Kiev in 2006

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My first visit to Kiev was in early July 2006 and this is what I learned:
When you arrive at Borispol Airport, you can either take a taxi into the city which will cost you anywhere from $32-45 depending upon how well you can negotiate in Russian and where you are going to in the center of the city.

Another alternative is to ask for the Bus to the Train Station (Poeyest Vagzal). It is a large comfortable tour type bus and only costs 24 Hgryvnia per person, which is a little less than $5.

When you get to the Train Station, you will be in the back of the train station. If you enter the train station and walk across to the other side ( about 1/2 a mile ), go down to the street level and look for the Metro which will take you to all major areas of the city for only $.10. Yes, I repeat 10 cents or 50 kopeckas. You will extremely impressed by the architecture, lack of graffiti, cleanliness and speed and reliability of the metro trains.


What I was astonished by was the depth and beauty of the underground shopping malls,metro train stations and the shops and
walkways underneath the major traffic intersections. I come from Boston,Mass.,USA and I came back to the disaster of the ceiling collapse in the Big Dig onto a poor woman who was driving through thinking she could rely on American technology. I left Kiev after seeing a cathedral that's last major renovations were done in 1190 AD. So much for corruption in the Ukraine. Boston is a third world country ruled by gian
corporations that steal from the government with seeming impunity. Anyway, all of us who have lived in a city with Harvard University
and Mass. Institute of Technology 5 miles away in Cambridge have a lot to learn from a city that was founded somewhere around 900 AD.

If you want more information about Kiev, check out: Travel in Kiev,Ukraine

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Photos

Hotel Kazatsky
In Independence Square

Ukraine State Dept.
3 blocks away from Independence Square