Kiev 17-19 November
Traffic in Kiev cures atheism says my travel guide (Bradt). There is some truth in that even if I must day traffic Lviv was even worse (so I should have been cured before). They do drive more on the pavements (sidewaks) in Kiev than in Lviv, but the reasons are that in Lviv the sidewalks are very narrow and in addition there are so many and deep holes in them that you can't drive there at all!!!!!
I went by bus from Uman to Kiev. In my nice hotel in Uman they served no breakfast, but when I had eaten my dry sandwhiches and drunk some mango juice, the hotel staff had made a table with some twenty dishes celebrating that one of them were getting merried. I think I was the only guest so they (8 females!) invited me to join them. That was very nice of them and I even got a marriage proposal.
Jag vill inte hanga ut dem pa engelska for det finns ju en risk att nagon hittar det har pa natet. Men vi gjorde ocksa av med tva flaskor vodka till frukost. Men jag tror att det tom for dem var lite extra for de hade flaskorna pa golvet sa de inte skuller synas. Forsta gangen jag har druckit alkohol till frukost tror jag (hm lucia firande is skolan och glogg ar kanske undantag, men sannerligen har jag aldrig druckit tre rejala vodka till frukost nagon gang.
The bus trip to Kiev was without drama. Landscape quite the same, but a bit more forest and a small lake or pond now and then. In Kiev my organic friend Eugene Milovanov met me. He had booked hotel and he drove me there, but first we had lunch in a moder Ukrainian fast-food place which was extremely packed with people. Good food. My hotel was at the Khrestchatik street which is the main high street in Kiev. The whole area was destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt in a tasteful modern way: Not all Soviet architecture was bad, I must say this was much better than what they build in Sweden at the same time period.
(this internet caf'e in Uman is really quite weird. They are open 24 hours per day and seem to be a centre for hip hop and very often there is Swedish hip hop on VERY high volume throbbing in my ear. And some guys dance behind my back. Bit difficult to concentrate)
I was driven to one of the main tourist sites in Kiev, the "cave monastery", which is a very big are og churches, temples etc. I went into the caves where the relics of many famous ortodox priests and saints are, including glass sarkofags with the whole bodies. It was a bit of a strange feeling to walk there as all others seemed to be devoted Ortodox, kissing the objects etc. I did my best to look wholy and serious. Caves are not to recommend for those that are claustrophobic. But the whole area is very beautiful and a nice place to visit.
From them I ventured into the Metro of Kiev. It is the deepest in the world. You see no end of the escalators and some people sit. I was told it goes 120 meter down. The main station (where my hotel was) was also said to be the biggest metro station in the world and I have no reason to doubt that!. Later on I also tried to trams and some buses. A tram tour on a central line, just going the whole round is one of my favourite ways to explore a new city.
In the evening Eugene hosted me for another meal, in a very nice 1920 style theme restaurant.
Eugene is the chairperson of the Organic Federation of Ukraine and is involved in all aspects of organic from Production to Policy and markets. Organic is quite big in Ukraine when one look into hectares. Unfortunately there is basically no domestic market developed as yet. Eugene is also involved in an organic arable farm of 50 000 hectares, the biggest in the world, which I will visit later on during my trip.
He says I am his hero for going alone by bike in Ukraine, but he was also a bit upset that I hadn't contacted him before as he could have helped me also in the other places I been. I tried to explain that I didn't want to bother him and in the end I was more on a kind of indidivualistic trip than a social one. Eugene really spoilt me with all his arrangements in Kiev the first and the last day. Having been on the road for a while it can be a bit nice to be spoilt - even a stubborn-quasi-macho-guy like me can admit that. Thanks again Eugene!
In Kiev I also went to the Opera and saw some balet to Strauss music (Strauss is not really my favorite classical music, but that was on offer), mainly for the atmosphere and the people. I bought a ticket for 13 euro, there were tickets from 1.3 Euros up to 26 Euro - very cheap. Eugene took me to an open air architecture museum, where they collected a very impressing number of buildings from all parts of Ukraine. Very well done.
Chernobyl
I had planned to visit Chernobyl and made arrangement with a tour agency. You need special permits etc. In the end the other participants pulled out so I had the choice of paying more than 500 dollars for an individual tour, which I found a bit much to pay for getting depressed, there are cheaper ways. I did visit the Chernobyl museum. The picture above show some of the signs for the villages that have been evacuated in the zone around the reactor - more than 200 villages have been evacuated. The museum was fairly interesting, and very touching so see all the things belonging to people that died, pictures of all the children with leukemia etc. It didn't have what I was looking for, the effects on Nature. I am interested in how has wild life been affected. Are there more mutations, new species, disturbed reproduction etc? Of course there are now two different factors affecting the wild life: the radioactivity and the fact that the area is evacuated. It is de facto and Natural Reserve, even if I am not sure they call it like that.
Kiev and the origin of Russia and Ukraine
This is a highly politicised topic so whatever you write somebody will say you are wrong, and perhaps there is nor ONE simple truth. Anyway the main story (that is to the liking of a Swede) is that the Slav tribes living in the area around Kiev, had some weaknesses re organisation and cooperation and they asked some vikings to come and be their ruler and establish law and order. And so they did. And Kiev is counted as the centre not only for Ukrainia but for the whole of Russia.
Summing up Kiev
There are plenty of old things to see in Kiev, but don't make the mistake to believe it is a museum city. It is actually a very modern city and a booming business place. It is also a beautiful city. I think you can find anything you want there, including food from all over the world and the latest fashion.
I overheard some Americans complaining that Kiev was much more expensive than Washington when it comes to housing. Costs in general are very high in Kiev. If you go to the places where foreigners mostly go or the "in" Ukrainian places, food appears to be as expensive as Copenhagen (and that is a lot!). But there is a bit of parallel world still with some things being fairly cheap, e.g. the subway tickets had just increased from 6 Eurocent to 25 Eurocent, which is till like one tenth of the price in Stockholm. All the museums also have low entry fees. Hotels are not cheap. The difference in cost level between Kiev and the countryside is really very high.
I went by bus from Uman to Kiev. In my nice hotel in Uman they served no breakfast, but when I had eaten my dry sandwhiches and drunk some mango juice, the hotel staff had made a table with some twenty dishes celebrating that one of them were getting merried. I think I was the only guest so they (8 females!) invited me to join them. That was very nice of them and I even got a marriage proposal.
Jag vill inte hanga ut dem pa engelska for det finns ju en risk att nagon hittar det har pa natet. Men vi gjorde ocksa av med tva flaskor vodka till frukost. Men jag tror att det tom for dem var lite extra for de hade flaskorna pa golvet sa de inte skuller synas. Forsta gangen jag har druckit alkohol till frukost tror jag (hm lucia firande is skolan och glogg ar kanske undantag, men sannerligen har jag aldrig druckit tre rejala vodka till frukost nagon gang.
The bus trip to Kiev was without drama. Landscape quite the same, but a bit more forest and a small lake or pond now and then. In Kiev my organic friend Eugene Milovanov met me. He had booked hotel and he drove me there, but first we had lunch in a moder Ukrainian fast-food place which was extremely packed with people. Good food. My hotel was at the Khrestchatik street which is the main high street in Kiev. The whole area was destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt in a tasteful modern way: Not all Soviet architecture was bad, I must say this was much better than what they build in Sweden at the same time period.
(this internet caf'e in Uman is really quite weird. They are open 24 hours per day and seem to be a centre for hip hop and very often there is Swedish hip hop on VERY high volume throbbing in my ear. And some guys dance behind my back. Bit difficult to concentrate)
I was driven to one of the main tourist sites in Kiev, the "cave monastery", which is a very big are og churches, temples etc. I went into the caves where the relics of many famous ortodox priests and saints are, including glass sarkofags with the whole bodies. It was a bit of a strange feeling to walk there as all others seemed to be devoted Ortodox, kissing the objects etc. I did my best to look wholy and serious. Caves are not to recommend for those that are claustrophobic. But the whole area is very beautiful and a nice place to visit.
From them I ventured into the Metro of Kiev. It is the deepest in the world. You see no end of the escalators and some people sit. I was told it goes 120 meter down. The main station (where my hotel was) was also said to be the biggest metro station in the world and I have no reason to doubt that!. Later on I also tried to trams and some buses. A tram tour on a central line, just going the whole round is one of my favourite ways to explore a new city.
In the evening Eugene hosted me for another meal, in a very nice 1920 style theme restaurant.
Eugene is the chairperson of the Organic Federation of Ukraine and is involved in all aspects of organic from Production to Policy and markets. Organic is quite big in Ukraine when one look into hectares. Unfortunately there is basically no domestic market developed as yet. Eugene is also involved in an organic arable farm of 50 000 hectares, the biggest in the world, which I will visit later on during my trip.
He says I am his hero for going alone by bike in Ukraine, but he was also a bit upset that I hadn't contacted him before as he could have helped me also in the other places I been. I tried to explain that I didn't want to bother him and in the end I was more on a kind of indidivualistic trip than a social one. Eugene really spoilt me with all his arrangements in Kiev the first and the last day. Having been on the road for a while it can be a bit nice to be spoilt - even a stubborn-quasi-macho-guy like me can admit that. Thanks again Eugene!
In Kiev I also went to the Opera and saw some balet to Strauss music (Strauss is not really my favorite classical music, but that was on offer), mainly for the atmosphere and the people. I bought a ticket for 13 euro, there were tickets from 1.3 Euros up to 26 Euro - very cheap. Eugene took me to an open air architecture museum, where they collected a very impressing number of buildings from all parts of Ukraine. Very well done.
Chernobyl
I had planned to visit Chernobyl and made arrangement with a tour agency. You need special permits etc. In the end the other participants pulled out so I had the choice of paying more than 500 dollars for an individual tour, which I found a bit much to pay for getting depressed, there are cheaper ways. I did visit the Chernobyl museum. The picture above show some of the signs for the villages that have been evacuated in the zone around the reactor - more than 200 villages have been evacuated. The museum was fairly interesting, and very touching so see all the things belonging to people that died, pictures of all the children with leukemia etc. It didn't have what I was looking for, the effects on Nature. I am interested in how has wild life been affected. Are there more mutations, new species, disturbed reproduction etc? Of course there are now two different factors affecting the wild life: the radioactivity and the fact that the area is evacuated. It is de facto and Natural Reserve, even if I am not sure they call it like that.
Kiev and the origin of Russia and Ukraine
This is a highly politicised topic so whatever you write somebody will say you are wrong, and perhaps there is nor ONE simple truth. Anyway the main story (that is to the liking of a Swede) is that the Slav tribes living in the area around Kiev, had some weaknesses re organisation and cooperation and they asked some vikings to come and be their ruler and establish law and order. And so they did. And Kiev is counted as the centre not only for Ukrainia but for the whole of Russia.
Summing up Kiev
There are plenty of old things to see in Kiev, but don't make the mistake to believe it is a museum city. It is actually a very modern city and a booming business place. It is also a beautiful city. I think you can find anything you want there, including food from all over the world and the latest fashion.
I overheard some Americans complaining that Kiev was much more expensive than Washington when it comes to housing. Costs in general are very high in Kiev. If you go to the places where foreigners mostly go or the "in" Ukrainian places, food appears to be as expensive as Copenhagen (and that is a lot!). But there is a bit of parallel world still with some things being fairly cheap, e.g. the subway tickets had just increased from 6 Eurocent to 25 Eurocent, which is till like one tenth of the price in Stockholm. All the museums also have low entry fees. Hotels are not cheap. The difference in cost level between Kiev and the countryside is really very high.
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