Well well hello there!
We hope you guys have enjoyed the Ukraine video series that we've been putting out over
the last few weeks.
That has come to an end but we figured why not sit down on our couch, take a little roadtrip
down memory lane and talk about some experiences and also a few reasons why we enjoyed visiting
Ukraine.
Yeah, exactly.
We had such a good time in Ukraine and we honestly like it wasn't a place that we were
even going to go to this year.
Yeah, it was like it was a last minute decision to be honest.
It really was.
It was it was the biggest travel surprise of the year for us in terms of us really enjoying
it.
And what happened was as Canadians we could only spend 3 out of 6 months in the Schengen
Zone.
Yes.
Which is basically most of Europe.
Most of Europe and so we had to get out and Ukraine was one of the options of a place
we could go.
Yeah.
So we've always wanted to visit Ukraine (Україна) but one of the reasons that we came there
was strategic and we had so many projects this summer.
It was like one after the other after the other that by the time we arrived in Ukraine
we hadn't we didn't really have enough time to do a lot of prior research so we were just
kind of hitting the ground running and so everything was fresh and new to us and we
ended up loving it so much that we wanted to share 10 reasons why we think you should
visit Ukraine (Україна).
And Sam even got a cool shirt.
I did.
Yeah.
I got this in Lviv (Львів).
Oh man I love this.
Love this shirt.
So number 1 let's talk about affordability.
Ukraine is really really cheap for travelers and we're going to give you guys some examples.
Let's start with accommodations.
So we stayed in an Airbnb.
Yeah.
And I remember when we were searching for prices online um you can find like really
nice entire apartments usually anywhere between $15 to $35 dollars.
Yeah.
And if you look for anything higher it is like luxury.
Like a $40 apartment is luxurious.
These are really nice apartments.
Big spacious and great locations.
Yeah.
Both in we went to Kyiv and Lviv.
And both times we were able to find like apartments we were very happy with.
Um, both under $30 dollars.
So excellent value.
And the next thing you'll find really inexpensive and great value in Ukraine is dining out because
we were able to go and have like great meals usually between like $5 to $10 US dollars.
Yeah.
And when you're looking at $10 US dollars per person that is usually several courses
paired with wine and dessert.
Wine, dessert and sharing appetizers.
Things like that.
And also you can find a bit more budget meals.
You can definitely have cheap bites for under $5 dollars.
For under 5 US dollars like sometimes like 3 or 4 dollars.
So yeah there is excellent value dining out and it was just so fun.
It was a great experience getting to do that frequently because of the prices.
Yes, and another thing that is really cheap transportation.
Probably the cheapest transportation we've used so far.
Yeah.
I think you mentioned it was the equivalent of 0.20 US cents.
It was $0.20 at the time we visited I remember it being 5 in local prices which was 20 US
cents at the time.
Yeah.
Yeah, taking the metro was a whole experience.
We'll talk about that a bit later.
Yeah.
And the last thing we found to be great value was shopping for groceries.
And we'd get like chocolate, wine, fresh produce, meats but we didn't actually eat at home as
much as we do in other countries.
Yeah, because restaurants were so cheap so we were like yeah we're going to splurge.
Yeah, exactly.
So we had lots of really good meals.
So reason number 2 we found Ukraine to be super underrated.
And we especially noticed this in the lack of travelers.
Yep.
Like we would be visiting some of the main attractions and like looking around it was
just mostly local or domestic travelers but you don't see a lot of foreigners.
Yeah, you don't see like these big tour buses and then all of these people piling out.
Not at all.
There weren't massive lines to go to places.
It was just I found that really refreshing because in some cities in Europe it has gotten
to the point where it is overwhelming to visit.
Yeah.
Because there is just so much going on but we found there is this really underrated aspect
of being in Ukraine (Україна).
So the 3rd point is we want to talk about safety and we both felt very safe in both
Kiev (Київ) and Lviv.
We were going around with our cameras out, we also didn't at anytime like we were in
danger doing that.
We also found that just by like I was jogging at night for instance in Kyiv (Київ) and
I had no issues whatsoever.
Nobody hassled us.
No.
There was zero hassle factor.
Now moving on to point number 4 let's talk about friendliness because we kind of thought
we were going to have a bit of a language barrier and maybe it would be really hard
to communicate and people were going to be like really harsh and stern but honestly we
had a really positive experience.
Yeah, it was positive right from the beginning.
We'll start with our Airbnb hosts.
Both she was so nice.
Both of them were fantastic.
Oh yeah and the other guy too.
He came to pick us up at the train station.
Yeah, like I've never had a host come and get you and like welcome you.
They were very friendly in both places.
Yeah.
For instance in Kiev I remember our host printed out our train tickets for us last minute and
like you were saying in Lviv we got picked up at the train station and we also got dropped
off at the airport and that has never happened anywhere else we've stayed around the world.
That was cool.
We found locals were really going above and beyond ot make us feel welcome and that also
extended to restaurants as we started to revisit some of our favorite places.
I remember there was one place in Kiev (Київ) we went to O'Panas in the park nearby our
house.
Oh yeah, several times.
Yeah, the staff got to know us and everyone was very friendly and like every time we went
there we felt even more welcome and we found that um compared to other parts of Europe
maybe not as much English is spoken by the average person but even people who couldn't
speak English well we found there was lots of friendly gestures.
Lots of smiling.
Lots of smiling and your tip was to learn.
Oh yeah, so as a tip I would recommend learning to read the Cyrillic alphabet.
Like that is going to help you out a lot.
Just being able to kind of like sound out the food names like names of words.
Yeah, exactly.
Um and you did a better job of that than I did so.
Yeah, well I mean like we had been traveling in Kyrgyzstan and we've been to Bulgaria.
Yep.
So like it just comes in handy.
It is a good skill to have.
Yeah, that is a really good travel tip for Ukraine.
Definitely.
Okay part number 5 guys is the local food scene.
And if you've been watching our channel for any length of time we ate a lot.
Yeah, you know we ate a lot and you know we are always going to talk about food wherever
we go.
So we ate some really delicious things one of my favorite things was Ukrainian dumplings
called Varenyky (Вареники).
Oh, those were so good.
We ate those like all of the time.
Yeah.
And then when we went out to Lviv I really enjoyed a dish called Banosh (Банош)
which basically it kind of like had polenta cornmeal mix with bacon and sheep goats cheese.
Sheep's cheese.
And oh that was so good and hearty.
And which ones did you like?
Um, we had Deruny (деруни) I believe it is like it was stacks of potato pancakes.
They were just like and sometimes we would just get the plain pancakes but other times
we would get it with like this creamy mushroom sauce and chicken.
Ooh my goodness that was so good.
So good.
And we also had quite a bit of Borscht (борщ) and that is kind of a classic.
Yeah, so those are 4 things you can try and there is lots of great traditional Ukrainian
restaurants.
Um, we went to a lot of them.
I remember in Kyiv (Київ) we really liked O'Panas, we really liked Pervak and then we
went to Sevel Piggies in Lviv.
So yeah they were all really good.
Yeah, and the food is very hearty and filling.
So bring your appetite and maybe skip breakfast.
Haha.
And speaking of food number 6 let's talk about the International Food Scene because there
is some of that going on.
So while we were in Kiev we had quite a bit of Georgian food that is really popular.
Oh, that was delicious.
We found a place called Mama Manana.
Oh.
You know what?
That is vying for maybe even our favorite restaurant that we ate at in the whole country.
It was so good.
So good.
It was all so good.
We also had great Korean food.
Yep.
We ate sushi.
We didn't show this in Lviv but we found a place a little Italian place that was doing
like wood oven fire pizzas.
Yeah.
They were delicious too.
Yeah.
And then there was also like little pop up restaurants.
Oh yeah.
So like you would have these little like minivans that would open up and there would be a little
coffee shop or a little cocktail bar.
And they would usually park in the parks or like near intersections and you could just
go and order your coffee in the morning.
So that was kind of cool.
Yeah, so it was just like great great food scene in Ukraine and that was one of the reasons
we loved travel in Ukraine so much.
There was good food.
Haha.
So number 7 let's talk about transportation because it is pretty cool especially in Kyiv
(Киев) we rode the metro a lot to get around like right from day 1 and not only
was it cheap but the stations were so grand so you'd go like underground and you'd have
these like massive arches and yeah they had like chandaliers and these cool things.
It was an experience.
And the trains tended to be quite rustic and they were rattlers.
They were shakers.
And yeah I we kind of I don't know for some reason we have this weird thing about enjoying
that kind of stuff.
And the other cool part is that it has the deepest metro station in the world.
Yes.
So that would be Arsenalna.
Yeah.
Five minute ride isn't it?
Yeah, it takes five minutes.
Five minutes and you have to ride down two separate escalators.
It is a five minute ride and they are very fast moving escalators.
So you can imagine how deep that is going.
Yeah, so that was cool.
And so the other cool the other part I wanted to mention about transportation too is we
found it really easy to get from the airport to the city center.
We just took a bus and then we transferred on the metro in Kiev (Київ).
And then the other thing that was great was that we took the train from Kyiv to Lviv and
it was awesome.
Like the train was very comfortable, it left on time.
In fact it even arrived five minutes earlier than scheduled.
Ooh.
Which is always a nice thing.
That tends to be rare anywhere you take trains.
And I remember it was very affordable so we actually upgraded to first class.
That is right.
Yeah, that is right.
I think our tickets if I remember correctly were 500 local which is about $20 dollars.
So yeah, it was very affordable and that was like for a five or six hour ride if I remember
correctly.
So yeah transportation was a big bonus of traveling in Ukraine (Україна).
So number 8 let's talk about architecture and I feel like that is reason enough to visit
Ukraine.
Honestly going into it I was kind of expecting super drab Soviet looking architecture and
you do get a few buildings like that but honestly like most of the streets were stunning.
Yeah.
Like let's talk about Kiev (Киев) first.
Like some of the streets in that city looked straight out of Paris.
Like everything was so ornate and elaborate.
I was thinking of Paris or Buenos Aires like really nice balconies and you were also impressed
by the colors as well.
Yeah, so a lot of the buildings were painted these bright colors like you had teals and
blues and yellows and I just thought it added like a really nice profile of colors especially
on a gray day.
Yeah, I agree with you and it was interesting to see how some buildings were being maintained
better than others it just gave it some variety while we were walking around.
Yeah.
And you know what?
We actually noticed quite a bit of restoration work taking place.
Yep.
In some of the you know older more historic buildings.
So yeah the architecture ended up being one of the more underrated features of visiting
Ukraine for us.
Yeah.
So number 9 let's talk about churches because I feel like this is the main attraction in
most cities.
Well, we only did Kiev and Lviv (Львів) but we saw a lot of churches.
Um, and monasteries and cathedrals.
Um, just speaking personally I'll just interject here I mean if you've been traveling in Europe
for a while you can actually get fatigued from visiting churches because it is just
one after the other some of them look similar between city to city.
But the churches and monasteries and cathedrals in Ukraine were quite impressive.
Yeah, they were very different.
First of all you've got that classic onion-dome like on top of the churches.
A lot of them were gold so like you can see them shimmering off in the distance.
Also like just like a lot of the buildings in the city we found that the churches were
very colorful.
Sometimes as impressive as they were from the outside it was like once you went in they
were even more impressive inside.
Like they were so ornate and it was a whole experience especially some of the more Orthodox
ones like for you you would be covering up.
Yeah as a women you do have to cover up and like kind of wear a scarf over your head so
something to keep in mind.
And yeah, I should mention that these are active places of worship so often times we'd
be going in but people would be praying and worshiping so you kind of have to be mindful
of that and like trying not to encroach.
In Lviv (Львів) we kept every church that we visited there was a wedding going
on.
Yeah.
We were kind of like wedding crashers in Lviv.
We were being very discreet trying to film but it was fascinating.
And in Lviv you have many different types of churches.
Yeah, we visited Armenian churches, Jesuit churches, Bernardine churches.
So yeah, lots of churches to choose from for sure.
So we certainly had our fill in Ukraine (Україна).
Haha.
So for number 10 we want to talk about the diversity of places in Ukraine.
Yep.
And I know we're probably not the best people to talk about this since we only visited two
destinations but we've had so many different suggestions in the comments like in all of
the videos we've been making and we've actually been researching these places.
So there is a lot of nature.
Um, the one place that kept coming up was Odessa.
You guys have got to go to Odessa.
Yeah.
So there is just there is a lot of places that we didn't get to even explore within
the country that make us want to go back and revisit again because we had such a good experience
in Kyiv and Lviv (Львів).
Yeah.
And yeah, it was just an awesome experience for us so it makes us want to go back to Ukraine
and to experience a whole lot more.
So if any of you have tips and suggestions of like some places that you think would be
great to visit, maybe some underrated places in the country please let us know in the comments
below because I think this will really help others.
So that is a wrap for this video and those are our 10 reasons to visit Ukraine we hope
you were able to inspire you guys a little bit to add a new country to your bucket-list.
Yeah, exactly this is a place we really enjoyed and we hope these travel tips to Ukraine (Україна)
really helped you out.
And if you have any other tips you'd like to share please leave those below in the comments.
And yeah, we just had a great time in Ukraine.
We can't express that enough.
So just go out there and visit.
Alright, bye.
Tata.