I visited Ukraine during my semester in Berlin, Germany. Ukraine was the second country I visited during my break in between my second and third semesters.

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Here is a description of my time in Ukraine:

 

I arrived in Kiev Borispol Airport at about 11:00 at night. I took an Uber to my Airbnb and the ride lasted around 40 minutes. The Uber was only $14 which I thought was quite cheap. My Airbnb host was waiting for me outside of the apartment and showed me how everything worked in the apartment. After she left, I settled in and went straight to bed.

 

The next morning, I woke up at 6:30, though this was not planned. I definitely wanted more sleep. I went grocery shopping at Billa. This is a grocery store that I was familiar with because there are Billas in Austria. Billa in Austria is rather expensive but it was certainly not in Ukraine. I got 10 eggs, 3 bananas, a load of bread, salami, noodles, jar of Bolognese sauce, noodles, crackers, and a chocolate bar for $7. This was all the food I ate for 3 days... all for $7. Crazy. My Airbnb was located right off one of the main shopping streets in Kiev. I could tell immediately that the people in Kiev care a lot about how they dress. I definitely got some looks with my Adidas sweatpants and tennis shoes. I got back to my Airbnb and made my breakfast. After breakfast, I began exploring. I had a list of 7 sights that I wanted to see and plugged them all into Google Maps. I was able to see everything on foot which was fantastic. Not only good exercise, but also more opportunities to see more of the city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can see why Kiev is nicknamed the city of Golden Domes. I visited some of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. I did have to pay for a ticket to get into Saint Sophia's Cathedral but the ticket ended up only being $.80. Below are the beautiful churches that I visited.

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          St. Michael's Monastery                                       St. Sophia's Cathedral                                      St. Andrew's Church                           

 

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St. Volodymyr's Cathedral

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I also went through Landscape Alley. This is a park that displays abstract art- mainly mosaic focused. The art is integrated into seating areas and playground equipment. Though quite bizarre, I found the mosaic work to be very interesting and beautiful.

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One thing I noticed about Kiev is that the whole city is very hilly. My gosh some of these hills were so steep and so long. I do not know how people walk up these every day to go to school/work/home. Also, my Russian knowledge came in handy. I could read almost everything on signs and shops. I could also understand a bit when listening to people speak. Ukrainian has a few different letters than Russian and also different words but I managed just fine. I heard absolutely no English or German when I was in Kiev... purely Slavic languages. I was super tired after exploring so I took a two hour nap, made dinner, and then planned my adventures for the next day.

 

The next morning, I woke up and had my breakfast. I left around 9:30 to begin exploring. I had 4 sights to see but these were farther away than the sights from yesterday. My first stop was the Mariyinsky Palace. The gorgeous turquoise color of the palace was so pretty. I also walked through a wonderful park to get to the palace. Second stop was the Kiev Pechersk Lavra which is an Orthodox Christian Monastery and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This was my favorite site that I visited in Kiev. The monastery itself is stunning. The golden domes were shining in the sun- simply incredible to see. The Lavra Bell Tower is situated right next to the monastery. I think that the ticket I bought was only good for exploring the grounds. I figured that I would just go inside the bell tower and see if I could get access to the tower. The lady who was working did not even look at my ticket and just said please in Ukrainian and waved me up. I had a wonderful view of the whole monastery and also of Kiev from the bell tower.

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                    Kiev Pechersk Lavra                               View from Lavra Bell Tower                      Kiev Pechersk Lavra

 

My third stop was the Motherland Monument. This was situated in their World War II memorial. The sculptures at the memorial felt extremely Soviet and reminded me of the Ernst Thälmann monument in Berlin, who was a KPD leader murdered in the Holocaust. After exploring around this park/memorial, my last sight- Saint Nicholas's Catholic Cathedral was a 53 minute walk away. I was not bothered by this at all. This Cathedral certainly did not look as pretty as the Orthodox Cathedrals but was still very nice to see.

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                      Motherland Monument                                                                                St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Cathedral

 

After a long day of exploring, I went back to my Airbnb, had dinner, Facetimed my mom and one of my good friends from college.

 

That was my last full day in Kiev. The next morning, I woke up, had a quick breakfast and took an Uber to the airport. The Uber dropped me off at the airport and I headed to the Departure signs to see which gate I needed to go to for my Visa Check. I did not see my flight on the sign at all. I started to freak out a bit because I do have an experience with booking the wrong flight. I went to the information desk and asked where my flight was. They said that I was in the wrong terminal and told me to take the shuttle bus from Terminal D to Terminal F. This was my fault for not checking which terminal I was flying from. I took the shuttle bus to Terminal F and everything was fine. I had no problems at security or border control. When waiting for my flight, the national club soccer team of Ukraine was also waiting for a flight. Everyone was going up to them and asking to take pictures and get their signatures. These guys had no significance to me but I guess it was kind of cool to be in the presence of famous people. The boarding process in Kiev airport was extremely chill. Everyone just casually lined up, walked straight out onto the runway and boarded the plane. There were no announcements made and we did not have to board a bus to get to the plane. I think this really helped with the congestion that happens when boarding. I was probably the only American on my flight. I also did not see any Germans. It was only Ukrainians. I was a bit surprised by this.

 

In conclusion, I absolutely loved my time in Kiev! I had no idea what to expect but I was amazed by the beauty of the city. I would go back to Kiev and next time, I would like to take a tour of Chernobyl.