Travelling to Kiev, Ukraine
Ancient culture meets Soviet nostalgia and high fashion in the streets of Kiev, Ukraine.
St. Andrew’s Descent, a rough, cobbled street linking Kiev’s Upper Town to the Podil historical commercial area, is a curious mixture of fine art, cheap souvenirs and military memorabilia. This short street exemplifies the variety, cultural richness and charm of this ancient capital of Ukraine, a country that gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
On St. Andrew’s, stores selling original paintings and fine jewelry face street stalls where painted eggs and colourful wooden matryoshka nesting dolls clutter the shelves. Other stalls resemble a war surplus supply dump, with Soviet military uniforms, belts, badges, gas masks, night goggles, Lenin medals, Russian officers’ watches, even a space helmet. The oversized military hats are familiar from historical photos of May Day parades in Moscow’s Red Square.
“Big buildings and big hats. The Soviets liked to show how powerful they were,” notes a local college girl surveying the wares. I see what she means. Wandering Kiev for a week, I happen on numerous examples of severe Stalinist architecture. But in this city of stark contrasts, I also find ancient, golden-domed Ukrainian Baroque cathedrals, deluxe hotels and name-brand boutiques, glittering features of modern capitalism.
Anja Siljak, a Croatian woman now living in Denmark who I meet at an open-air museum, tells me that Kiev is different from other former Soviet cities. “It is not as Soviet as Belgrade or Warsaw,” the teacher says as we wander among the tanks and cannons of the museum commemorating what’s referred to locally as the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). “They have many more coloured houses than Bosnia or Serbia.”
As an eastern European tourist, Anja gives me a different perspective of the city. The attitude is different here from western Europe, she says: “The people are not so service-minded. In the West, you have to smile, but here they can be gruff.” Anja harbours a curious nostalgia for Soviet times that I find among some eastern Europeans. She produces a red star lapel pin she bought at a street stall, insisting, “It is not nostalgia, but it is interesting to me.”
Despite its Soviet past, I find the city has its own unique, lively character and often quirky aspects. The monumental Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) and looming, neo-classical Stalinist blocks lining Khreschatyk Street, the main thoroughfare, recall the grim Soviet era. Yet just steps away, The Passage, a small, narrow western-European-style street, hosts the vanguard of conspicuous consumption, with Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Bally, Salvatori Ferragamo, Burberry and other stylish designer shops.
On warm-weather weekends, broad Khreschatyk becomes a pedestrian zone. Entertainment, like the city itself, is part retro, part modern. Families and couples stroll the broad sidewalks while men line up to hit a circus-midway-type punching bag. Statuesque young women in short shorts or skirts strut along in stiletto heels while men in various cartoon animal costumes pose for photographs – for a fee. Keen teens practice break-dancing routines with various degrees of talent, while a three-piece band attempts “Hotel California” and a violinist plays the classics. A choir in traditional costume of red boots and embroidered blouses sings Ukrainian songs, an old gent colourfully clad in a Cossack outfit strums folk tunes on a stringed instrument called a bandura and a bagpiper provides ethnic entertainment from a different culture.
And along a side street, I find a piece of local whimsy, a statue of a chair riding a bicycle. This is what I like best about Kiev: its little absurdities, its street art. Over a few days of wandering, I find “Street Lamps in Love” (elongated comic figures sitting on a bench) and “The Flying Cow” sprawled in a dead tree. Numerous wooden chairs rest in the branches of a tree in Independence Square, while elsewhere are monuments to a startled hedgehog sitting on a stump, a bronze cat and Forky, a kitten made of hundreds of disposable plastic forks. A life-size bronze statue of a famous fictional thief/pickpocket stands on a downtown street. Perhaps fittingly, someone has stolen his cane.
This distinctive art is Kiev’s unique and endearing response to its often gloomy past.
Weather
Kiev has a humid, continental climate with cold winters (down to -20 C) and very hot summers (up to 35 C). Average January temperatures are -7 C while June, July and August have mean temperatures of 14 C to 25 C
Best bed
The centrally located Hyatt Regency is a shiny glass block of modernism among old Kiev buildings. Spacious rooms boast every convenience. Doubles from US$290. kiev.regency.hyatt.com
Best meal
While the staff at O’Panas (O’Nahac in Cyrillic) wear traditional costume and the decor is Ukrainian rustic, this is not just a tourist spot but a local favourite. 10 Tereshchenkivska, Taras Shevchenko Park
Can't miss
Kyivo-Pechers’ka Lavra, the “Rome” of Orthodox Christianity, a sprawling complex of churches with Ukrainian Baroque architecture, features golden domes, towers, caves and museums. A short subway and bus ride from the city centre
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