Thursday 12 April 2012

Kiev - the city center

Today is city rally day. In the company of my awesome tour guide and other 3 Ukrainians we are ready to discover the beauties of Kiev. Or maybe I should say, of the enormous city center.


First, we try out the metro. As I come to discover during the day, Kiev has very deep metro stations. I used the deepest one and I think it took us something like 5 minutes to reach the platform (from the surface).

Our first stop was the riverside, and the view of the island Truhaniv. Then we started walking and seeing one sight after the other - they are too many so I attach a photo of the map I have, where I marked what we saw:(photo coming soon)

One of the first things I noticed is how enormously big almost all monuments are. They are huge. It's like making something less than big won't make the appropriate impact on people.

It is ironic how the monuments are placed - in one side you have churches and just beside them monuments of war and tanks and other war equipment placed in rows. I also learned that Ukrainians like to make monuments for everything - whether that something is an important incident or not.

Also noticed quite a few Japanese restaurants - and also posters of j-rock bands. It seems that Japanese culture is popular among Ukrainians, as well as rock music. The most famous bands are of that genre and at least the besties here listen a lot to it.

I found the city very beautiful. There is a lot to see and you can follow the history of the city and the country by watching and learning about the monuments. There are a lot of parks (and I guess you know already that I love parks) as well as churches.

But the day wasn't just a city rally. In the evening I had the chance to visit the salsa bar Casa Cubana, where there was a swing party. I saw and danced a bit! swing for the first time. It's quite different from the Latin dances that I have been used to, but also very interesting. The basic steps need some time getting used to, but I saw that a lot of the more advanced moves resembled salsa L.A.

There are plans about a Latin party next week. I am very curious to see how the Latin dance scene is here in Kiev - the level and style of the dancers. Let's see how it goes!

2 comments: