Ukraine's Independence Day snuck up on us, so we didn't have any time to plan a trip during the long weekend. But I was glad we didn't leave because it was interesting to see how Kyivians celebrate their freedom from the Soviet Union, won on August 24, 1991. The 26th anniversary was recognized much like in previous years, with a series of military demonstrations on Independence Square (top). But for the first time, NATO member nations, including the United States, also participated. The troops lined the main boulevard, making it difficult to see the action (bottom left). After craning our necks for a while, we stepped on to side streets, where we could see cultural expressions of national pride (bottom right).
We strolled downtown after attending the Independence Day Concert at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine concert hall, a wonderful atmospheric and acoustic location for a music performance (top). The Wings of Dixie, a U.S. Air Force band, really wowed the crowd with some American favorites (bottom left). They nearly brought down the house with their extra-jazzy extended version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" (bottom right).
At the start of the tour, within the indoor four-lane bowling alley, you are instructed to don booties (top left), to help preserve what are billed as excessive expenditures, such as intricate hand-inlaid wood floors (top right). Besides the bowling alley, the fitness center includes an indoor tennis court; a full gym, which houses a boxing ring (bottom left); and a spa area, which includes tanning beds, massage tables, hydrobaths, and even a salt cave (bottom right).
The fitness center is connected to the Honka via a convenient underground tunnel (top). The residence includes all the trappings of a palace: multiple big-screen TVs and a media room, walk-in closets, bidets, silk carpets, marble statues, crystal chandeliers, and sweeping staircases (bottom left). Surprisingly, the kitchen was nothing more than a small galley, as food supposedly was prepared in the fitness center's industrial kitchen, which we didn't see. Unusually, the house includes a church, and on display in the main living area is a limited-edition John Lennon piano (bottom right). The guide said Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader who fled during the Battle of Tripoli, had a piano from the same series. Unlike Gaddafi, who was killed by rebel forces in October 2011, Yanukovych's whereabouts remain unknown.
The residence is surrounded by pristine gardens. At the front of the house is a manmade lake, alongside which sits a banya and sauna complex (top left). The rear faces the Kyiv Sea, a reservoir formed by the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in the Dnieper River (top right). We boarded golf carts to get the full tour of the estate grounds, which include, well, a golf course and the Galleon, a reception barge that now operates as a restaurant (bottom left). We also stopped at the Motor Museum, which displays dozens of cars from Yanukovych's personal automobile collection (bottom right).
The night before, it was much easier to navigate the main drag downtown, even though it was full of people gathered near Lyadsky Gate, which marks the location of one of the city's medieval gates (left). Standing atop the gate is the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Ukraine, who also is perched on Independence Monument. Over the weekend, we saw various people dressed up as the "angel of independence," including while we perused the many military machines on display (right).
After independence, the country was led by democratically elected presidents: two Leonids, Kravchuk and Kuchma, then two Viktors, Yushchenko and Yanukovych. Viktor Yanukovych was stripped of his title after he fled the country during the Revolution of Dignity. The public protested against the government for many reasons, including Yanukovych's last-minute refusal to sign a NATO association agreement, but they also were displeased that leaders appeared to be diverting government funds to feed their own luxurious lifestyles.
A lingering sign of this is Mezhyhirya, the estate where Yanukovych lived until he fled in 2014. The estate was built on the site of a former monastery and is now a National Park. The estate's main building, the Honka, was constructed over two years at an estimated cost of $9.5 million (top). Tours of the residence start through a door in the fitness center, where on display in a nearby window are a dummy of Yanukovych and a replica of a solid-gold bread loaf that was reportedly found in his bedroom (bottom left). The tour, guided by a revolution protester who says he lives permanently on the site, ends at the front door of the Honka (bottom right).
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