovely Mother Ukraine bearing her sword. The statue stands 62m high on top of a 40m stand -- so you can see it from pretty much anywhere in Kyiv (except from the highway below that we thought would provide an entrance!). The grounds are full of military items (planes, tanks, etc) although with fountains and harsh Soviet sculptures. The well regarded Museum of the Great Patriotic War is there, but we were tired so we opted not to enter. We spent some time on the grounds taking pictures before heading back up to Lavra and walking back to the metro station. The park was open and we visited the famine and unknown soldier's memorials. Although a pleasant walk, we were again duped into taking several paths that turned out to be deadends only to have to backtrack up steep hills. My fitbit was going wild from all the walking!

By the time we arrived back at the apartment we were both exhausted. Efren collapsed and was out for the night. Craig woke up around 9pm and grabbed another ice cream -- power eating at it's finest. The next day our plan was to head a bit outside of town to visit the Pyrohovo Museum of Folk Architecture. This was to be our last full day in Kyiv :(.

After our exhaustion of the night before, we got up and just leisurely wandered around Independence Square. We had breakfast at our favorite Lviv Croissants again, and decided despite both of us not feeling 100% and with tremendously sore feet we would still head to Pyrohovo. The next task was to figure out how to get to Pyrohovo. There was a cheap option to go via metro and tram with a 1 km walk to the outdoor park. After the Rodina Mat walking fiasco, that didn't seem like an attractive option. Instead, we decided to use Uber!

Within a few minutes of making the online request our driver was outside our apartment. The friendly fellow started the 20 minute drive to Pyrohovo. Well, let's just say Kyiv traffic had something else in mind for us. After nearly 1 hour, we finally arrived. The driver tried in vain to get around traffic jams, but to no avail. The crazy thing is the entire trip cost $5. I don't know how the poor driver makes a living.

Pyrohovo was a bit underwhelming to be honest. Probably because we didn't have a guide and because it was searing hot outside and the park is large and requires a lot of walking we didn't really "get into it". The open air museum is full of life-sized models of different rustic buildings found throughout Ukraine. Quaint wooden churches, cottages, farmsteads and windmills are grouped into numerous villages presenting different areas of Ukraine (Lviv, Carpathians, etc). Later in our visit we saw workers setting up for re-enactments of village roles, and tour buses were starting to come in to see the shows. We were too pooped and decided to head back.

Uber let us down, however, as there were no drivers near by. Starting to panic and wondering how we were going to get back to town, Craig remembered that he downloaded the Uklon app -- which is basically a Ukrainian version of Uber. Thankfully within a few minutes a car came whizzing down the road and our ride had arrived. The driver was a blast and although didn't speak any English, upon learning we were from USA, started blasting classic US rock. What fun! Also it was nice because the traffic was now light and we were back at the apartment within 30 minutes. We grabbed lunch/dinner at the nearby Puzata Hata restaurant. Think of an underground cafeteria serving a wide array of Ukrainian specialties. The line was long, but we soon had 2 tray fulls of salad, borscht, dumplings, pork, chicken and bread for a total of $10.

We headed back to the apartment and collapsed. Craig didn't awake for nearly 6 hours. Efren woke up earlier and was hungry. He was tempted several days earlier by a restaurant next to Spotykach that served pork knuckle. He headed back there alone only to learn that they wouldn't sell him the knuckle for only one person. Nyet! They also were out of his second choice, Chicken Kiev. He had some borscht and pork and by the time he got back to the apartment Craig was waking up and packing. We also checked in to our Ukraine International flight to Tbilisi online (very efficient and easy). We went to bed sad that our time in Kyiv was quickly ending, but looking forward to our next destination -- Tbilisi!

The next AM we awoke early and grabbed a coffee. We had about 2 hours to kill before our ride to the airport, so we checked out a cafe a couple blocks away that we noticed previously that intrigued us. For the life of us we can't remember the name, but were truly delighted by the place. Breakfast took forever to be served (we were afraid we were going to miss our flight) but the lovely quail egg scramble, dumplings, borscht and assortment with bread with lovely accompaniments like basil infused butter was absolutely delicious. After eating we went back to the apartment to finalize our packing and soon Anastasia and the driver were outside. We gave Anastasia the keys, said farewell and thanked her for a wonderful stay. Within 30 minutes we were at Boryspil Airport and relatively painlessly checked in and got through immigration. After about 90 minutes we boarded the full Ukraine International flight to Tbilisi. The flight took about 2.5 hours to get to Tbilisi. More on that in the next entry.

As for Kyiv -- what a truly wonderful city. It definitely ranks as one of the most enjoyable cities we've visited in Europe. The sights and history -- both ancient and very recent -- are captivating. The food is unexpectedly delicious, the people mesmerizingly beautiful, and all at a very reasonable price. Crime, although likely around, didn't impact us at all and we felt safer here than probably anyplace else we've traveled. If you are looking for a slightly off-beat destination, we'd recommend putting Kyiv very high on your list. We are looking forward to our return!