Kiev or Київ – Let’s start to learn Russian

Reading and understanding the Ukrainian language is very difficult at first. I was confronted with it the first time on the night train from Budapest to Kiev. Even talking with hands and feet seems to use different gestures as well. I had a 24 hours train ride ahead of me so I thought it would be a good idea to learn some basic Russian. Luckily Russian and Ukrainian is closely related. It is a bit like German to Swiss-German. I had my own compartment on the train and there where two beds, a sink, power socket and also space to lock my luggage away. Have a look at the video below to see how it looks on the train from Budapest to Kiev.

I’ll share my first attempts at learning Russian in a separate Blog post. I had to make use of it already when I had arrived at the Kiev station at 20:03. Unfortunately it was not possible for me to withdraw money at the station so I had to change some of my US Dollars I had with me.

I stayed at the City Center Hostel that is located on Independence Square and right next to the McDonalds. In the 10 Bed dorm I met two Ukrainian guys, one from the States and a Brasilian guy. The two Ukrainian guys Stan and Vlad were quite fun. Stan the dentist was always translating as Vlad the ice cream sales man could speak English. Learnt a bit about Kiev and life in Ukraine in general. Vlad hoped to find a Vodka drinking partner, but I wasn’t really in the mood and knew how it would turn out… Marshall fom USA joined us later and was up for the vodka drinking and went to buy some in the supermarket nearby. It was late at night and the bottle was empty when they finaly turned off the lights and I was able to sleep.

12pm is the start of the free walking tour in Kiev. Marshall and I were the only two tourist having the courage and spend two hours in the freezing cold city. However we had a great tour with our host Nathalie. She took us to some great sights. Especially the churches where magnificient. She told us plenty of stories and annectodes amd we enjoyed listening to her. We stopped at one monument and we had to point out the mistakes… basically it was just a not so well made monument. A tartar riding a horse that looks like a donkey. Also throughout the city there where little monuments and pieces of art. At the end of the free walking tour it is expected to tip the guide, but I still had not much money so felt sorry that both of us didn’t tip her.

On my last day in Kiev three of us went to the openair soviet museum. It was free to enter and there were a lot of tanks, artillery and other military stuff to see. It was worth the long walk from the metro station.