A grand old journey from Finland to Ukraine via Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland by boat, plane, bus, car, and automobile – no trains, however! Little did I know how I lucky I would be to see Kyiv before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although even then the emotional and political impact of the Russian conquest of the eastern Donbas was palpable everywhere.
There are many more photos on my Flickr account — you don’t need to be a Flickr member to see other people’s photos in high definition on Flickr — click on any photo to see it in large size on Flickr. Or just visit my trip album here.
Finland
Chain link bridge connecting the island of Orslandet with the mainland.Lohja’s medieval church murals.Naantali, Finland’s wealthiest town.The Finnish dreamland: Kirkkojärvi near Kisko.“Norma” – a 1904 building in Helsinki.Helsinki Cathedral.
Estonia
Cruise ship sailing into Tallinn.View through the Sea Gate of Tallinn’s city walls.Tallinn’s Orthodox and Lutheran cathedrals. Tallinn’s Town Hall Square.Rood screen at the Toomkirik, Tallinn’s Lutheran Cathedral.Stalinist building at Tartu maantee 24, Tallinn.
Latvia
National Library of Latvia, Riga.Cathedral Square, Riga .The Stalinist Latvian Academy of Sciences building, Riga. St Joseph’s RC Cathedral, Liepāja.Laidzes iela 10A, a handsome old house in Talsi.Talsi, built on two lakes and nine hills.22
Lithuania
Memorial to Grand Duke Gediminas, Vilnius.The Hill of Crosses at sunset.Sand dunes on the Curonian Spit.Christ’s Resurrection Basilica in Kaunas.Statue of our Our Lady in Kaunas.Vilniaus gatvė, the oldest street in Kaunas.
Poland
Old men telling tall tales in Augustów.A marina on the River Netta in touristy Augustów.The guide at the Tatar mosque in Bohoniki.Country scene in Bohoniki, near the Belarussian border.The Branicki Palace, Białystok.Saint Nicholas the Wonder Worker Orthodox cathedral, Białystok.
Ukraine — before the war
Volodymyrs’kyi Passage and St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv.The Motherland Monument, Kyiv.Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, Kyiv.ChaChaBar, excellent Georgian food and brandy in the heart of Old Kyiv.The Duga “woodpecker” radar in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.Abandoned kindergarten in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
