Friday, first full day in Ukraine

Friday was a typical day for me in Ukraine.  The apartment is in a place equivalent to "the wrong side of the tracks" that being the "other" side of the river, not the city side.  It is six metro (subway) stops from city center and the metro is a 20 minute step-lively walk from the apartment.  Perfect! 

After sleeping till 9, we got up and had coffee.  "We?", you ask.  My friend, Rostek, who is a kind of Ukrainian guardian angel, will stay with me.  The apartment has three bedrooms so we have a spare room for any guests who happen to wander through.   Rostek had to work, so we left just before 10 to give us time to stop and get me a set of keys for the apartment.  We rode the subway to city center, Golden Gate area.  I had an appointment with Svitlana who is a student in women and gender studies in Budapest.  She had been in Ukraine for over a week interviewing people about being gay and Christian.  Because of my arrival a day later than expected, I thought I had missed the opportunity to speak with Svitlana before she returned to Budapest.  She had already extended her trip to meet me.  Thursday night she called Rostek to say she had delayed her return yet another day so she could meet me.  We had a wonderful time talking and our two hours was over all too soon.  She had obligations before she caught the train to Budapest.  I walked back to the Golden Gate and a friend of Rostek's, who came to spend the afternoon with me.   Now I have to say this.  I do not easily get lost, not am I afraid of being alone in Ukraine, but Rostek and Kostya worry about me all the time, so arranged for every minute of yesterday to be filled. My guide was a 26 year old man who very graciously walked me all over Kiev, starting at the magnificent church of St. Michael and around a lot of spots I had visited last year.  We stopped for lunch at a Ukrainian cafeteria (the equivalent of fast food here) and I got to have my favorites: borsch, kvass, and potato vareninki (think pierogi).  and then we walked some more.  We rode up the funicula - I'm sure there's a way to explain this but it's basically a tram that travels up a steep hill.  It brought us back to St. Michael's.  We sat and talked and people-watched until Rostek got out of work at 6 and arrived.   Our friend left, and we sat in an outside cafe to have a beer and some cheese.  About 8 we took the metro to Kostya's apartment and we had dinner together.  It was really relaxing.  Oh, I neglected to mention that there was another 20 minute brisk walk involved to get to Kostya's from the metro.  We left a bit after 11 because the metro stops at midnight.  We had to take two metro lines to get to our place and we arrived home around 1.  The streets and alleys are really very dark but there is no sense of danger (except turning one's ankle on broken pavement.)  It was a splendid first day.  I have a sense of where I am in relation to city center now, so I won't need a baby-sitter from now on.
Let me mention the weather:  as sometimes happens at home, Kiev went from winter to spring to summer in the space of a few days.  Yesterday was gloriously sunny and in the high 70's.  Today looks to be the same.  I was almost uncomfortably warm but I'll get used to it.
This is a holiday weekend (May Day) so there is a four day weekend.  If we can get tickets, we will go to the far western Ukraine tonight to spend some days in Lvov and to visit Rostek's mother in Kalush.  It is somewhat doubtful that we can get tickets since Kievites flee the city for holiday weekends.  If we can't go, we'll go for a picnic with Kostya and Mikhail (who is a hair stylist in an upscale salon) to some park outside the city.  Mikhail told me he'll cut my hair while I'm here.  So I not only have new friends, I also have a personal hair stylist.  Life is so good.
I am excited to go to Lvov.  I hope to make contact with some groups there.