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Journey to the Borderland

May 24

Posted by Lindsey Whissel on 05/25 at 05:09 PM

A truly authentic experience…

We started the day at the National Museum. We traveled by metro again and I forgot to mention yesterday we were all marveling how deep underground the line is; we were told this was partly to provide shelter for any bombings during the war.

On the way to our next destination, we had a truly authentic cultural experience—we walked right through a political demonstration! While this violated every rule of travel safety I’ve ever read (foreigners are always advised to avoid such rallies), it was very interesting and I’m glad we got to see it. We all wanted to know what the rally was for, but our translator said it was common to demonstrate in Ukraine and the rally was for a number of different things (freedom of Yulia Tymoshenko, protest of various laws, etc.).

From the ruckus of the streets near the administrative buildings, we moved to the peaceful setting of Pechersk Lavra. We took a tour of the catacombs where some of the monks are buried.

After a late lunch, I went on my final professional visit to Inter TV station. This was one of the best visits I’ve had because the work they do at Inter is most similar to mine. I also learned of a very interesting series they produce that involves testing products (mostly food) for quality.

Our team regrouped in Shevchenko Park, then went for coffee and snacks at a cute little café nearby.

Word of the day: движение (dvi-jen-iye) – traffic.