On the first night in Kyiv, we went to a small cafe/restaurant (whose name I forget) around the corner from our apartment. Was reasonably priced – two courses and drinks came to around £18, although it was a bit of a bugger getting the waitresses attention when needed.
On the second night, we ate at the apartment. We popped along to the local shop (Billa), about 8 minutes walk away from the apartment. We stocked up on veg, frozen pizzas, beer and salad dressing and brought the lot back. We then discovered the electric oven didn’t work and had to cook the pizzas in the microwave combo-oven, which meant that the top of the pizza was nicely done, but the bottom was a bit soft.
On the third night, Jennifer’s birthday, we went to a Japanese restaurant located in the subway leading up to the local Mandarin Plaza shopping centre. Kiyv has many subways and each one contains a multitude of small kiosks selling everything from DVDs to bras, food, knick-knacks, and goodness knows what else. Leading up to the main square, you can find an entire shopping centre underground. The restaurant was wonderfully small, but very attentive waitresses and the food was good. Several courses and two beers cost £15 for the lot.
The fourth night we ate at a local restaurant specialising in local Ukrainian dishes. It was the most expensive of all the restaurants, and the total bill didn’t add up properly (it was out only be several pounds and we deliberating whether to take the waitress to task over it, but in the end we decided just to pay and not leave a tip). Two courses and three beers cost £25 for the lot.
The final night we decided to eat back at the apartment. We popped along to the nearest hypermarket, a 20 minute walk from the apartment itself. We bought mushrooms (which we later read in the phrasebook not to buy due to possible contamination from Chernobyl, although the phrasebook said not to pick them or buy them from open markets – we assumed these ones were safe since (a) it was a hypermarket in which everybody and anybody used and (b) if the mushrooms were radioactive, surely the other locally grown produce would be as well) and a few other ingredients to make pasta and sauce. We also picked up some bread from the bakery which was fantastic.
On our last day we checked out of the apartment at 12pm and made our way to the central train and bus station. It’s a hodge-podge of minivans, buses, people and small market stalls. We dumped our luggage at the train station (it costs 12 grivna for a token and you need to specify a combination on the inside of the locker before you shut the door and insert the token. You’ll then use your combination to unlock and remove you luggage) and headed off back into town to see St. Michael’s Church.
The pavements were hazardous due to the late flurry of snow on Sunday and we were sliding about, very dangerously I might add, on the ice a good number of times. Another problem that you’ll encounter in Kyiv is that when the ice stalls melting from roofs, it tends to fall off without warning. I nearly came a cropper when a good chunk of ice fell from one of the roofs of a big apartment block. The people of Kyiv tend to rope off sections of the pavement to make people walk around the more hazardous areas where ice is likely to fall.
Got back to the bus station around a quarter to three to pick up our luggage and take the minibus back to the airport. It costs 30Hr per person and takes about 40 minutes.
The airport. This is where the problems started. First of all, you can’t check in until the display tells you that the flight is available to check in. The check-in desks themselves are located beyond Customs, so there’s no going back out once you’ve gone through. Our flight was delayed for four hours as Luton airport had closed due to snow. Wizz Air, however, neglected to tell us this. They told us only that there was a delay and that was it. We found out the reason from people with iPhones who were able to connect to the Internet. Due to the delay, Wizz Air gave us vouchers for refreshments we couldn’t use straight away as we’d got them when we checked in, and we’d already gone through customs at the time. They couldn’t be used at the Irish Bar, so a few of our fellow passengers collared an airport rep who arranged for us to go in small numbers back through security (surrendering our passports and having to rescan our carry-on baggage in each direction. We even had to scan our meals (a very expensive microwave dinner – ha!). We were given 70Hr to buy a meal. This got us a chicken kebab thing, some fries, coleslaw and a bottle of Coke. Better than nothing.
Speaking of security, there seems to be some inconsistency with the way security treats Ukrainians versus foreigners. We clearly saw security allow Ukrainians to pass through to airside carrying unfinished bottle of drinks. When a UK couple tried to do the same, they were told to ditch the drink. The security people also like to manhandle you, are very impatient, enjoy barking orders and generally being most unpleasant.
Our flight eventually left at 10:30pm, some four hours after it was supposed to. The flight itself was smooth, but spoilt by Ukrainian teenagers sitting in front playing up (and being shouted down by a fellow countryman at one point in which they soon shut up). These teenagers also were playing with their mobile phone during take-over, during the flight, and during landing. For some reason people don’t seem to understand what’s being said since on our flight into Kyiv, the woman passenger in front of us received a phone call during the actual landing. If the cabin crew were aware of this, they didn’t say anything.
When we arrived in Luton, it was too late to catch any connecting buses or trains back to Woking. Easybus, whom we used to get to Luton from London told us that we’d have to buy brand new tickets. There were no representatives from Wizz Air to help arrange ongoing travel (or even to use a phone to do so ourselves). We tried to check into the local Holiday Inn, but the Inn was full (SING: Little Donkey). As was the local Ibis. So we caught the Easybus back to London Victoria and tried to find a hotel there. No luck. The only one that may have been available would have been the Grovesnor, and at nearly £400 a night, that was right out. So from around 1am to 4:10am we spent a very very cold night sitting in the shopping precinct along Buckingham Palace Road. At 4:10 we hailed a taxi to take us to Waterloo Station and waiting there for the 5am train back to Woking.
We’re furious with Wizz Air for their failure to provide support when it was needed. You could argue that it should be Luton Airport that provides the support, since it was them that had shut for the four hours and delaying flights in and out. However, our payment and contract is with Wizz Air who have a duty of care. They are responsible for liasing with Luton. And it is Wizz Air for choosing to use Luton as their base. Needless to say, we’ll be writing to them about this.
