Kiev is a city that always sounded mysterious to me. I live in Hungary which is next to this country but until the early years of the new millennium, I have not had any experience in both Kiev and Ukraine.
In my childhood, to be able to travel to the west was like a privilege. Not too many people know this but during the communism, to travel to the Soviet Union from the countries of the Eastern block was almost as hard as traveling to the west. So hearing about Kiev or Moscow was the same exotic story in Budapest as hearing about New York or London.
I remembered when I travelled to Kiev for the first time, I was expecting an ugly grey city with non-smiling, grey people around. However, when I was there, I found something totally different. It was maybe funny but my very first impression of Kiev was a little human gesture that I found nice. Something that I can’t imagine in Budapest. Within the city, they use a private minibus system called MARSHRUTKA which is a parallel system to the public transportation. A minibus with 10-12 people, very packed vehicle especially during the winter when people are dressed in thick winter coats. You have to pay directly to the driver but there is no time to wait for “years” while everyone is arranging the payment. So people are just getting on and during the ride those who were seated at the back end of the bus gave the money to the other passengers in front of them. And it went like a chain until the money reached the driver. Eventually, the money back was collected. I was totally amazed by this because it is a complex communication to me based on trust.
This is KIEV to me. I expected something cold with ugly places, and I found warm hearts there with cute colourful onion roofed churches. A city that I highly recommend someone to visit. Consider the Premier Palace Hotel.
Great post. Lovely insight into the fabric of society.