Over thirty years ago when I was a junior in high school, I had a pen pal from Kyiv. At that time, Kyiv was still part of the Soviet Union and the Cold War was slowly coming to an end. A couple of years passed and Ukraine gained it’s independence from the crumbling Soviet Union on August 24, 1991. I was very fortunate to be able to travel to visit the great city of Kyiv in May of 1995. It was an eye-opening experience to a world I had never been exposed to, but welcomed it with open arms. My pen pal’s family hosted me at their apartment for about a week. My first cultural experience in Ukraine was attending an opera at the National Opera House in Kyiv. Kyiv is a fascinating city with rich history and wonderful people. One of my favorite places to visit was St. Sophia’s Cathedral (as seen in the photo I took in 1995). It was built just over 1000 years ago and named after the 6th-century Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It contains both Byzantine and Ukrainian Baroque architecture and is part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra (Kiev Monastery of the Caves) which has been a preeminent center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe since the monastery was built in 1051. It is my hope the current war will stop soon before the magnificent city is destroyed. There is so much history and beauty Kyiv and Ukraine has to offer the world. I look forward to exploring more of Kyiv and Ukraine again once peace has returned.
