Ukraine V: More Kiev

Kiev is a very green city - I was told it's the city in the world with the highest percentage of area devoted to parks, forests, etc. It' s also a BIG place, officially some 3 million people - unofficially maybe double that. It is large in size as well, lots of places that would be considered "suburbs" in the west are within the city limit. I especially liked Mariyinsky park, which contains the famous "Lover's Bridge" and is flanked by the Lobanovsky Dinamo Kiev stadium on one side and the Presidential Palace (an 18th century baroque construction) and the Parliament on the other. Nice place for a walk, with views of the city and many of the suburbs - it gives you a feeling of the size of the place.

The suburbs and the river:






Along the Dniepr River there are sandy beaches and the Hidropark is reputedly a great place for picnics, family fun, etc (I didn't go, since I'm still afraid of being harpooned).




An outdoors amfitheatre in the park:




The presidential palace (Baroque) and the Parliament building (Neo-Stalinist):






The main street is called Khreschatyk, and it's got nice buildings, plenty of fairly modern stores and several nice cafes and restaurants. Ideal for people watching and getting a sense of the atmosphere of the city. It is still a place of great contrasts - most of the cars are surprisingly new, which my friend Natasha explained was due to the fact that only a couple of years ago Ukrainians discovered the concept of personal consumer loans. This led to an explosion in the number of cars, especially new & shiny ones on the streets of Kiev. There are, however still plenty of rusty, dirty old Ladas and the likes polluting the air.

There's also a decidedly generational gap in clothing and such. Most young people dress and behave like westerners (not always a good thing...) and cell phones are absolutely everywhere. On the other hand, you still see old ladies with their traditional headscarves, some of them begging on street corners. I don't usually encourage begging by giving, especially since there is absofuckinlutely no need for it in a country like Norway, or indeed any other place in western Europe but I feel somewhat more liberal towards it in a place like Ukraine. I was and remain all in favor of stomping out communism wherever it rears its ugly head, and the fall of the Soviet Union was one of the great victories of civilization (alongside victory in WW2 and the invention of soft toilet paper). Still, many ordinary people pretty much got their existence turned upside down in a very short time, and some saw a significant worsening of their living standards. Through no fault of their own they had been formed by an evil empire and had no way of coping with the new ways. The old women on the streets of Kiev are not the professional beggars or gypsy thieves who have turned begging into an industry in the West, they are people who have likely worked very hard all their lives but have now fallen on hard times. Spare them a thought, and if possible some change, mmmkay?


From Khreschatyk:








Some random Ukrainian babes along the street (in some of the touristy places there were actually people handing out brochures for "marriage companies"):