Digenis.org

Today should be my last day in Kyiv. I’m schedulded to pick up my passport and visa at the Russian consulate this afternoon and I’ve already purchased my return ticket to Moscow. I’ve really enjoyed my time here, but to be honest I’m ready to go back home; six days is more than enough time to see what needs to be seen in Kyiv.

Arriving on Saturday morning was a great idea. We took the metro to Khreschatik, which is like the Tverskaya ulitsa of Kyiv, to look for a suitable place for coffee and brunch. I’m glad that my first impression of Kyiv’s downtown was formed on a Saturday morning, when Khreschatik is closed to all traffic and turned into a giant pedestrian street. Coffeeshop verandas are so much more enjoyable when you don’t have the sound of cars whizzing by you. Sadly, as Neeka has been documenting, even Khreschatik is not immune to the sidewalk parkers.

Kyiv gives you the strange feeling of being in Russia, but not being in Russia at the same time. On one hand you walk around the streets and hear the people -who are distinctly Slavic, by the way- speaking Russian amongst themselves. Text is all in Cyrillic around you and it even causes you to giggle under your breath when you see things like ???????? or ?????. Then there’s the impression that the city yearns to be part of the West, but it can’t get away from it’s common history with Russia.

I plan on posting an entry about the Ukrainian language when I get back to Moscow, but for now let me just say how surprised I was at the amount of Russian that’s being spoken here. I would have expected it had I travelled to the Donets region, but I had been told that especially in Kyiv there was a movement to restore pride in the Ukrainian language… And I suppose there is; streetnames and advertisements are generally in Ukrainian but everyone around me seems to be speaking Russian. At least that meant that I could get around easier.

Having come from Moscow, Kyiv seems like a small city. In reality, its population is 2.5 million, which is quite larger than any American city where I’ve lived. I stayed in several places around the center and I feel quite confident that I could navigate my way around the streets blindfolded by now. Having only one specific task (applying for my new visa) this week left a lot of time for exploring and seeing the sights. Maidan Nezalezhnosti was pretty cool, and of course reminded me of Okhotny Ryad in Moscow. Andreevsky Spusk wasn’t as impressive as everyone people claimed it to be, and the funicular not far from it was also a bust. The Kyivan cave monasteries were worth seeing and there was even some Medovy Spas festivities going around the area.

The subway system in Kyiv was also quite easy to get around on. It’s much smaller than the Moscow metro, of course, and much cheaper too; here you can get 10 ride-tokens for about 1 dollar. Dirt cheap.

Much more to say, but time has already run out. I’ll write more about my impression of Kyiv, its restaurants and cafes, and the Ukrainian language when I get back to Moscow.