Kyiv in October 2013
The best street in Kyiv is Andriyivsky Descent. Here, there is a particularly pleasant, old-fashioned atmosphere. The street has been barely touched by modern construction.
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There are signs hanging in a pre-revolutionary style.
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Along the entire street, antique dealers sell antiques of various degrees of value. From relatively recent editions such as The Beatles’ songs from 1989.
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From a newspaper dated 1914 to a copy of the United States Constitution, released in 1899 in the Russian Empire.
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On Andriyivsky Descent, there is also an interesting museum that showcases antique items related to this street. The museum is aptly named:
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In general, the city suffers significantly from tasteless construction, advertising, and a huge number of cars, just like Moscow.
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It would be great to transfer everyone to horses.
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A jumble of pleasant signs, signposts, mailboxes, and dreary gray doors, air conditioners, ATMs, and half-faced boxes.
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Ukraine is preparing to join the European Union, blue and yellow ribbons are hung everywhere.
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Meanwhile, the opposition’s tent camp in support of Timoshenko has been standing on Khreshchatyk for three years. One can only learn perseverance from the people of Kyiv.
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The Kyiv metro is almost the same as the Moscow metro — nothing surprising.
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The carriages are mostly Soviet-era.
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The turnstiles are somewhat strange.
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Tokens are still used in the Kyiv metro. One token costs only 2 hryvnias, which is equivalent to 8 rubles. The ticket machines are painted in an eye-catching combination of orange with blue lettering.
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The excessive amount of advertising in the metro is disheartening. There is no free space in the carriages; instead, televisions are mounted opposite each door. Besides displaying advertisements, they show the weather forecast and the next station with a photograph.
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Even the pillars are wrapped in advertisements.
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But that’s not all. When there was no more space left, projectors came into play.
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The branch layout at the stations is a massive, difficult-to-read clutter.
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The Metro map itself is even worse, an incomprehensible nightmare. There are only three lines, but it’s still impossible to understand which station corresponds to each label.
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An interesting detail: the metro ventilation exits are disguised as lampposts. Wind blows through the grates. It’s likely that Moscow has something similar, but I haven’t come across it personally.
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The buses are yellow, and the minibusses (marshrutkas) are also yellow.
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And the sky is blue. Against its backdrop, there are trees with peculiar spherical growths.
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There are many underground passages, some of them enormous in size, and almost all of them have shops or vendors selling something.
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According to one taxi driver, the love for coffee awakened among residents several years ago. Now vending machines and mobile coffee shops are everywhere, like water fountains in Rome.
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There is an interesting place in Kyiv — a residential building at 26 Radunska Street. On the 13th floor of an unremarkable panel apartment building located in the Troyeshchyna district, there is a parallel world.
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The walls, floor, and ceiling of the staircase landing and balcony are decorated like some kind of magical cave. The amount of detail per square centimeter is overwhelming.
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One of the residents made an effort.
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