The introduction can be read in the first post of this series "Lviv chocolate workshop".
This is a Christmas tree I just happened to see at the exit of the Lybidska metro station. I liked it.
In Russian, the New Year tree is called a yolka, in Ukrainian it is called a yalynka (pronounced as yalynka), and Ukrainians celebrated 2014 with a yolka (that's Yanukovych's way), which stood on the Maidan until July.
Shortly before dismantling it looked like this:
It is unlikely that Maidan Nezalezhnosti will become a place of entertainment in the coming years (this will become clear from my next post), so this year the country's main Christmas tree was erected on Sophia Square, where St. Sophia Cathedral, built in the 11th century by Yaroslav the Wise, father of Anne, Queen of France, is located, and nearby is the St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, which became a shelter for those beaten on the night of November 30, 2013, and in February 2014, after the Maidan shooting, for the wounded.
A real Christmas tree, brought from the Carpathians, looks much more beautiful and natural than the cones that have been installed in recent years.
There were few people there on Friday evening.
The square featured a fair, a carousel, and other entertainment. Various workshops were held there during the day.
The entire tree is decorated with symbols of peace—white doves. This is especially relevant for Ukraine right now.
And here I am, against the backdrop of all this beauty, waving to you.
It's almost 9 o'clock and almost everything is sold out.
Sheepskin products, such as those sold in the Carpathians.
No alcoholic drinks other than mulled wine are sold in the square.
Here they brew mulled wine and fry shashlik and sausages.
The Christmas nativity scene, also known as "shopka" in Western Ukraine.
There are no fewer souvenir kiosks than those for "having a snack".
The temperature was above zero, snow started falling from the sky, turning into rain, so we put the camera away and went home.
And on Sunday we had a long walking tour, visiting two museums. I'll draw a map in the next post.
And here is another Christmas tree, under the Friendship of Nations arch, popularly called “yoke”, “collar”, “arc”, etc. The composition was built in 1982 in honor of the 1500th anniversary of Kyiv.
There's also a fair here, smaller than on Sofiyskaya, and the only alcohol available is mulled wine. My husband treated himself to some, and I tried it. It's almost non-alcoholic, but delicious and warming.
If a Russian-speaking visitor to the fair doesn't understand the words "mulled wine" and "cafe," then below it's written "mulled wine" and "coffee."
The composition consists of two groups: the one on the left depicts workers, one Russian and one Ukrainian, raising the Order of Friendship of Peoples; the one on the right depicts the boyar Buturlin and Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky in the foreground. It likely depicts the signing of the military alliance, which in Soviet school was called the "reunification of Ukraine with Russia."
On the pedestal of the left group there is an inscription in two languages: “To mark the unification of Ukraine with Russia”, the metal letters are torn off, but can be read, a flag and “Glory to Ukraine!” have been added.
There is a free skating rink under the arch.
We go a little to the left, and here is a zoo corner.
You can buy food for 10 UAH and feed the ostriches and the symbol of the year.
And this is the view from there.
And suddenly—what do we see? Well, it's clear that if we've "banned" the Russian language and Father Frost, then where else can he, the poor thing, hide if not in the center of the capital? We peered into the windows—there's life there.
On the left, the mastic is heating up, and a boy is enthusiastically decorating a gingerbread cookie.
At another table, the children are painting ceramic figurines. I ask the boy if he'll be painting the eyes and beak in different colors. He says no, only two colors. Oh well, it'll be a patriotic parrot.
There is a map of the world on the wall.
And Grandfather Frost, while the children were busy, was frankly bored. He was delighted that I had pointed the lens at him and waved at me.
Source: travel.ru