A domed cathedral

My wife and I went over to the other side of the Dnieper River the other day to check on the progress of our new apartment. (They are building one out for us.) We usually come back a different way than we go because the traffic is easier and, on that way, we pass an Orthodox cathedral. It is the typical onion domed cathedral you find here. (I say typical but it is anything but typical to people from other areas of the world, especially the US.) Often the domes of these cathedrals are brass or gilded in some way and they shine in the sunlight. With this one though the domes were painted a light blue; the roof and other trim were painted a light green. These colors are of more pastel shades, much like some of the colors I remember buildings in Spain being painted with when we drove through. The rest of the cathedral was painted white.

We have passed this cathedral a number of times and I rarely notice it. This time though I noticed the fact that I didn't notice it anymore. That was interesting to me. I guess it happens when you get too familiar with a place, no matter what that place is or where it is.

But the thing is if you notice, Kiev is a fascinating place with lots of things to see and lots of history. When I first got here, I was absolutely amazed at being behind what had been the Iron Curtain. The Soviet Union had been the enemy for my whole life and now I was in the belly of that beast. Kiev and Ukraine were fascinating to me for that fact alone.

But there is a history here from before the Soviet period. And it goes back a long time, a thousand or more years. It is something the Soviets didn't-- or couldn't-- destroy. And it is here to be seen.

I have been writing about all the bad things in Ukraine for the past few weeks. But there is a lot of good here and a lot of things that are interesting to see. They need to be noted more often.