Announcing to my peers that my next destination was to be Kiev, the Ukrainian capital city, prompted the inevitable references to chicken Kiev, perhaps, ironically, the one Kievan export which a fair number of people tend to identify with the most. Well, my pre-departure images of the city were far greater than a well-prepared dinner, and I had visions of coming across gold-domed church roofs, Soviet-style architecture, men in furry hats and a massive city which could easily qualify as an urban explorer's dream. Happily, most, if not all, of these myths were true, but along the way, I am pleased to report that Kiev also portrayed a highly liveable side too, which led me to believe that, for a country which has suffered so badly in the past, the extent to which Kiev has developed
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