Sunday - in two parts

Sunday Part I:
Morning.   I slept well last night snuggled in my wool blanket.  This morning dawned with hazy sunshine which was a relief after days of cloudy and rain and cold.   We left for church at around 10 and took a bus and a metro to get there.  We went to the Greek-Catholic Cathedral which has been under construction for 9 years.  It is the Cathedral Church of the Archeparchy.  There were a lot of kids in church but for a church that size, I expected more people.  We stood for most of the liturgy.  We took a different bus home that said it came on our street which is Verbitskoho St.  It let us off right near our apartment.  I came to the apartment and Rostek went to pick up some quick things for lunch since we had skipped breakfast to go to church.  Denis was cooking potatoes and soon Rostek arrived with good rye bread, a cooked chicken and a container of something green that turned out to be Morska Kapusta - sea cabbage.   It was a variety of edible seaweed.  I liked it.  That's all for now.  I will meet a group at 4 to go to some monastery.  More reports later.
Sunday Part II:
OK, it's now 9pm and I'm wiped out.  I should have remembered that Brother Vladimir likes to walk and walk and walk.  He really is a fabulous guide.  Five of us took the metro and a bus to a monastery (being a monk, Vladimir is big on monasteries. Today he was dressed in his monk's habit and hat).  The monastery was fascinating.  There were several ancient churches and we visited all of them.  One was having service so we stayed for a while to pray and get incensed.  In one of them, my favorite saint - St. Pantaleimon, a physician) had a really nice icon and a long prayer to him written beneath.  Vladimir pushed me right up the the icon and read the prayer over me.  St. Pantaleimon is a saint of healing.  A priest we were waiting for never showed up so we decided to walk up into the Central Botanical Gardens.  These gardens are worth a trip to Kiev to see.  They have a area of lilacs that make Rochester's look quite small.  A few early ones are in bloom but the majority are about a week of warm weather away.  There were several wonderful magnolia hybrids that had a very strong lemon scent.  The gardens are up on a hill and we climbed and climbed and climbed some more.  All this exercise is so good for me.  I am loathe to say that I forgot my camera but I will definitely return there with a camera and to see the church of the  monastery of St. John at the very top that was closed today.  We took a bus to the metro and parted ways.  I walked home from the metro very slowly.  I am, as I said, wiped out, but in such a good way.  I met two couples who want a blessing on their relationship.  I told them we will talk in June when the bulk of my travel is finished.  May is shaping up to be a punishing month - also in a good way.
And as a final thought:  I don't know if it's related to a little homesickness but I have seen so many body doubles in Kiev of people I know all over the place.  I have recognized people from home and of course they aren't here.  It's kind of fun.  Every time I go out now, I wonder who I'm going to see that looks EXACTLY like someone from home.
Tomorrow is a national holiday - Victory Day.   A holiday left over from the Soviet Era.  I have a language lesson in the morning and a picnic in the afternoon.  I also have to hand wash clothes so I have clean things to take to Odessa on Wednesday.