Kiev is not all Soviet-y

I’ll admit I thought Kiev would be a lot uglier than it is. Actually, it’s a nice looking city, with hideous spots and beautiful spots alike.

Yes, there are some Soviet monstrosities of buildings that make up the streetscape. But there are also some really cool-looking Soviet buildings, built to a massive scale, unlike anything we’ve seen before.

There are many beautiful pre-soviet European buildings, too, just like you’d find in Prague or Budapest or Vienna. And there are modern, post-Soviet glass buildings, too.

Kiev is a city of layers, each of which coincides with its complicated recent history, which makes it interesting if you have even a passing interest in architecture. Even casual observers (aka us) can spot the distinctive styles of different buildings, and pinpoint them to a point in time in Ukraine’s history.

There’s a Great Coffee and Craft Beer Scene
There are awesome coffee shops everywhere. We’ve yet to have a bad cappuccino, and for the most part, we’ve been able to get delicious specialty coffees for around US$1.15 / CDN$1.50.

The coffee budget goes far in Kiev, and the same goes for beer. There are loads of mass-produced Ukranian beers — pilsners and lagers, mostly — that is not bad and can be had for $2 for a 0.5 Litre glass in a bar (and much cheaper in a supermarket). Add to that, there’s a growing craft beer scene of microbreweries and local producers.

What we found when we arrived in Kiev (and Lviv, from where I write this) is anything but the insanity the Internet warned of. While it’s true that many people don’t speak English, most people speak a few words of English. When you combine this with the few words of Ukranian we’ve learned, and our efforts to learn the alphabet (which actually isn’t that hard), we’ve gotten by just fine. When necessary, we’ve found Google Translate’s translate via photo function is especially helpful trying to decipher a few words at a time.

And say what you will about Uber, but being able to do everything from an app (at least in Kiev, the only city with Uber so far), in our own language, completely changes travel: no more gesturing; handing taxi drivers an address that, for some reason, they never seem to know; getting taken for a ride to run up the meter, or fighting over change. In addition to Uber, we took the metro in Kiev a few times, which was also quite user-friendly. Complete story here

You’ll get ripped off by taxi drivers in Kiev, for sure!

No one speaks English, so if you don’t speak Ukrainian or Russian, good luck!

There are scammers everywhere!

Train travel is disorganized and crazy!

It makes me very upset when I read bloggers who like to bash anyone anything! You will get ripped off by taxi’s, really all cab drivers try to make the most money they can.

No matter what city you are in. If you take a taxi from the airport to the city center it will cost about $18 to $20 for a 40-minute ride not bad. No one speaks English? Again wrong, most places you go in Kiev bar, cafe, shopping a few employees will speak English. Scammers everywhere ya if you take a tour from an online Ukraine dating site!! The train travel is very organized I have never had a problem. I think these posts were written by some bitter people.

 I would like to take anyone on a tour of Kiev and let them tell me it was not safe or they did not have a good time. The food is very good the people are friendly and the beer is some of the best I have tasted.

Chateau is a great place to go and it is open 24 hours another is Naturlih beer from around the world here. Now a lot of cafes and pubs are making their own beer. Be careful Ukraine beer can go as high as 20{77d98b13d243b44f31c75ad84883e5d111de0b8c49265fea6922cba70cebec2f} alcohol, it is so sweet tasting you would not know it. I have visited many places to eat and drink and have had not one bad experience. If you want to plan a trip to Ukraine to meet some beautiful women come with me to Ukraine. If you would like a tour of this beautiful place, write me and we can discuss it.