Kiev, Ukraine - the Good, the Okay and the Ugly

I've been here in Kiev for about five days so far.  I'm so glad that I came just a couple of days after Chris arrived to help him settle in to his new home and to explore Kiev together.  It's a huge city and I felt culture shock the first couple of days after I arrived.  There are aspects of this city that are very nice, others that are so-so, and some things are hard to bear.  I'll take these one at a time.  Please keep in mind that these are only first impressions.  I'm sure that Chris will have a lot more to say about Kiev with a lot more substance over time.

The Good

Chris lives here!!  That's so good!!!  He's only four hours away from Barcelona and we'll be seeing each other more often, traveling to other European cities for weekend-plus getaways.  Already we have a trip planned at the end of this month in Amsterdam and a week-long trip in October to Prague.

We have visited some beautiful parts of Kiev.  The orthodox churches here are stunning, with their unique onion domes, common in this part of the world, and the ornate and iconic sanctuaries.  It seems that religion is a big part of Ukrainian life, similar to Poland, although it's too early to verify that.  On Sunday afternoon in St. Michael's Golden Dome Church, many long, thin devotional candles were lit and at least 5 women, with their heads covered with kerchiefs, were cleaning parts of the sanctuary with buckets and rags.  All the other women in the church had their heads covered and as they entered a certain part of the church they would cross themselves three times.  Much of this felt like a throwback to my early years as a child in my Catholic parish, but without the opulent orthodox church decor.

Kiev has some super-sized shopping malls, very modern by western standards, and with air-

conditioning, which is necessary with highs of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) these last few days, but at least it is a dry heat. They also have super-sized modern supermarkets where you can find just about everything and the food prices for most products are much cheaper than in either Barcelona or Washington DC.  The city center is a very pleasant area to walk around as well.

Chris' home is only a 7 minute walk to his British International school, which is located behind a gated community with many high-rise residential buildings and the most luxurious gym that I have ever seen, which I believe Chris will be joining in the next week or so.  The school itself is a pleasant and well-equipped facility and it seems like it will be good working environment for Chris.

We had the added pleasure of meeting some locals.  The day after I arrived, we joined a small group of members from the local Shambhala meditation group for their weekly meditation session at one of the member's home.  It was also her birthday, so we were invited to stay and enjoy food, wine and conversation with them.  They were all very kind and their English was good enough for us to have some good discussion.  They also contacted a member who was not there but is a museum docent for the Mikail Bulgakov Museum.  We visited the museum on Sunday and she gave us a personal tour of this author's home and hear the fascinating story and display about his life in the early 20th century.

The Okay

The Metro has three lines, each in a different color and each station with a unique number.  Before the 2012 Euro World Cup in Kiev, the lines were not color-coded.  People knew where to go by just knowing the names of the station, which of course is hard for tourists to read in Cyrillic.  

Speaking of tourists, Kiev is so different from Barcelona in that regard.  There doesn't seem to be any tourists!!  I'm sure there are, but they are in hiding, I think.

Back to the metro, it wears on you very quickly.  It feels very old, although the first line was built in 1960.  It is almost always filled with people and toward the city center you are crammed into the metro car like sardines.  It is very unusual that you would ever find a seat.  It jerks you around as if you're on a roller coaster ride.  And it is super loud.  You have to shout to your neighbor to be heard.  And yet, when it comes to talking on the metro, it is very unusual to hear or see that. People don't speak to each other.  There are few smiles and laughing is hardly ever heard.  

In Barcelona, when I would talk with Chris in English in the metro system, people would turn and glance, even though English is spoken with much more frequency there than in Kiev.  Here however, there is no sign of curiosity, no head-turning, no glancing.  Everyone is in their own world.  I wonder whether this is the result of years of Soviet repression and fear-induced self-containment.  It does feel cold and barren in these public areas.  However, at stores and restaurants, the service is very good and the customer gets very good attention, probably more so than in Barcelona.

The Ugly

There are beautiful sections of the city and the Dnipro River is very pretty.  But the city as a whole is very run down.  There are large swaths where you feel you are in a 3rd world country - many abandoned buildings, torn-up sidewalks, dilapidated apartment buildings, etc.  The closest hospital to Chris from the outside seems like it was in a war zone.  I doubt that would be the hospital that Chris would go to, but it is an example of how the city infrastructure seems to have been neglected for many years.   I would think that if Ukraine goes forward in eventually joining the European Union, it will get the investments that it needs to make these critical changes to this very historical and richly cultured city.