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ukraine adventures

UKRAINE 🇺🇦 Kiev

(2016)

In 2016 I went to Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine, by train with my friend Paulo and it was an interesting experience...

Kiev has a dark recent past and I'm really sorry that I didn't watch the "Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom" documentary before visiting Kiev.

In just 93 days, what started as peaceful student demonstrations became a violent anti-government revolution and a series of violent events involving protesters, riot police, and unknown shooters in Kiev culminated in the ousting of elected president Viktor Yanukovych, and the overthrow of the Ukrainian government.

The following documentary truly shows what happened during one of the most violent times experienced by people there in 2014.

Night Train from Chisinau (Moldova) to Kiev

chisinau, moldova | kiev, ukraine

I'm addicted to train travel... From a train in Bulgaria (fuckin cold because doors constantly open and snow gets on the train) to a train that changes wheels every time it crosses the Moldova/Romania border... These are the "little" factors that make a trip special...

And this train trip from Moldova to Ukraine was no different. This night train is like a little soviet ambulant dormitory where you sleep in bunk beds next to random people.

Me and Paulo took the train at night and in the morning, this was our breakfast...

And this is the train ticket:

I was robbed by Police while traveling alone on a 3rd class Night Train from Ukraine to Moldova

kiev, ukraine | Ungheni, moldova

F*ck! This was one of the most unexpected experiences that I ever had... I will be very brief:

After my friend Paulo took a plane back to Sweden where he was doing Erasmus, I was alone and decided to come back to Romania by train. To do that, I needed to take a night train from Kiev to Moldova and then another one to Romania. This first trip took 18 hours; I was alone on a 3rd class night train and I was the only foreigner there...

It was midnight when I boarded the train; the person in charge of the carriage took me to my bed, I prepared my sleeping bag and fell asleep. In the morning when I woke up, I realized that I was surrounded by middle-aged/ old people from Moldova, Ukraine, Romania and elsewhere... a lot of old women were constantly entering into the carriage and selling random things there... Candies, fruit, SIM cards, Alcohol and so on.

A middle-aged couple that was sleeping in front of me bought a painting of the Jesus Last Supper, coffee, 2 SIM cards, toys and
3 bottles of whiskey...

The sellers sat on my bed every time they were negotiating with the couple.

Then the train stopped at the Ukraine/Moldova border and the police officers entered the train and checked the passengers ID. One of them asked for my passport, I gave it to him. He looked at the passport then looked at me and said- "later" and left the train with my passport...

I thought that he probably needed to check something in the computer's data or something like that but then... a couple of minutes later the train started moving and I didn't have my passport!

I started to panic and quickly approached the youngest guy (Alex) in the carriage ( probably the only person who spoke English there) and I told him about the situation. He approached the person in charge of the carriage and a few minutes later he told me that the police officer will give me the passport in the next station.

I was relieved but why did it happen? Why did the police officer take my passport and didn't give it back to me?

Alex told me that the police officer probably expected that I would give him some money to get the passport back when he was leaving the carriage...

"Are you sure about that bro?"- I asked him.

"Yes, because when I talked with the carriage's guy, he made a phone call and said to the police officer- "Don't do that, you need to give it back to him"".

Yeah that's f*cked up, what a shitty corrupt vibe...

So I just waited in my bed until the next stop. I was very nervous and the train was as slow as every train in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile the couple in front of me just bought fireworks... yes, they bought fireworks inside the train!

After 20/30 minutes the train stopped, the police officer showed up and gave me the passport saying some "you're a stupid foreigner" excuse.

"No worries"- I said.

After that, I talked with Alex for a while... and then the train stopped again at a station... A very old woman left the carriage and 10 minutes later she came back and gave me a big Moldavan sandwich! I was very confused because I thought she was selling me the sandwich and I wasn't hungry at all. Alex told me to accept the offer and explained to me that she probably has a son/daughter and she would like for someone to do the same thing if they were in the same situation as me, a student traveling alone... I remember the surprised face of the old woman when I said "mulțumesc" (thank you very much in Romanian/Moldovan).

That was my breakfast (the Moldovan Sandwich on the left).

At the end of the trip, I was writing about this experience in my travel book (image below) when an Orthodox priest entered the carriage and started blessing random people for money.

What a bizarre journey.

Random Box

with a random story

My friend Paulo and I stayed at a hostel where we met a Japanese guy who supposedly was working for the CIA... One day Paulo and I were talking about his age because he looked too young to work for the CIA... Paulo thought he was 25 and I thought he was 23 years old.

We asked the Japanese guy how old he is and he replied: "37".

We looked at each other like "wtf?!" and we asked him what was his secret... he said:

"I didn't have sex in the last 13 years"

The Bizarre underground experience

kiev | ukraine

This was probably the most bizarre experience that I ever had...

An Ukranian girl guide that I met on a free walking tour told me about a good underground place to visit... and she was right.

The images that you see below are from the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Caves.

These catacombs began more than 1500 years ago. The first passages were created for an underground monastery and cemetery for monks.

Fortified tunnels were created as late as the Soviet era to provide hidden access points to parts of the city, as well as other military purposes.

These catacombs have a horror and delight vibe at same time.

While I was walking through the catacombs, I felt difficulty breathing because the corridors were very tight and there were a lot of people there with lit candles in their hands.

Inside the catacombs it's possible to see monks' mummies inside of glass coffins with hundreds of years...

The deepest metro station in the world 🚇

kiev | ukraine

This is the Arsenalna metro station that is located 105.5 meters below the surface, making it the deepest metro station in the world.

How much time do you need to go way down on the never-ending escalators?

5 minutes...

Hidden Restaurant with Password

kiev | ukraine

Ostannya Barykada is an underground restaurant, difficult to access and you must say the correct password to enter.

The entire place is inspired by the Ukranian revolutions since 1990. All the artifacts are genuine, it is literally a museum. The idea was to hold meetings with political and opinion leaders here and broadcast live from the radio station with the same name “Ostannya Barykada”, which means “The Last Barricade”.

This restaurant is located underground in Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) and to access it you need to go to a shopping mall and find the only elevator that will take you to the restaurant.

When you reach the entrance, they will ask you for the password.

The password is “BORITESYA POBORETE” which are the classical words of the prominent Ukrainian writer Taras Shevchenko and mean “Keep on fighting and you will fight anything”...

Puzata Hata

kiev | ukraine

This restaurant chain is amazing. If you ever visit Kiev you must try it. Very good and cheap food... and a lot of variety.

The last image shows how much I paid for the food you see there. 117 Hryvnia was around 3,25€ at that time.

Fried chicken, fried egg, mashed potato, bread and more chicken with vegetables and a soup.

Closer Disco

kiev | ukraine

If you are a party person, the first must-visit spot I’ll recommend in Kiev is an art space called Closer that's based in a former factory in the old part of Kiev.

I'm leaving this video below to show you just a little of what I'm talking about...

Ukrainian Hryvnia

This yellow and blue note is probably the most beautiful note that I have ever seen.

Orthodox Churches

kiev | ukraine