Saturday and Sunday - the beginning of my last week

I set out pretty early (around 8)on Saturday morning to walk around Kyiv.  Every day has been in the 90's and, I hate to admit it, but I'm acclimating to the heat.  I'm just used to being wet from sweat all the time and have gotten used to the feeling of sweat dripping of the back of my hair and wetting the back of my shirt.  I walked for five hours up hill and down (remember that Kyiv is built on hills).  I walked to St. Vladimir Cathedral to pray for a while.  I always make a stop to visit the icon of St. Panteleimon in whatever church I visit.  He is a saint of healing.  I wandered all over memorizing my favorite places.  I found St. Sophia and St. Michael's which are at either end of a beautiful square.  I finally ended up at Glossary Organic Cafe to have Morshinska water (with gas), a cappuccino, a cabbage salad and mlini (sweet crepes) stuffed with a creamy cheese and sour cherries) and then another cappuccino.  I wandered around Kreshchatik for a while and then arrived home around 10 at night.  I dropped into bed and sweated my way through the night.
On Sunday I got up early and went to McDonald's to access internet and have a cappuccino.  Then I did a little shopping at Billa (the supermarket chain I also liked in Romania) and went home until it was time to set out to meet my friends from an LGBT Christian group.  We went on an excursion to the far southern end of Kiev to the Monastery of St. Panteleimon which is situated in the Feofania Forest.  After visiting the church, we went into the forest, first to a holy spring to drink water and then to a special bathing spot, also holy, where hundreds of people were in line waiting to submerge themselves in the holy water.  Some of our guys went in and declared it to be VERY cold.  We continued through the forest to a beautiful new park where some of the guys swam and some of us wandered or sat and conversed. It was a really pleasant day.  Late in the afternoon, we had a 5 minute downpour which cooled things off beautifully and we had at least a 20 degree temperature drop.  We headed back to the city and I went home and went to bed.
This morning, I caught up on emails and photos and now will go to get my hair cut.  The guy who cut my hair when I first arrived did a really good job so I thought I'd have him do the same thing before I come home.
Here's the link to my photos: https://picasaweb.google.com/revjimmulcahy/KievAndPanteleimonMonastery?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvRlrrViP7c9wE

On Saturday night there was a gay bashing.  My friend Denys got his jaw broken leaving a club.  In the midst of beauty there always seem to be those who bring hate with them.