Day 68: Christianity

Its weekend!! Where should I go? To the city center ofcourse. That would be the most lively place to be. Took the metro and went to the Independence Square to begin my day. Along the way.





Some pictures taken at the Independence Square.







Hey look, the car is still here.



Since it is weekend, the main street in town is closed for people to walk. I think that this is a great idea as it gives us lots of walking space. However, I cant imgaine if orchard road were to be closed on every weekend. Singaporeans are bound to shoot complain letters. It would be chaotic.



Here are some pictures taken aling the main street.





Then as I strolled along, I saw my favourite mode of transport.





I also saw a classic car.





Another thing about travelling is that I love to people watch especially if there is a protest going on as there are no protest in Singapore. Just who are these people and what are they protesting about?









Police on standby...



They were protesting outside this place. I do not know what building is this.





As I walked further down the main street, a small park came into sight. As with all other ex soviet countries that I had been to (actually I had only been to Kazakhstan and krygystan), You will see Lenin standing proud in the city. Kiev is no exceptional. Here is Lenin.





Then I went to the market for sightseeing. Haha.. Ya, sightseeing in the market.



Why? Because it is so colourful there. See already also dont feel like eating. Looks more like a art to me.







Hey what is this?



Oh its cheesecake and it taste REAL good. Heavenly taste... But too bad I did not buy. Too expensive. I only try the samples.



Afterwhich, I went to visit a chruch. Unlike yesterday, I am going to show you more of the interior of the chruch. It is so beautiful. I like the high alters, golden structures etc. But before you go on to see these pictures, I must first apologise as some of the photos turned out to be blur. I do not know why. Maybe its god's will. Maybe god wants you to go there and see it for yourself. HOR JESSE? :P















































Moving on from the church, I went back on the streets.



























European cars always have their country flag on the number plate.



Hmmm.... so where to next? Why not go and see more churches? What? Churches again? Yeah.. Why not? Since there are so many beautiful churches in Kiev... So here we go... More crosses, more bell towers.....





















Man playing in church.



Nightfalling...











Ok. I was lucky enough to be in one of these churches when they were having their service. It was really an eye opener for me. I have never seen how orthodox services are like and so it was my virgin experience. First of all, I am not a christian but a free thinker and so I am looking at this in a neutral point of view.

Before you read on, I must first say that I am not critizing any religion. I am just stating my own personnal point of view as a non believer and so it is nothing specific. Please do not get too exicted and offended if I sound too harsh or negative. I am just writig down my own feelings. Nevertheless, if any of you do get offended, sorry in advance. Like I said, I am not siding any religion as I dont believe in any.

Cheers.....

Personnally, I do not really like the feeling of a orthodox service. Simply because it really gives me a sense of guilt. Throughout the whole serivce, I felt really bad and down and guilty. I do not know why but it just made me feel that I am full of sin and I should suffer and be punish for what I had done (though I do not know what I had done). It is just the feeling of I am bad. I am a sinner. I am always wrong. Being there makes me felt really small, useless and powerless as compared to god/nature/the unkown forces. But it also made me felt that the orthodoxs are really serious about their religion as I felt the holiness in it. I am serious.

I know that there are different groups of chirstians but I am sorry I do not know all the names and differences of each individual. I only know that they do differ and are unique in their own way. Unlike the group of christians and the type of services held in Singapore where people go to churches to pray, sing and say graces to god; where the mood and feeling is happy cause you are saved and cause god loves you, it is the exact opposite here. Noone sang, noone wore a smile and noone spoke a single word through the whole service. It was bascially held in the form of a ritual. The priest and his monks went walking in and out of the high golden alter, chanting, speaking in tongue, holding bibles, lit candles, burning incneses, ringing bells and carrying spiritual symbols. Heads were lowered, backs were bent. People bowed and paid respect. It was dead serious.

When they were out from the alter, every part of the ritual can be seen. But when they went back into the alter, they closed the doors. It seems to be very secertive. As a matter of fact, the doors were not actual doors but were more like doors with gate design where the top part and the bottom part can be seen through. So I can still sort of see what is going on behind the closed doors. Chants still goes on, and from the bottom of the doors, I can see that they were still walking round in circles inside. There seems to be a hierarchy system. When the highest ranking person stand, everyone elses stand, when he sits, everyone sits, and when he moves, everyone elses follow behind him. Holy symbols can also be seen being raised high into the sky through the top part of the door.

In short, it seems to be like a chinese taotist ritual held in a church for jesus. I know it sounds werid but coming from south eastern asia, it is how I sees it. Needless to say, I left the church with mix feelings.

As I walked back to the city, I passed by the independance square again,



before I reached the Friendship of Nations Monument aka Rainbow Arch. It is to celebrate the 1654 "unification of russia and ukraine.



These 2 brothers are russia and ukraine.





From here, you can see a great night view of kiev.





Moving back down to the city.



Hey, I did not know that buddha drinks. HAHA..



And I did not know that Jennifer Lopez has her own boutique and there are many brunches here.



It's saturday night. So how can I go back so early? So I went to meet this Ukrainian Girl, Marina. Was suspose to attend a salsa class with her (I never salsa before) but the class was cancelled. So we ended up going for dinner together and then she brought me to a salsa club for some drinks.







Bascially it is a disco with everyone dancing nothing salsa.

We left the place about midnight and then I went for the metro. At the station while waiting for my train to come, I had an interesting encounter with these two girls whom I do not know. The station was fairly crowded. At about 2m aways from me, stood these two very punk girls with piercing. They were french kissing deeply as if noone was around. Most people like me were staring at them. Then they suddenly stopped, took a glance around, mumbled something into each other's ears and walked towards me.

They asked me where am I from, What am I doing and afterwhich they said this, "we are lesbians but we DONT mind you." and they started french kissing each other again, just centimeters away from my face. That went on for close to a minute. I just stood there not knowing how to react. First time encounter such a situation. Then they stopped kissing for awhile and looked at me. Still I did nothing. After a few seconds of slience, they said, "ok, bye," and they left.

Just what do they mean by that? If you were in my shoes, how would you have react?



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