Mezhyhirya Residence Just Outside Of Kyiv, Ukraine

My son’s bar mitzvah celebrations start this Shabbat, so I am very pressed for time, and will share with you hopefully all the creativity my daughter and I are doing for the event next week. In the mean time, I am sharing with you more photos from our Passover trip to the Ukraine, so enjoy!

At the end of our trip we stayed for two nights in the wonderful city of Kiev, actually Kyiv, and on one of those days, which actually happened to be a Ukrainian holiday, we took a drive out to Mezhyhira Residence which is a park open to the public on the grounds of the estate of the Ukrainian Prime Minister who was ousted in 2014. He escaped to Russia via helicopter with a ton of cash apparently, and now the people get to enjoy his excesses! Well, the grounds anyway, which even in the winter are quite lovely, and a perfect place for a picnic, a bike ride, a run, you name it. One can rent all kinds of bikes and motorized segway type things at the entrance, and there is also a golf cart tour of the whole estate, which in retrospect would have been great, I didn’t realize how huge the place is, and we did not see everything on foot.

Ready for a little tour, come with me…..

The estate is on the banks of the Dnieper river, with a lovely view.

I didn’t care for most of the architecture on the estate, as it was really a mish mash, but this gate is lovely.
And particularly these gold leaves!
The main house is a wooden structure built by a company from Finland.
Lots of ponds.

Lots of swans. More photos of that to come.
And even some dear.

We enjoyed our visit, though I will honestly say that I’d put this lower on the list unless you are traveling with folks that really can’t walk a lot and then this would be great to take a tour on the golf cart vehicles around the estate. Ukrainians love to visit this place on account of all the recent history, which is why the driver suggested we go! And I’ll admit, I do like to have a look at what the locals are doing, and the place was really packed for the holiday.

Ah yes, and just note, there is no English anywhere, none, zero, zilch. So start practicing that Ukrainian!

Save