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Published: December 3rd 2007
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Botanic Gardens
Early morning in the botanic gardens Saturday 13th October, arrival and Kyiv
The overnight train pulled in at half-seven and we walked out to the sound of military marching music into the mighty, marble-vaulted voxhall of Kyiv. Time to get some breakfast, but first I spend an hour arguing with the staff at the station's left luggage while I try to off-load my bags. Eventually it works, and I head down the road, getting some local porridge (eurgh) and pancakes (mmm) for breakfast. Then a walk around the botanical gardens, the university district, the government district and down past the stadium, wandering in the cold morning air. At about 11.30 I'm on my way back to the station to meet Alla (my neighbor from London) who's arriving soon, but she texts to say she'll be late. I also see in this text I've been under false impressions, I thought she lived in Kyiv but in fact she doesn't, so I'm going to have to find a hostel for the night too rather than relying on her advice.
Back down to the stadium area, where after a long search (and some begrudgingly-given directions in broken English, virtually no-one speaks it here) I find a net cafe. I
Shevshenko Park
Ukraine's most famous poet watches over the university make investigations and find the location of the only open hostel at this time of year, and also do some research on how to get to Chernobyl, eventually concluding that I can't really afford the several hundred dollars it's going to cost me. Seems there's really not much to see anyway. I also realise now that there's no way I'm going to make it to Belarus, even fewer people speak English there, and I would need to get a visa in the embassy on Monday with the earliest departure date of Wednesday, so it's just going to be too slow. I am now, officially,
planless.
I head up to where this hostel should be, and I can see it in the side of the building, but can't figure out how to get in. It's annoying, because now I'm really starting to get cold and hungry. Fortunately Alla texts, and I go down to meet her at the Pivdenni Voxhall (but no-one will tell me where this is when I get to the main station!) She comes down to meet me and turns out to be quite the saviour! She's in good spirits and insists on feeding me lots of
An escalator at Kiev Metro
So long you can't even see the bottom tasty Ukrainian specialties, which I gratefully accept. She also describes her hometown, which sounds unusual and interesting to me, and when she invites me I can't resist, so I accept that too. She writes instructions to buy a ticket for me, and we walk back to her train and part ways. Now I'm nicely warm, no longer hungry and I have a plan. What a great girl!
I return to the hostel and have little difficulty finding the entrance this time. It turns out to be simply two rooms packed tight with bunk beds. And who should I meet there but Olivier and Rachel who I met 2 days ago at the Ukrainian border! We share my remaining food, along with a German girl (Simone) and Jason, an American guy in the peace core. They're off to see the rugby and I agree to join, once I've collected my bags from left luggage at the station.
When we get to the Irish pub, full of cheering French men, the rugby's in full swing. Slowly the cheering dies down as boot-of-Wilkinson erodes the French defence and eventually there's a muted feeling as England put France out of the world cup. We decide to head back to the hostel, on Kyiv's stunning (and very cheap) metro system, and then back to the hostel. Jason, Olivier and myself make a diversion to a nearby restaurant, obstentively for some food. A sandwich, and several beers later, we're talking travel, sex, services and politics and smoking a delicious apple-flavoured nargilla (water-pipe) served by a friendly computer scientist who takes amazing pride in his job. My plan's been extended by Jason's invitation to crash a few days in his place in Sevastopol, but after a little more vodka, he's exhausted and heads back to the hostel.
Myself and Olivier order another nargilla (mystery flavour) and talk some more. He's an interesting fella, calm, with more experience than most for his years. A few more vodkas, beers and another nargilla later, and it's time to go. The water-pipe waiter's been a great compadre, so we invite him along for a few more beers on us, and discover just how life in Kyiv really is -- turns out it's just as shit as everywhere else! After an exchange of emails, and another beer, its well into the morning. We go back around the corner to the hostel, and back in my room, Simone's just getting up. I manage to actually recover sufficiently to have a decent conversation, and she reminds me deeply of a female, German version of my ex-housemate Samir, one cool customer! Finally the alcohol gets the better of me and I pass out.
Sunday 14th October
I'm woken by Andrey, the hostel manager who wants to know if I plan to stay tonight, since it's now 4.30 in the afternoon. I thank him, I don't plan to, and get cracking. Down at the station I discover that there are no available seats on trains to Dnepropetrovsk until tomorrow morning, so I book, text Alla, and head back to the hostel to check in for another night. Using Alla's guide, myself and Olivier then head downtown to get some food. In a canteen-style restaurant, we stuff ourselves full of excellent Ukrainian food for about 7 euros, bargain. We see some of the recommended sights, which are very impressive.
As we're walking up a hill in a park, I hear the sounds of an orchestra wafting towards me! I leg it up the hill, no way I'm missing this performance, but disappointment ensues when I reach the top: there's no orchestra, just some speakers. It seems its normal to play classical music in Ukrainian parks 😞
We cure the disappointment with an espresso from a pizza place and do some more sightseeing, the parliament and other bits of downtown. Then down to the jazz spot Andrey recommended (sadly the other folk at the hostel are too busy reading guidebooks about Ukraine to go and see Kyiv?!). Turns out his definition of jazz club differs from ours, because its a strip joint, and at 100 glivnas on the door, we decide to go elsewhere. Turns out there is no elsewhere, so we get some great kebabs and negotiate a taxi back to the hostel, which after much bargaining and posturing, I manage to get for 30 glivnas.
Then bed at about 1 am, after some bag packing, preparing for an early start to make tomorrows 7am train to DP!
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