Kiev, Ukraine
Kiev? Who thinks of going to Kiev? Where even is Kiev? Well, I think of going to Kiev, and it’s the capitol of Ukraine! I was really interested in seeing a lot of eastern Europe and this was about as far east as I could get.
It took quite a while to get there, but eventually I made it! I checked into my hostel and then went to put my name on the list at a famous Ukrainian restaurant called Kanapa. They didn’t have immediate availability, so to kill some time I went to a local brewery to try some Ukrainian beer! I got a flight and it came to around $6! Everything so far was super cheap. It was great.
I walked around the area near the restaurant a little and found St. Andrews Church at the top of a hill. It was so beautiful! The teal colors with the gold made it look so regal. I also saw a double decker bus that had been converted to a coffee shop and a huge mural on the side of a building.
When the table was ready at Kanapa, I sat down and ordered a bread basket and a garlic butter candle! The candle was made of butter so as it melted, you dipped your bread in the melted butter. For my main course, I ordered chicken kiev, except it wasn’t chicken, it was pheasant. Turns out pheasant tastes and feels just like chicken. Inside the pheasant was a creamy dill sauce and it was served with mashed potatoes. I had a glass of regional Ukrainian wine to round out the meal! Dessert was a must, of course. I got this cake that had crunchy layers with buttercream icing in the middle. It was a little like cardboard with icing but hey it was a local dessert so I had to give it a try.
The next morning, I went to a cafe called Bali Bowl where I got a mango bowl with kiwi, strawberries, and coconut. After breakfast, I headed to the meeting point for the tour of Ancient Kiev. On the tour, I saw Independence Square, St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, St. Andrew’s Church, St. Sophia’s Cathedral, a mosaic animal alley, and the Golden Gate. They were all so ornate and beautiful. One thing that was weird and interesting is Kiev’s obsession with noses! On almost all of the statues that had noses, the noses had been rubbed golden! It is said it is for good luck.
I was starving at this point, so I went to one of Kiev’s famous street food spots, Kyivska Perepichka! Don’t ask me to pronounce it because I can’t haha. They are famous for their hot dogs that are deep fried in essentially funnel cake batter. It was so simple yet so good. I could’ve eaten quite a few… And the best part: it was only $0.40!!!!!! Amazing. After lunch, I took the metro to the deepest metro station in the world. It is 346 ft below ground and took 5 minutes via escalators to get to the surface.
The next stop was Kiev Pechersk Lavra which is a monastery. It was kind of weird and everything was in Ukrainian so I didn’t really know what I was looking at, but I eventually found a museum of micro-miniatures. Everything to look at had to be looked at through a microscope. There were portraits of people on a poppy seed, golden shoes put on a flea, a complete chess set that fit on the head of a pin, and more. It was pretty neat. Other than that, there wasn’t much to see there.
I was hungry at this point so I went to this chocolate cafe called Lviv Handmade Chocolate. I got a vanilla milkshake that was heavenly. Now time for real food, I went to a blues bar because it said there was live music. There was no live music. It eventually started an hour later than advertised but it’s fine. I got a hamburger because I figured you can’t mess up a hamburger, unless you cover it in ketchup with horse radish like this place did 🙂 I’m being dramatic, it wasn’t that bad. Ukrainian people love horse radish and it’s bizzare. I asked for normal ketchup and the waitress was so confused and said that was normal ketchup haha. The next day I got up and headed back to France. Kiev was a really beautiful city with a really interesting history and culture. I would have liked a few more days there to try more Ukrainian food but I made do with the time I had!
