Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Weekend in Kiev

I went to Kiev for the weekend to pick up my girlfriend Anna who will stay with me for two weeks. I did not like Kiev as much as Kharkov because people there were not as pleasant. In Kiev I could feel how it is to be in a place were there is a big difference between rich and poor. Often people would try to 'cheat' us and three times we were followed through the streets by some very insistent beggars who would tell us strange stories.




On the train, from the window. Many small villages with no paving on the roads. I thought they looked amazing and one day I would like to make a trip to one of them.




This is the main street in Kiev and Anna is standing in the middle of it. On weekends they close that street for cars. That is a good idea because like most other streets in Kiev it is very broad and often when you need to cross a street you have to go underground. Going underground though could also be a surprising experience, occasionally we would run into a guy with a guitar and some kids and some flower-selling ladies having a party.




A building. Chandeliers in plastic cages. More married people outside in the cold. Behind that building is a similar building which is the 'water information center'. The center apparently is sponsored by the Danish Government Institute of Something and you have to pay 10 grivnas to get your water information.




Tourist stuff.




International art in Kiev. We saw this exact same piece in Newcastle some months ago. It shows some famous places in Newcastle.




We had breakfast at this theme restaurant with servants dressed in traditional Ukrainian clothes. I would think mostly tourists would go to a place like this but many locals also seemed to enjoy it. I can understand why because the food was excellent and cheap.




Tuborg 'own' this metro station.




One typical market.




Luckily we got lost and ended up in this place. It was a quite big part of the city where there were no people living yet but they were restoring all the building in this magnificent old Ukrainian style.

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