My first journey to Ukraine in 2001 was a bit scary if I am really honest. I was going to a country I knew hardly anything about, even though the Cold War had finished over 10 years earlier.
I travelled to Kiev using Air France, which flys there via Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The journey was confortable and took about 3 hours. The arrival airport is called Borispol, which is on the edge of Kiev city, some 25 or so kilometres away from the centre.
When I arrived in Kiev centre I was bewildered by all the sights and sounds, the text is in Cyrillic, which made things a little more difficult to read at first, whereas in Western Europe it is much easier to work things out as the text is the same. This caused some problems as I could not understand what shop was what. I soon got over that though as I bought a book and worked out that the language uses a lot of phonetics in its letters. I found all the people in Kiev extremely friendly and polite and quick to help a foreign stranger.
The girls look absolutely fabulous. Much better than I originally thought. I had visions of girls like in the 1970's olympics, with moustaches and muscles, built up on steroids but how I was so wrong. It is amazing that you can walk down the street on the Khreshatik (the main street in Kiev) in the centre of Kiev and you see so many girls walking the streets that would look gorgeous on a catwalk in western europe. I cannot imagine that happening any where else on the planet.
One thing I noticed about fashion was the level of sophistication in clothing. I was expecting something a lot less, but everyone seemed to dressed very smartly, with all the latest fashion. The ladies seemed to be dressed very femininely and the men were dressed like men. No sign of anything in between.
The stories about the Kiev Metro are all true. Just like the one in Moscow, the Metro is full of marble and chandelliers. Not a sign of any vandelism or graffiti, not was there much sign of advertising flyers as you would see on an underground system like in London or New York. The cost of the Metro is very cheap too and is the usual way of getting from place to place by most people in Kiev. Alternatively it is not unusual to stick your hand out at the side of the road and be picked up by a passer by who will be glad to take you to your destination for a few Hrivniyas (the Ukraine currency). Make sure you haggle the price. If the price sounds high, wave them on and pick another driver, there are plenty of drivers willing to negotiate.
If you travel to the Southern Ukraine you will get to the Black Sea, which has several famous sea ports, such as Odessa and Sevastopol, the home of the Crimean War. Here you will find a treasure trove of history going back to the ancient greeks, complete with probably more buildings than Athens has. Going forward in history from the Mongolian Empire through to the 19th Century Battles where the famous 'Charge of the Light Brigade' took place, along with the works of the Great British Nurse, 'Florence Nightingale'. Famous for bringing nursing to the battlefields and civilian life. Crimea has so much history which, as yet, has mostly remained un-tapped by tourists from Western Europe and the rest of the world.
Anyone considering travelling to Ukraine will not be disappointed. It is such a great country with so much to see and offer. You will need a good two weeks just to touch the tip of the iceberg.
If you want to find out more I found a great site at www.go-ukraine.eu. They cover all aspects that I could even thing of about life in Ukraine, from Investments to Dating, Flight and Hotel Booking, Travel Guides, Timetables and a great new forum. When I contacted the site owner they were so helpful.
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