April Reading List

My reading for April was about average 9 books, two of them I forgot to take photos. This is the list:

The Ashes of London by Andrew Taylor - I loved this book, first in a trilogy

A Discovery of Witches byDeborah Harkness - this I read on kindle, I also really liked this one

A Gathering of Shadows by VE Schwab - second book in a trilogy

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Bridget Kemmerer - first book in a trilogy, again I really liked this one

The Binding by Bridget Collins - it started off slow but then I really got into it

The Silence of the Girls  by Pat Barker - this was also a great book

The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman - first book in a trilogy about Lycra as a child

The Italian Party by Christina Lynch

The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau by Graeme Macrae Burnett


I cannot pick just one of these books, as my favourite, just too difficult.

I have decided to start another 365 day challenge but this time it will be all to do with books. Which books I am reading, which ones I want to read, books in my flat and books in shops that I would like, so I think you get the general idea. Hope I can pull it off.

Have a great week

A Long Weekend in Kiev, Ukraine

Independence Square

Entrance to the St.Sophia Cathedral, the Bell Tower

Golden Gate

Opera House

St Volodymry's Cathedral

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Ballet The Marriage of Figaro

Opera House

The Motherland Monument

St.Michael Golden- Domed Monastery

St Andrews Cathedral

I am been neglecting my poor blog lately and have seen the last time I did a post was on the 24th May so nearly one month. Ok, I have been just rather lazy about posting as I do have stuff to post about.

Anyway this post is about my most recent trip away to the lovely city of Kiev in the Ukraine. I went for a long weekend with my friend Arlene.

Once checked into our hotel we decided to walk up to Independence Square, we took a longish way to get there but it was just great to see lots of lovely buildings and architecture. Once at the square, which is the main square in the city we wondered around it a bit. There was lots going on and many people just hanging out.

The next day we did lots of walking, we saw the beautiful St.Sophia Cathedral the oldest in Kiev, built in 1037 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. The outside facade is white with green for some of the domes and the other domes in gold. The inside is spectacular with amazing mosaic, paintings and frescoes.

We saw St. Michael`s Golden -Domed Monastery which was in a beautiful blue, St Volodymyr`s Cathedral which was in a stunning yellow and finally we saw St. Andrews Cathedral in white and green, with golden domes. All these cathedral were completely stunning.

We did a boat trip down the river Dnieper, it was nice to see some of the sights and get a close up of The Motherland Monument. We also decided to do the hip on/off bus tour just to see all the sights and then decide what to see better.

We ate two times in a Georgian restaurant and it was fantastic both times, the food was so delicious and the staff always very nice to us. We could not believe how cheap everything is here.

We even went to see a ballet at the Opera House, we saw The Marriage of Figaro. On a whim we were passing the Opera House and decided to pop in and see what/if there was something on that evening. The lady told us there was and decided to go and we got tickets for 4ch. Yes it was unbelievable and we had good seats in the balcony.

So in conclusion, Kiev is very definitely a city to visit, great architecture, sights, restaurants and very friendly people.