Travel to Kiev, Ukraine – Episode 581

Hear about travel to Kiev in the Ukraine as the Amateur Traveler talks to Amy Butler from thewayfarersbook.com about her adopted city.

She says of the city, “people love coming to Europe and want to find undiscovered Europe because places like Paris and London and all the cities in Italy are so packed with people. Nobody is coming to Ukraine and it’s such a shame because it’s a beautiful country, super diverse and really affordable. I would say that if you’re coming from a country with a strong economy, you’re going to find an equivalent exchange rate to what you would find in Southeast Asia. You’ll have a luxury vacation on a dime. Whatever your interest is, if it’s architecture, culture, history, food, you can get it all in Kiev.”

Amy was teaching English around the globe before she followed a boyfriend to Eastern Europe. She arrived in February on a cold grey rainy night, but the city has grown on her in the year that she has been there. She takes us to some of her favorite places in Kiev.

Kiev is an older city than Moscow, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe. She starts us at the old site of the Pechersk Lavra church with its golden domes and with its mummified monks in the basement. It was originally a cave monastery with a church built above it and rebuilt after the Soviet times.

She also recommends a stop at the Saint Sophia’s Cathedral which is a UNESCO site with beautiful mosaics and at her favorite church, St Michael’s, which was also rebuilt recently. St Michael’s provided shelter for the protestors during the 2014 Maidan revolution.

Another site relevant to the 2014 revolution that Amy recommends is the Mezhyhirya Residence which was where the deposed president Viktor Yanukovych lived. Visit Maidan square which is a center of life in the city but also holds a memorial to the people killed in 2014.

Amy recommends her favorite Ukrainian dishes and restaurants and also recommends visiting the Kiev cocktail scene.

We talked about a visit to Chernobyl, which Amy has not done but has friends who have visited. A safer choice to learn about the disaster might be a visit to the Ukrainian National Chornobyl Museum in Kiev.

With a week, Amy also recommends a visit to the city of Lviv in the west which you can reach via high-speed train. It is a center for coffee, chocolate, and Ukrainian culture.

Come hear about the surprising country of Ukraine. You will never believe what you can buy under an underpass in Kiev.

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Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by Bombfell.com which is a service for men who hate to shop but want to look better. They connect you with a personal stylist who picks out some clothes based on your size and style. You review what your stylist suggests. They send what you want from those selections, try them on and return what you don’t like. My stylist agreed the one did not look as good on me. But the green one highlights my green eyes.

Listen to the episode to find out how to save $25 on your first order.

this shirt I returned

this I kept

Show Notes

Kiev
48 Hours in Kiev
Kiev Street Art
How to Use Kiev Transportation
Yaroslav the Wise
Pechersk Lavra
Saint Sophia’s Cathedral, Kiev
St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery
Mezhyhirya Residence
Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square)
2014 Ukrainian revolution
Marshrutka
Uklon app
Borscht
Varenyky
Hendrick’s Bar
Barman Dictat
Kanapa Restaurant Salon
Tour of Chernobyl
The Babushkas of Chernobyl
Lviv
Lonely Planet Ukraine (Travel Guide)
History of Ukraine
Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Lewycka, Marina
Everything is Illuminated
The State Aviation Museum
LINOLEUM Contemporary Animation and Media Art Festival
Bukovel

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November 2017 – India Amateur Traveler Trip