Blogs from Kiev, Ukraine, Europe - page 8

Day 14 Didn't really sleep much, wandereed around all night then headed to the shopping centre early in hope it was open so i could get some clean clothes but it was sunday so not open til 10.. Headed to the police staion a bit early which seemed to piss them off ooppss.... Managed to get my statement done and a ref number for my insurance by 12.. Only had an hour before our train left so quickly tried to grab a few bits including a new bag and ws ready and packed so agreed to meet Pete and Adelle outside the front of the train station to get our train.. waited and waited and by this time our train had gone, turned out they'd got lost???? I have no idea how and so we had ... read more

Kiev is full of people trying to get somewhere in a hurry. Buses, marshrutki (public minibuses) and metro trains cram residents in, making the London Underground at rush hour look deserted. And why not. Because unlike neighbouring Belarus, Ukraine seems desperate to shake off its former communist shackles and make its way in the world. Russia, its influential neighbour, has expressed an unease about Ukraine joining NATO. And the port of Sevastopol remains a potential flashpoint between it and Russia. But despite years under its command, Ukraine doesn't seem to be afraid. Kiev's official population is three million people. Unofficial estimates have it at double that. Arriving bleary-eyed at rush hour, we were tossed mercilessly into the husle and bustle. Swarms of people almost carried us to the metro station from where we would catch a ... read more

I'm putting these blogs together as i fear the next few days will be beyond dull. Day 16 - 16/09/08. Got up early in L'viv to get to the station as we hadn't sorted out any train times. Have definitely decided to get to St Petersburg as soon as possible so no choice but to get trains straight through now. Got to the station early but train out to Kiev is not until 8pm. No other news, we spent the day sitting here. We did sit in different seats from time to time and the toilets here are just a hole in the ground so i was watching what i ate. Also, i left my tent and old maps at the hotel to save more weight as we won't need them (hopefully). May have to buy ... read more

I started the solo part of my trip in Kiev, Ukraine. I knew it was going to be an interesting place the moment I landed and the whole plane burst out in spontaneously clapping. Successful landing an occasion for clapping? Awesome! I knew I picked the right place when exiting the airport I saw everything was written in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. There isn’t anything more thrilling or terrifying than being alone in a foreign place and having no clue how you are going to manage any type of communication. Driving into the city from the airport, there were thousands and thousands of Soviet style buildings. They look a lot like the projects. I had seen quite a few of these throughout the rest of Eastern Europe, but nothing of this magnitude. I was also a ... read more

When we got to Kiev station we hopped into a Marshrutka to go back to Alena and Aunty Olga's house (04/08/08). Aunty Olga paid for my Marshrutka as I did not have any grivna (Ukrainian currency = 1G = apprxoimately 0.25AUD). The Stetsenko residence was in this cool green apartment block with a nice garden outside. Their flat had high ceilings like from Stalinist type architecture. Here I met Tom, the Stetsenko family cat. Me and Alena went out in the afternoon with a few of her friends - also Max who was like a brother to Alena and I had heard alot about. We met Max in the centre and his girl friend. We also met another friend of theirs Irina. We were shortly joined by Igor before we left to see the sights of ... read more