Ukraine Travelogue – Part II
Things have been pretty messy, unpredictable and uncertain for a while, and I’ve been procrastinating to post the next installment of my travel experience to Ukraine. So here’s Part II, as promised
This is a continuation from my post – Ukraine Travelogue – Part I – Amsterdam.
Welcome to Kiev
From Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, we took the KLM flight to Kiev, Ukraine. The flight was pretty rough on this one, as the pilot does a pretty sharp descent every now and then, causing the passengers to feel as if they’re floating in the cabin a few times.
When I exit the airport (after a pretty long queue), I was greeted by a very pleasant 16C cloudy weather, and our Ukraine counterpart. I can’t explain what is my purpose to be here, but let’s just say it’s for business. We’re then taken into the chartered bus and we’re transported to the hotel.
Yes, that’s how you spell Kiev
Being in a left-hand-driven vehicle kind of gives you a funny feeling as you observe the road, where cars are faster on the left. The main highway in Kiev have four lanes, the rightmost have speed limit of 70 km/h, then followed by 90km/h and the last two lanes on the left both have speed limits of 130km/h. I noticed a lot of European cars are on the road, and there’s also plenty of Hondas and Lexuses being driven. Ukranians seems to me are spirited drivers, as most cars whizz by pretty quickly.
Kiev isn’t as big or as dense as Kuala Lumpur. Their buildings are pretty spread apart. Most noticeably, the commercial, industrial and residential areas are zoned to be separate from one another. So at one part of the city you’ll see lots and lots of high-rise apartments, while the other end you will see malls, parks, lots and lots of shopping points.
View from my Hotel Corridor
Being in the Europe, most of the shops in Ukraine will be closed for business by 8:00pm, or at most 9:00pm, with select few actually closes as early as 7:00pm and some extended their hours till 10:00pm. It’s impossible to find a 24-hours convenience store here (or maybe I didn’t look for it hard enough). There’s also no such thing as big and posh shopping malls like what we have here. Most of their boutiques and shops are on the shop lots by the street, selling all kind of items, including famous branded items.
There’s a few interesting things that I observed in Ukraine, first of all, the street malls. Due to their seasonal weather (I was told that it can get as low as -30C during winter), they have an enclosed street malls, where the shopkeeper sits inside and only interact with the customer through the opening big enough to allow passing of the goods on sale.
They usually sell magazine, cigarettes, hand phone reloads, some toiletries, drinks, snacks, stationaries and sometimes vegetables and fruits. What’s awesome about this way of doing the street malls is that, not only that they are protecting the shopkeepers from the hazard of extreme weathers, but it also protect them from potential burglary, as well as preventing customers from having a free read by flicking the magazines on display (the common problem that we have here, hence the “Please Do Not Read Sign” being put up by all the bookstores on the magazine racks). I wonder if it is practical to have such setup in Malaysia.
Sunday, the free day
The day after, Sunday, we have our own free time, so we decided to take a short tour around the city. I noticed that mass wedding seems very popular here, the church is filled with couples and their extravagant limousines, going through their happiest days. At one glance over the churchyard, I identified almost 8 couples getting married, and there’s Hummer Limousines parked everywhere. It’s quite a sight!
One of our first stop is at the Great Patriotic War Museum, this is where they showcase their tanks, airplanes and other vehicles that they use during the war times. I have never seen a real tank personally up close, so I get pretty excited when I saw rows and rows of them being exhibited at the museum. The best part is, they allow you to climb up the tank and take photographs!
Damn that’s huge.
Other things that caught my attention is the amphibian vehicles. They have one with wheels and another with the caterpillar tracks. Look very versatile and durable, and pretty scary too.
This one comes with wheels.
Now this one comes with the caterpillar tracks.
My favorite part is where there’s this statue, called The Motherland Statue. Built in 1981, this statue stands 62 meters in height (102 meters if you include the base of the statue), and it weights around 530 tons. This statue is made of chrome nickel steels, and it holds a shield and a sword. The shield carries the Coat of arms of the Soviet Union, and the sword is about 16 meters in length and weights 9 tons. The Memorial hall of the Museum displays marble plaques with carved names of more than 11,600 soldiers and over 200 workers of the home-front honored during the war with the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Hero of Socialist Labor.
The Motherland Statue
After we’re done with the museum, we had lunch and then we’re back in the city center (I assume). Interestingly, they closed the city from traffic on weekends, starting from Saturday evening, up till Sunday evening (they open it for traffic again past midnight though). During this period, people are free to roam around the city and along the roads. Most of the time you’ll see couples and family hanging out at the park and malls.
That is their traffic police, with a Lancer by the side
Sunday is always the family day it seems
I’ve always wanted to take this kind of shot
Overall, it is a pretty relaxing day for us. Though the usual human factor did comes into play. You know, when you’re tavelling in a group of 8, there will be 8 kind of problems?
Stay tuned for Part III!
wow, that looks like real fun! great photos, btw, especially the last one :D
And hey, really nice blog! Will drop by occasionally, I love the things you posted. :)
downloading wallpapers now xD