Kyiv: First day and first impressions

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Yesterday at midnight, I arrived at Kiev airport and I was expected it, it was REALLY cold + windy! However, I checked the weather before going and my friend told me to prepare for cold weather, so I was prepared: with several layers of clothing 😉

From the airport, we took a common taxi, which took us almost in front of our home, for only 4€ per person!! It reminded me of Vietnam, where we did the same from the airport for a cheap price as well. But, even if the taxi driver was not the best one I had, the flow of cars in Ukraine is not as dangerous as in Vietnam 😉

After a 1st night in Kyiv, I could finally visit the city. As my friend was working on that day, I went alone in the city center to explore.

At first, I have to say that it was not easy to find my way in the city and in the subway: I was without a map, could not speak Ukrainian and I could not find any direction signs. After walking in a way and then in the other, I finally found direction signs, which pointed me the 1st thing I wanted to see: Petcherska Lavra. In the subway, when they stop at a station it is difficult to find the name of the station and then if you find it, then you have to see what the transcription of it in our alphabet is. Ok, I talked about it with my friend in the evening (after getting lost in the subway and going in the wrong direction :p), and she told me I could see the name of the station of the screens inside the metro. Now, it should be easier for me to know where I am, but still knowing in which direction the metro is going is not easy.

Ah, I forgot about another thing, which is quite particular for this metro: it is really deep: you have to go up/down with 2 successive and very high escalators and my friend told me that the stations I took were not the deepest ones, but that they have in Kyiv the deepest metro station in Europe! I noticed how deep it could be already in London or in Helsinki, but I am every amazed of how deep it goes. For me, it is quite a change, because in Germany or in France, I am used not to use the escalators and to use the stairs instead, but here you simply cannot, or you can but it is really a good exercise for the day!

On the way to there, I started to discover the city a bit: I found a real nice and small market, where I could eat some nice buns (it was lunch time, and I was getting hungry, so it was great to find that there), then I saw my 1st orthodox monastery with golden crosses and green roof. To my surprise, in the opposite side of the road from that monastery, I saw a French restaurant 😉

After quite a long walk, I arrived in a big square from where you could walk to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I loved that place because you could see all the colours of automn on the trees and on the leaves. This was quite a magical place for me, with those colours and the wind. However, as I said in the beginning, it was winter temperatures!!

I also loved that place because it was in a big park up the hill, so I could have a nice view over Kiev.

From there, I could see Petcherska Lavra but it was not that easy to get in... because I had walked in the city center without changing money and I had only 10 UAH (=1€), whereas the entrance fee was 50UAH! I tried to exchange money but the girl at the exchange counter told me "not now"... So I walked along the road since I could see that the place was quite big and I found another entrance where it was even talking about "caves" and I remembered that my friend Lidiia told me about the caves that I had to see. So I was quite happy, I bumped into that place by coincidence 😉 AND I could enter from there, which was still a part of the monastery, without paying if you did not want a guide.

So, I walked down the monatery to the caves' entrance. There, it was quite a funny time, because the guy at the entrance and I had some problems to communicate together! At first, I understood that he wanted me to cover my hair, so I did it with my scarf but when I did he told me something like "no, you should cover your legs, no trousers allowed". So, I uncovered my hair and put the "skirt" that he was showing me (a very nice flashy green skirt, sorry no pictures of me with that 😉). When I was finished, he told me again something like "no, you should cover your hair as well", so I covered my hair again. Finally, I could enter the caves. Inside the caves, you can see graves of saints. Two things impressed me there: you can still see the hands of the saints after so many years of buiral and to see how the local religious people acted there. On each grave, they would indeed first make the sign of the cross, they kissed the grave, then put their forehead on the grave for a while and then make the sign of the cross again and leave to do the exact same ritual on the next grave. For them, this cave must be even more symbolic than it was for me I think!

After walking Inside the monastery park, I took a local bus for the 1st time and I was amazed by how cheap it was: 0.15€ for a ride! In comparison with 2.7€ in Germany it was nothing!!

The other thing, which is quite cheap here is food: first of all, you can find a lot of street food for a really cheap price and even in restaurant -when it is not a touristy one I assume-, you can eat for a fairly cheap price. So on the 1st day, if I include the bun I ate when I arrived in the city and what I ate after as street food, I ate for only 1.5€!!

After my lunch break at the Independence Square, I walked in a 2nd park, which was also up the hill -it was my sport of the day 😉-. This park was nice as well with some building and statues: Puppet theater building was nice, then Water tower and then the People’s Friendship Arch –which was built in 1982as a sign of the unification between Russia and Ukraine. As it was up the hill, I had another really nice view over the city and over the river. If the weather would have not been that cold then I would have stayed longer there, just to relax and to enjoy the view. As it was not the case, I walked up another street –there are indeed some parts of the city where you have to walk up for a while, even though it is not the 7 hills of Lisbon, it is a good exercise for the day- 😉 But that walk was worth it, as it lead me to Saint Michel cathedral and then Saint Sophie cathedral. Both were gorgeous, with nice colours: blue or green. I liked Saint Michel better because this contrast between blue on the walls and the gold doms!

I liked a lot as well the buildings on the square near Saint Sophie cathedral: there were some nice, big buildings with a rich facade! From there, I walked down a street to reach Andriyivski Descent, which is an old street with a lot of street art vendors, art galleries, museums, … On that street, I also saw another nice church: Saint Andre church. It had the particularity of not having a bell tower. My friend told me that according to the legend, the bells would ring only if the level of water would go up again.

In that street, I found a small, nice café in a courtyard, where I sat reading and relaxing J There, I got my second words confusion of the day: I ordered a hot chocolate –which is for me some hot drink from milk with chocolate- but the girl brought me a cup filled only with chocolate which was hot. It was tasty but a whole cup of it was a bit too much 😉 The place was really nice with board games –as the café name is Druzy, meaning “friends in Ukrainian”, it goes quite well with the name, as it’s perfect to play with friends!, so nice decorative objects on the walls, comfy sofas and very good music! Was a great way to finish the afternoon there!

After the café, I met my friend at the National Opera House for a ballet: Sleeping Beauty. The ballet was in 3 acts and I loved it: good dancers, dances were changing a lot, really entertaining and decorations were really beautiful. The opera was really nice as well, but we could not look for long at the buildings as we arrived late… A funny thing at the opera was to look at a very young boy, who was all dressed up for that evening and who was at some point bored sleeping on the side but was at some point really enjoying the performance especially the music: playing with his fingers in rhythms!!

From the opera house, we went to a nice old-fashioned restaurant, where all furniture were from 70’s and where we ate varenyky and pancakes. Those are typical Ukrainian food that I had the chance to taste already when my 2 Ukrainian friend cooked for me in Germany and in Portugal!

Then, after a short detour in a supermarket –yes, some supermarkets are opened 24/7 here and customers at that time are not only drunk people!-, we came back home for a deserved sleep!!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Wow tasty treats
Looks like you are having a good time.