We’ve just come back from our 5 day trip to Kyiv (or to use the Russian: Kiev) in the Ukraine. We flew out on Wizz Air, the Hungarian low-budget airline, via Luton and into Boryspil, a good few kilometers out of the city. We got picked up by a driver from UArent after waiting for a bit as (a) the flight was delayed and (b) he had turned up in the wrong place, apparently, and had to make his way back to the Arrivals hall at the airport.
We had a very pleasant drive which took us through the forest and into the outskirts of the city. We stopped off for some petrol (around 50p a gallon – one of the advantages of being so close to Russia, I guess) and went onwards into the city and to our apartment (which can be seen here).
The apartment itself was extremely comfortable, warm, and had plenty of ventilation as and when required. Entrance from the street takes you into a lift up to the fourth floor and through a steel security door (see this picture). From there, you’re presented with a 2″ steel front door that then leads to another door and then you’re inside. So security here is excellent.
The 42″ Plasma TV was addictive and had a few English channels to choose from (although mainly Ukrainian and Russian programming, there were a few Discovery channels to pick from and the essential BBC World, CNN and Euronews). The kitchen was well equipped, but the electric oven didn’t seem to work (although the gas hobs did) and the microwave/combo oven is all in Cyrillic. Thankfully Jennifer managed to interpret the buttons and we could eat shop bought food. I would have liked to have seen a tea towel too – the overhead drying rack isn’t particularly hygienic with stale water clogging up the drip tray. But this is a small quibble and we made do just fine.
The bed was very comfortable, and the bathroom a very good shower- hot and plenty of water pressure. The washing machine was highly convenient, although the soap/liquid tray had to be cleaned out a bit due to too much crap clogging it up (probably because previous renters had been using too much powder).
In terms of location, the apartment is in easy walking distance to the local food shop, Billa. There are a number of restaurants close by too – including TGI Friday. Shopping for food is inexpensive and beer especially so. You can expect to pay around 50-70p per bottle of local and imported beer depending on brand. We tried several, including this one and found them to be of excellent quality.
Getting around Kyiv was easy, although signage (even in Cyrillic) was surprisingly absent. The Metro costs just 14p for one blue token that gives you one ride. Kyiv has some the deepest underground stations in the world, and it can take 5 minutes to ride up and down the escalators. The Russian influence in the station design is obvious, but there is plenty of room for everybody which is just as well – even during the day the Metro is absolutely packed and we were wondering where everybody was coming from!
In part two, I’ll detail our visits, eating out, and getting back to the UK. In the mean time, all photos of our visit can be found here on my Picasa album.
