{"id":1858,"date":"2024-08-13T12:03:26","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2024-08-13T12:53:24","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T12:53:24","slug":"travel-impressions-ukraine-kyiv-1-2-traveling-in-a-war-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/travel-impressions-ukraine-kyiv-1-2-traveling-in-a-war-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel Impressions: Ukraine, Kyiv 1\/2 \u2014 Traveling in a war zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\u00a9 Pictures,\u00a0Use policy \/ ToS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After being a little bit bored in Wroc\u0142aw (Poland), I boarded a bus to Ukraine, Kyiv. It was cheap, something like 40-50 USD.<\/p>\n

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I boarded the same day for the 26 hours bus ride. Into darkness….<\/p>\n

\"Busride<\/p>\n

Picture at night in my bus. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

When I arrived I did some groceries shopping, saw the first soldiers in the supermarket but did not take pictures. Ukraine has become more modern since my last visit. Even the buses take your ATM card now for your fare.<\/p>\n

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Yes. I felt alive, very alive, in Kyiv during the war. This slogan fits quite well but to be honest, this pic was not taken in Kyiv but later in Lviv.<\/p>\n

First impressions near the place where I stayed.<\/p>\n

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Yes, Ukraine does have Uber.<\/p>\n

Food is pretty good, but out of convenience, I ate nearly every day at Puzata Hata. I called it the Ukrainian version of Mc Donald. Cheap, quick and good and healthy food. Can’t complain. Actually, I wished they had this in the West.<\/p>\n

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First surprise the shopping center in 100m walking distance where I was supposed to meet a friend. I understand now why Ukrainians are poor, things are so expensive! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

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The famous Kyiv metro with the steep and fast running escalators…<\/p>\n

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In the metro, you see an advertisement from the military for recruitment.<\/p>\n

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Don’t know, but somehow the last picture reminds me of:<\/p>\n

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The amount of expensive cars in Kyiv was insane. I am not talking Ferraris or Lamborghini, but expensive, new BMW, Mercedes, Tesla, Porsche…
\nEven in Beijing and Shanghai I did not see so many expensive cars. Kyiv will surprise you.<\/p>\n

\"\".<\/p>\n

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Nice dinner in a Restaurant run and owned by refugees from the Crimea island.\u00a0 If I remember correctly, they are Muslims and don’t sell alcohol, but you are allowed to bring alcohol.<\/p>\n

I met my buddy and he suggested this place. He also insisted that we finish a 750 ml Jack Daniel’s together. His words: 500 ml is for children, 750 ml for normal people and 1 L for adults….<\/p>\n

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My hipster caf\u00e9 where I spent many days working on my computer. Caffe latte 1.80 Dollars…<\/p>\n

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Pictures showing the Maidan and buildings from the Stalinist times…<\/p>\n

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The flags to honor the fallen…<\/p>\n

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k<\/p>\n

These arcs are huge and the vibe is hard to catch with a picture. Maybe something like Moscow meets New York city?<\/p>\n

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The next picture I took at night on my way home. A woman was spraying something on a government building, I saw her doing it. I assumed it was a war\/anti-war protest, but I asked some bystanders what the text means. I was told she spayed that someone working there is cheating on her. The text was gone \/ overprinted the next morning, so I assume it may have been an important person working there.<\/p>\n

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Second part: Travel Impressions: Ukraine, Kyiv 2\/2 \u2014 Traveling in a war zone<\/a><\/h2>\n

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\u00a9 Pictures,\u00a0Use policy \/ ToS. After being a little bit bored in Wroc\u0142aw (Poland), I boarded a bus to Ukraine, Kyiv. It was cheap, something like 40-50 USD. I boarded the same day for the 26 hours bus ride. Into darkness…. Picture at night in my bus. \ud83d\ude42 When I arrived I did some groceries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","category-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1871,"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions\/1871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatcircle.com\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}