tikistitch

Did we mention Kiev sucks ass? Thought so, but wanted to end the night (it's 1 am here) on a slightly up note. If you go to Kiev (which we don't recommend, as it sucks ass) the kewl thing to do is go to this big Eastern Orthodox monastery and visit the mummy monks! No, we're serious! The mummy monks are all in a cave, you wander around and see them, and it's just too cool. And, there are people lighting candles and praying over them, and a bunch of dudes who look like Santy Claus wandering around in cassocks.

Now, a couple of things towards respecting their tradition: one is, you gotta walk through the caves carrying a lit candle. Yeah, we know, if you know tiki, a recipe for trouble. ALSO, wimminfolk gotta cover their heads. Now, if you haven't happened to pack your chador, they'll sell ya a cheapie rayon scarf right there at the monastery gift shop (viva, capitalism!). But were like, ok, carrying lit candle plus dodgy artificial and highly flammable fabric wrapped around our head? Think not. So, Mr. Tiki goes, "Why not pull up your hoodie!" Um, 'cause we're wearing our Gama-Go kaiju hoodie, and it looks like a Gozilla head? "You'll be fine!" enthused our bouyant spouse. And, waddya know, no one barked a word of complaint (and we're well used to being yelled at in Slavic countries, tell you what).

Oh, and before anyone asked, we asked Mr. Tiki, and no, there are no werewolf monks. That would be really cool too, although the mummy monks could totally kick their asses.