Flying visit to Kyiv!

At the beginning of November this year I was lucky enough to visit the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. I was of course even luckier to be visiting with my girlfriend, a native of the city, which meant I was able to get the most out of the very short time we were there. Kyiv is closer to Vienna than London is, so the flight time is just over an hour and a half. In my head it always seemed much further away, it's funny how one's perception of distance seems permanently affected by where you grew up! We arrived in Kyiv after a fast (900 km/h due to tailwind!) but extremely cramped WizzAir flight, landing in what I am informed was typical late autumn/early winter weather: clear air and sunshine until a few hundred metres from the ground, followed by a thick layer of low-lying cloud that blocked out almost all of the rapidly fading afternoon sunshine, leaving the ground level a misty grey

That evening we just went for a short stroll around the neighbourhood where we were staying, in the central district of Kyiv. Of course, the central part of Kyiv is about 4 times the size of the centre of Vienna, if not more. Although it was dark, I was still impressed by the sheer size of the buildings, the width of the streets, and the up-and-down hills lending a very 3D feel to the city, something I always like in a place. We strolled through the very quiet streets and ate at an excellent Asian restaurant before returning to await the most important and fluffiest guest of the holiday: my girlfriend's husky, who still lives in (or in her own opinion, rules over) Kyiv, and who I was excited (though a little nervous) to meet. Aurora (the husky) arrived around 10pm and was indeed excited to see us, though also confused that her usual caretakers were missing from the flat where she lived. She is as beautiful and demanding as the stories foretold, and certainly not above a good night-time face licking when she thinks it will get her what she wants...

The next day I was feeling a little under the weather and my girlfriend had to accomplish numerous beaureaucratic tasks, so I didn't really do much in the way of leaving the house, although I did make the most of my holiday time by finally reading an excellent book, Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge. However, I did make exceptions for the main reason for my visit: ukrainian food! At lunchtime I enjoyed a borshch (the ukrainian version features meat as well as beetroot) and sampled a small bit of Olivier salad (which is salad if salad means "mayonnaise and potato dish", and also v tasty). In the evening we travelled to a large restaurant designed to look like a traditional ukrainian building, complete with massive thatched roof. There I was able to sample a much greater selection of delicacies: salo (thin slices of pork fat with onion, garlic and other condiments), holubtsi (delicious minced meat wrapped in cabbage cooked in a tomato-y broth, my favourite), deruny (potato pancakes), a real chicken Kiev (actual chicken meat not that paste you get from the freezer aisle), and cherry varenyky (sweet cherry filled dumplings, in the chinese sense of the word dumpling). All while being serenaded by a trio of "cossacks" including one man who could make actual bird tweeting sounds by whistling between his teeth. Anyway, in summary: the food was very very good, and I am sad that most of it probably takes at least 4 hours to make so its difficult to cook at home.

On our second and final day in Kyiv I was feeling much better and we set out on an epic sightseeing dog-walk through the centre of the city, which ended up being around 15km or so. The best place to see all the indivdual places we walked past is in this gallery, I think it's best if I just give my general impressions here or this will go on forever! The main thing that hit me is that Kyiv is very big. I don't just mean that it goes on forever, although that was brought home to me looking out from the hills above the Dnieper and realising that the buildings on the horizon were still the same city. No, I mean everything is big. The streets are often six lanes wide and the buildings are twice the height or more of those in Vienna. The general effect is one of toggling a zoom button on the cities I have seen elsewhere in europe, but because everything is bigger in proportion, it doesn't look out of place. We saw innumerable landmarks on our stroll, from the many golden domes of the cathedrals, to the vast triumphal-arch-like foreign ministry to the more modern, actual friendship arch. Throughout it all the beauty but also the variety of the architecture was apparent, as well as the continuing multi-levelled nature of the streets and buildings on the various hills. One final special mention goes to the funicular, which had beautiful stations and fantastic 60s (or 60s-esque) cars with rounded fronts and headlights.

Really, the best thing is to follow this link and see for yourself!

bis bald,

der Tom