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Fountain in Independence Square
The fountain of the four legendary founders of the city (brothers Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv and sister Lybid)Yo dudes - finally getting the blog thing going!
I met up with Brad at the airport in Munich for the last leg of our respective flights that took us into Kiev at 11pm at night. Things went quite smoothly on arrival. An airport staff member assisted us through immigration and customs so we bypassed the line-up and were met by a driver from our hotel. With a small miracle we were able to squeeze 2 wheelchairs, 3 large suitcases and sundry hand language into his Renault and made our way to the hotel.
I did fair bit of research trying to find a hotel with suitable rooms. Many of the hotels in the center of town are large Soviet era monstrosities with poor quality rooms, elevators that sometimes don't work and hotel staff with legendarily poor service. There are a few new, western hotels but prices are $450 US and up. I found some smaller hotels that looked promising but when I found pictures most had steps to get in and out of the hotel.
In the end we settled on a newer hotel on the third floor of a condominium with only 20 rooms. It proved
Friendship Arch
The "Friendship Arch" overlooking the Dnipro river in Kiev at sunset. to be a great choice. We had a large 3 room, 2 bedroom suite and excellent service from the staff.
I befriended one of the guys who worked there, Yarislov, who took me out two days in a row to explore Kiev and give a guided tour. Up and down hills, over curbs and stairs - awesome guy. Kiev is a beautiful city with broad streets, 19th century architecture and lots of green space, mixed with imposing massive Soviet style buildings.
The woman here are truly stunning - every where we look! It really is unbelievable. They are all incredibly stylish. Long legs, skin tight jeans, high heels, short tops, incredibly impractical but smoking hot. This is the whitest city I've ever seen. Copenhagen was pretty homogeneous but it's cosmopolitan compared to Kiev. Brad and I sat out people watching, drinking beers at an outdoor cafe near Independence Square one evening. In the course of an hour we didn't see a single African, Oriental, Indian face - pretty much 100% white - crazy. Kiev is mythically founded by the Vikings and the Swedish blood seems to run true still today.
On Friday night we went to one
Independence Square
An old school Soviet era hotel dominates the square. On the weekend the main road is closed to traffic making a great community space. of the hotter night clubs in Kiev - Decadence. Brad was in heaven. The place was very upscale and pretty packed, Kiev's beautiful people bar, Brad's favorite kind of place. A few minutes after we arrived he said "Dude, I can't believe it, have you ever seen so many stunningly beautiful woman in place" and then all night long, every half hour or so, "Dude, I can't believe it...". Needless to say, Brad is a very happy man right now.
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David Green
non-member comment
oh, to be abroad with no responsibilities...
glad to see that you're having a great time!