Kyiv Adventures: Out and About in the City

We arrived to Kyiv on a Thursday night after a great trip to Paris.  Friday morning, when my body was complaining that it was finally time to fall asleep, My Man was already heading out the door to his first day on the job.

Jet lag?  What jet lag, he scoffed.  My Man hit the ground running in Kyiv and never looked back.  His colleagues were ready for him, having decorated his desk in welcome.

Saturday, he and Young Man joined other colleagues for some cross-country skiing in a park across town.

By that afternoon, he was already out at the store shopping for supplies for his mini-homesteading plans (garden, microgreens, rabbits, and bees) and had already ordered red worms for our kitchen composting bin (he figured out how to navigate the web page in Russian, placed the order, paid via kiosk, and picked them up at a public post office a few blocks away just a few days later).

I am seriously in awe at his ability to adapt to new places and situations.  Meanwhile, I was home trying to win a world record for how many boxes of tissue I could blow my way through in 24-hours, exhausted and bed-ridden with a nasty cold that developed just as we were leaving Paris.  We definitely adjust differently to life in a new country.  One of these times, I'll figure out how to move without getting sick!  In spite of my cold, however, I was figuring things out as well.  On Friday I went shopping with a friend who taught me how to ask for the correct cuts of meat, which stores could be trusted for fresh produce and which were better for meat and dairy, and that you have to bring your own bags shopping or pay for bags during checkout.

I learned how to weigh and tag our produce and what cheeses are most likely to be palatable to our picky American kids.

I got our suitcases unpacked, got the kids off to school on Monday, got lost, made some new friends, went shopping at several different stores, and managed to prepare meals with a skeleton kitchen and foreign ingredients.  I figured out how to walk to the metro, how to walk to the Embassy, how to walk to the store (OK, that last one is cheating since we got lucky enough to have a little grocery store right across the street!), and how to catch an Uber taxi anywhere too far to walk.  We rearranged furniture, shoveled snow, and went out to dinner with friends.  The kids started after school activities, made friends, did homework.

We fell in love with sunsets from our dining room window; Funny Guy built a snow fort (and was dismayed when it started to melt the next day); we explored our neighborhood and the nearby parks.

All in all, it was a hectic but productive week for all of us as we settled into our new lives here in Ukraine.

Somehow we won the lottery and ended up in Kyiv with a long weekend (for My Man) and a week off from school (mid-semester break) for the kiddos after only one week of the daily grind.  That was perfect timing for some good old tourism and exploration.

Friday night My Man and I tried out one of the only Mexican restaurants in town: Tequila House.  The place was cute, the food was delicious, and the guacamole was superb.  However, the fajitas and burritos did not taste Mexican (or anywhere south of the border!).  The chicken and veggies were superbly cooked and tasted great, but the lack of any Mexican spices (chili powder anyone?) was a little distracting and slightly disappointing.  Still, the guacamole was great and we'll probably be back again.  Afterward we walked around enjoying the newness of downtown, stumbling across a "Chocoladnitsa" (chocolate cafe) where we stopped for dessert.

We had considered a trip out of town to Bukovel ski resort or Lviv for the long weekend, but were glad we chose to stay and explore closer to home.  Here are just a few of the highlights from our weekend.

We took a city walking tour.  When I planned the outing, I didn't realize it would be more than three hours long, or quite how cold the day would be (not to mention drizzly and gray).  Still, we enjoyed learning more about the history of Kyiv, seeing some of the most famous churches and monuments, and even taking time to look at some unique souvenirs and parks--at least I enjoyed it and the kids were good sports.

When we first exited the metro downtown, we were surprised to walk into the middle of a large gathering, commemorating the third anniversary of the Euromaidan Revolution.

Then we followed our tour guide on a route that visited St. Michael's Cathedral, where we stopped to go inside and admire the intricate paintings and decor.  We learned more about the terrible famine during Stalin's time and how many churches (including this one) were destroyed during the Soviet communist period.  We stopped at an art gallery to see art by a local artist named Evgeniya Gapeniya (the kids have been excited to notice her artwork throughout the city since), then walked up to St. Andrew's church, which is beautiful but under restoration.

I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition to see how different the pictures could be with some careful cropping. :)

Although I enjoyed the tour very much, I hope we will go again when the weather is better and the trees are green.  This area is famous for street vendors and artwork, so it will be fun to come back.  As it was, there were a few hardy vendors out despite the cold, and we enjoyed browsing.

Our next stop was a colorful Alice and Wonderland art park, where Funny Guy especially enjoyed playing.

St. Sophia's Cathedral, where a Ukrainian rock band had set up and was blasting music, was our last stop.  We didn't have time to go inside, but hope to come back (at least I do--the boys were pretty much churched out at this point!).

By the end, we were ready to try some real Ukrainian cuisine.  It didn't disappoint.  We feasted on soups, meat, cheese, potatoes, and hot chocolate.  It was delicious.  We enjoyed appetizers, meals, drinks, and desserts for less than $30 for the five of us.  We added a star to our Google Maps!

As we finished dinner, we got an invitation from new friends to come play games, so we headed there for the rest of the evening, trying several new games, eating ice cream, and feeling lucky to have made such good friends so quickly.

By the time we got home, we were exhausted, but it was a great day.

The rest of the week is kind of a blur, but here are some highlights:

We discovered a beautiful forest (can't wait to return with cross country skis or bikes and a picnic when the snow melts!) and explored several parks near our home.

There are pigeons everywhere (along with lots of crows, magpies, and some beautiful little songbirds).

I have loved finding ways to get out and walk through the parks near our home, whether on the way to the Embassy or metro station.

There are lots of street markets around.  This one features old coins, Soviet war medals, and other war paraphernalia, including guns and ammo.

Across the park from our house we discovered a great little Ukrainian restaurant called Taras.  

The food is delicious, ambiance is nice, and the location is great.  In fact, we've already been back a couple times.

The metro stops each have their own theme.  This medieval theme was my favorite.

Without our car, we've spent a lot of time in the metro system.  It kind of grows on you, and for less than 15 cents per trip, the price is right!

Although the metro gets extremely crowded in the evenings (standing room only), it is usually pretty empty in the mornings.

Weasley has adapted to life in Ukraine surprisingly well, even exploring our snowy backyard.  Darling Daughter is very happy to have him here.

Cats are very popular in Kyiv, with several sculptures of them (as well as the real deal) throughout the city.

Saturday My Man went to an Soviet antiques market, a UNESCO world heritage site (the Lavra Monastery), and a farm market.  He took no pictures of the antiques market (except of his friends and the hot chocolate they got at the end), 10 pictures of the UNESCO world heritage site (three if you don't count duplicates), and more than 20 pictures of the farm market.  I guess we can see what he thought was the most interesting part of the day!

Of course he did come home with rabbits, so who can blame them.

My Man hopes to eventually breed them for meat, but for now, we just have two little girls more than 6 months from maturity, so they'll just be pets (and provide lots of material for our compost bin).

There are a ton of fun-filled malls in Kyiv and we've already explored a few.

They feature iceskating, roller blading, arcades, strange rooms like mirror mazes and ninja rooms (where the rooms are upside-down or slanted with obstacle courses), laser tag, bumper cars, and more.  Seriously a kid's dream world.

No wonder our kids are liking this place!  Of course the gelato doesn't hurt either.

Even the elementary schools are a reminder that they are using a different (but not too different) alphabet!

Young Man refuses to admit that it's cold here.  It's very alarming to the locals who think a healthy fear of the cold is essential to a long and healthy life.

Kyiv is a beautiful city!

Houseplants make me feel happy!

The longer it takes for me to finish this blog post, the more places we explore and pictures we take!  I could write more, but my Russian instructor will be here soon (My Man and I both get four hours of instruction per week) and I need to finish prepping dinner before then.  The snow is melting and friends say we might not get much more this year (or we might get another huge storm--it really all depends on the year).  Either way, we have now been in Kyiv about two and a half weeks and already it is starting to feel more natural.  The sights and sounds and experiences that were strange and exciting and overwhelming when we arrived (like walking across the street to the grocery store or seeing Cyrillic and hearing Russian everywhere we go) are already settling into the comfortable familiarity of every day life.  We are finding our routines and recognizing our neighborhood landmarks.  We have houseplants and pets and even some of our things (our first shipment arrived this morning!).  We are starting to figure out which light switches turn on and off which lights (which was a major mystery in this house originally!).  We are starting to make ourselves at home.

It looks like we are breaking in those new shoes without too many blisters.

First Impressions

It's amazing how big a city is when you first move in--with everything new and unfamiliar, the geography is vast and daunting.

As you get out and explore, the area shrinks until finally, the big adventure you had during your first few days becomes a habitual path you can walk (or drive) without even thinking about it.

Today, Kyiv is still big, but my neighborhood is a little smaller than it was when I got lost earlier this week.  Taking advantage of the beautiful weather--sunshine, blue sky, and 0 C warm temperatures--I walked to the Embassy for some errands.

The path meanders through alleys and across train tracks, and through a large park.  It only takes about 20 minutes, even accounting for the careful maneuvering through mushy, muddy snow.

There are several parts of the path that would be treacherous if icy (if the temps drop, there will definitely be ice) or muddy (when the snow begins to melt in earnest, as it will if temps continue to hover around freezing), but for now, it was beautiful and easy.

It amazes me how many people are always outside here, walking, enjoying the day or getting from place to place.  As I walked a path well trodden, I tried to imagine who had walked that same path before me (and where were they heading?).

There are grandmas and moms, businessmen and well-dressed women, old men, and everyone in between.  It is fun to try to imagine each person's story.  The fur hats and coats still make me smile, as do the babies in prams, bundled up so thickly that they look like cocoons of blankets.  The packs of teenage boys smoking with one hand in their pocket and a leer on their faces make me remember the babushkas of Russia, shaking their heads and muttering, "Hooligans" under their breath, as if it were a dirty word.

I love walking through a place that is at once so strange and so normal.  It's just winter in a town half a world from where I grew up, but even though everything is different, really, underneath the clothes and language and snow, everything is pretty much the same.  And I can't wait to get to know it all better.

Lost and Found in Kyiv

"Большое спасибо!" The taxi driver laughed waving away my thanks as I got out in front of our house. Still, it didn't seem like enough. I wanted to give him a hug, bake him a cake, award him a kiss! Still, he seemed happy enough with his obvious hero-status and his fare + tip, so with a happy sigh, I gathered up my three large bags, found the hand full of keys that open our gate and two front doors, and gratefully entered our new home in Kyiv.

To understand my relief, you need to rewind a few hours. After a breakfast of banana pancakes and raspberry sauce (compliments of our first forays into the local markets), the kids and I boarded the bus to school.

I had permission to join them for the trip to finalize all of their in-processing for their first day. The trip wasn't too bad--about 40 minutes including stops to wait for and pick up other kids along the way. At Pechersk International School (PSI) we were met by name at the front door. Young Man and Darling Daughter were swept off to get their schedules and orientation from the secondary school while I stayed with Funny Guy in the Primary school to meet his teacher and then take care of additional logistics. After depositing Funny Guy with his teacher, I signed the kids up for extracurriculars (including playground club, Minecraft, and sports for Funny Guy; Yearbook and Russian for Young Man; and rock climbing for Darling Daughter), put money on their lunch cards, and got their PE uniforms (a huge bag of clothes for each child, including sweat pants, sweat shirt, T-shirt, and more). At last, I was finished. I had planned to maybe explore a bit of downtown Kyiv before heading home, but laden as I now was with the three heavy bags of uniforms, I decided just trying to navigate the metro system home would be adventure enough. I plugged in our home address into Google Maps and set off.

The walk was surreal. I live here!

Everything is strange and also strangely familiar (from my time in Russia more than 15 years ago). My ability to read most signs is exhilarating.

The familiarity of the conversations as people pass, talking on their phones or to each other, gives me hope that I may be able to navigate this place successfully in the not-too-distant future. The Ukrainian text and speech is disorienting (so close to Russian sometimes that I'm not sure if I just don't understand or if it is Ukrainian).

Still, the experience was exciting (the pictures are less than mediocre because I was juggling three large bags and my hands were freezing, but I figured some bad pictures would be better than no pictures).

When I got down into the metro station, I realized my phone didn't have cell service so I had to resort to the old-fashioned method of looking at a map to figure out where to go. Without anywhere pressing to be, it wasn't too bad. I figured out how to feed a 20 UAH bill (about $0.75) into a machine on the wall to get five trip tokens (which look like toy plastic money), then navigated my way onto the correct train.

I needed to make one transfer, so I got off and looked for signs to the other line. I couldn't find any.

I'm not sure if I missed them or if there wasn't an actual transfer path (the two stations are about half a mile apart, so either option is possible), but after wandering around for awhile in the station labyrinth of shops and halls, I came out above ground at one of the most famous monuments in Kyiv! It was beautiful. The whole area was.

I would have enjoyed it more, but when I checked my phone to calibrate where to go, the battery was at 2%. Normally, my phone lasts several hours, so I was dismayed to find my phone dying the minute I opened it up, especially since I'd been relying on it to know where to walk home once I arrived at the nearest metro stop. I only got enough of a look at the map before it gave up the ghost to orient myself toward the next metro. Oh well, I thought, this will be an adventure!

I set off in what I hoped was the right direction, and felt gratified when I saw the big M marking a metro stop up ahead. No problem. I got this!

The problem was when I got off at my final metro stop. Each stop has several entrances that can point you in various directions. Without a map or anything else to navigate by, I didn't know which exit to take. I knew our house was only about a 10-15 minute from the metro stop, but in what direction?

I picked one randomly and set out into the softly falling snow, convinced that I could just grab a taxi if I couldn't find our street soon. I enjoyed the walk immensely, finding a beautiful park and lots of interesting shops, but I didn't find our street. Eventually, I stumbled upon the U.S. Embassy. Oops, it was fun to see something I recognized, but that meant I'd definitely chosen the wrong direction. Time to try a taxi. I approached the security guard and asked (in Russian) whether it was possible to catch a taxi on that street. Not likely, he replied. Better luck up on the main street, he added, pointing. 

I set off keeping an eye out for taxis. It wasn't long before the first one came along. No problem, I thought, ready to thaw my nose and toes safe and sound at home. "Saratovska?" he grimaced, "Нет." No? Huh, I was stumped, weren't taxis supposed to go where ever you told them? OK, I'd just try another. The next driver didn't even deign to answer me, just shaking his head and rolling up the window to drive away. Was I saying the street name wrong? The next time I tried a few different possible pronunciations but was met with another firm no. Deciding to try another tactic, I went into a grocery store and asked if they sold maps of the city. No. Did they know where Saratovska street was? No, but maybe the security guard would. Indeed he did but he whistled under his breath and said, "Ooohhh, это очень далеко" (it's very far), you'll have to drive, not walk. In answer to my query about where to find a taxi, he said, "On your phone of course!" Of course. How could I be so silly. :) Even though the result was disappointing, the whole exchange was kind of fun. Here I was making myself understood and understanding all in Russian. It made me want to rush home and study more. 

I went back out to the street considering my options. I could find my way back to the Embassy and try to get a hold of My Man, but I didn't have my passport and didn't have a badge for embassy access yet. They probably wouldn't let me call anyway and I didn't want to interrupt him. I decided to retrace my steps to the metro since I knew I'd gone the wrong direction. Maybe if I were closer to home, I'd have better luck with a taxi.

And that is exactly what happened, eventually. After four more tries (eighth time is the charm!), I got a driver who was willing to try. He waved me in, assuring me, "No problem" (in English, no less) when I gave him the address. He pulled into traffic, then turned and asked me for directions. I couldn't help laughing. "Really, I have no idea, I'm completely lost," I assured him. In response to his blank stare, I repeated the assertion in Russian--his English turned out to consist of about five words. "Aaahh," he said, pulling over again. As I braced myself to get out and try again, he assured me he could find it, he just needed to look it up. It took him a few calls to dispatch and a few minutes looking up routes on his city map (no gps?!), but he eventually found it and pulled back onto the street. I smiled to myself as we backtracked more of the route I'd walked--I hadn't even been close! And then at last, he pulled onto our street and I saw a familiar store, then the park, and finally, our house. It's amazing how quickly a place can become home. Only a few days in country and this strange house has become a haven. "A big thank you!" I said, tipping him generously so that the grand total of his fare and tip came to just over $2. And it was over.

I could have avoided the whole adventure by simply grabbing an Uber ride home from the school, but I'm glad I didn't.  Really, there's nothing like getting lost to help you get to know a place.  In fact, one of the best consequences of not having a car here right away, is being forced to explore the public transportation options, being forced outside my comfort zone. It is a little harder, but there are so many options (most for pennies a ride), and now I know--even if my phone dies and I am hopelessly lost--I can find my way home, eventually.

And even though I made it home later than I'd anticipated, I still had time to hurry and clean up, do laundry, prep dinner, shovel the walks, and write up this story before the kids got home.  Although I hope to start work soon, it's nice in the meantime to have the time not to worry too much about getting lost as I try to figure out how to navigate this new adventure.