This week we’re showing you around Kiev, Ukraine.
This was our first time travelling to the country, so we hardly knew what to expect,
though we did have an inkling we’d find churches with onion domes, borscht on every
menu, and very cheap prices, but that was it!
Well, we found some of that, but we also discovered a fascinating city with ornate architecture,
massive Soviet monuments, a completely new cuisine, more churches and monasteries than
we ever thought possible, and friendly people despite the language barrier.
The following is our travel guide to the city.
Now let us share with you 20 things to do in Kiev (Київ) on your next visit!
Well good morning good morning.
New country.
New adventure.
New country.
We are in the number 1 city of Kyiv (Київ).
And we're so excited to be here.
Just a new place for us to visit.
Mmmhmm.
So we've been here a few days and it is beautiful.
Like you can really see the European influence here but it also has a bit of a Soviet edge
so it has been really fun exploring around and yeah in this video we're going to take
you guys around, show you some of the highlights some come along.
20 things to do in Kiev.
So we're about to visit the Golden Gate (Золоті ворота) and learn the story of Prince
Sviatoslav.
Never heard of him before but apparently he's a big deal.
So we've got our tickets.
We paid 40 per person in the local currency and 20 for our cameras.
So that is a 100.
Let's do some math.
Just four dollars.
Yeah, $4 US dollars.
That is pretty good.
Let's go.
The Golden Gate was constructed during the 11th century and it was one of three medieval
gateways into the city.
Though the structure was dismantled during the Middle Ages leaving few traces of its
existence, it was completely rebuilt in 1982 in its current design.
Okay so we just finished climbing to the very top of the Golden Gate and it was pretty cool
because they have different levels with balconies so you can go out and enjoy the views but
now that we're at the top there is a church on top of this gate which is totally unexpected
so we're going to go in and have a look.
Alright, so next up we are doing Saint Sophia Cathedral (Собор святої Софії)
right behind me and we've also paid to climb the Bell Tower.
So hopefully we'll get some more amazing views of the city.
St. Sophia’s is Kiev’s oldest standing church, dating back to the 11th century.
No cameras are allowed inside the cathedral, but you can see some impressive mosaics and
frescoes that are still intact almost a millennium later.
Alright, I hope you guys aren't getting tired of churches and monasteries because we still
have lots left to visit.
This is kind of like the thing you do in Kiev (Київ).
So right now we're about to go into Saint Michael's Monastery (Михайлівський
золотоверхий монастир) with the golden domes I believe it is called.
It is quite the mouthful.
This place has quite a sad history, as the original cathedral was demolished by the Soviet
authorities in the 1930s for having “no historical value”.
It was only following Ukrainian independence, that a copy of the church was rebuilt and
completed in the year 2000.
So it was time for lunch.
Yeah, so we're right by a major attraction.
This is Saint Andrew's Church (Андріївська церква) just over there.
Tada.
You can see it.
And we were looking for a place for lunch and we are like where are we going to go?
Where are we going to go?
And how did we choose this place?
And we saw like this cute cat.
Sitting out front.
Really friendly.
Loved getting strokes.
Haha.
So yeah, we were like that one.
Cute cat.
We'll eat here.
The cat brought us in basically.
So lunch is served.
What did you get?
Well, since we're at a French restaurant I'm getting croque monsieur and french fries.
And I was in the mood for polenta with caramelized onions and mushrooms.
Yeah, and I have to say that in Kyiv (Киев) you can get some pretty good International
food.
Oh, yeah.
We're eating a lot of different things.
From there, it was time for one more church: St. Andrew’s which is a 5-domed Baroque
church that’s painted teal and located atop a steep hill.
If this design looks familiar, it’s because it was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the
same Italian architect who designed the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia.
So it looks like we won't be able to visit Saint Andrew's Church after all.
We paid our admission but once we got here I just noticed all the windows and the doors
are closed.
So I think we've just paid to like enjoy the views from the terrace but that is it.
We can't actually get inside of the church.
So we just noticed a sign explaining that the reason the church is closed is that it
is currently undergoing restoration work.
So yeah, that is too bad but instead we're going to be visiting this like antique slash
flea market that happens directly across from the church.
Tada.
So maybe we'll find a few little nic nacs to take back home.
I sure hope so.
After visiting the market across from St. Andrew’s Church, we continued down Andrew’s
Descent (Андріївський узвіз), which is a street lined with cafes, restaurants,
traditional craft shops, art galleries, and museums.
It’s also a great place to shop for souvenirs since they have a wide selection of items.
(Traditional Ukrainian Music)
So we've been walking for a really long time and we just noticed that there is a funicular
(Київський фунікулер) here.
Uh huh.
So that makes a lot of sense for us to go down and I hope it is cheap.
And we're going to go down to the waterfront.
Down to the river.
We sure are.
The Funicular connects the Upper Town with the lower commercial neighbourhood of Podil
via Volodymyrska Hill.
It’s a fun and cheap way to reach the waterfront and save your legs the trouble after a long
day of sightseeing.
So that was only 4 in local currency and you're talking a whopping 16 cents US so pretty good
value and it was a nice short ride although it was quite stuffy in there.
I was sweating.
It was a bit like a sauna.
But it was a nice view.
And actually this station at the bottom is even a little bit more grand than the one
at the top.
So now we're down by the riverfront (Київський річковий порт) and I have to say
it is much busier than I had anticipated.
There is a lot you can do here.
You can walk along the promenade.
You can take a river cruise.
There is a restaurant and dining options.
It is just a cool place to hang out.
We then continued to Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Майдан Незалежності), which
is Kiev’s central square.
When the population has wanted to make their voices heard, this has been the site of protests
and rallies, but on the average day, it’s just a place where people hang out with lots
of vendors, buskers, and random performances taking place.
Alright, Mister.
We're at Taras Shevchenko Park (Парк ім.
Тараса Шевченка).
Tell us all about it.
We sure are.
And this is a park I've come to absolutely love because it is only 2 minutes away from
our apartment.
So I've been coming here frequently to go jogging.
But every time I come here I kind of appreciate it a little bit more.
There is just a lot you can do.
There is a real cool restaurant.
You see men at night playing chess in a certain section.
There is a lot of couples going out for a stroll.
There is some pretty impressive monuments and yeah it is just kind of a cool park.
I really like it.
So these are the coolest park benches I've ever seen.
Chilling on one now.
It is so awesome.
There is another one.
We're facing in opposite directions.
Yeah.
So it is perfect for couples but they also have solo benches.
I can sleep.
Are you falling asleep?
I could sleep.
Now, about that restaurant we were talking about, that’s O’Panas right here.
This place specializes in traditional Ukrainian dishes, and it’s a two-story restaurant
built around a tree.
The food here was amazing, and we also loved that at night they had live music with singing
and accordions.
On this particular visit, we sampled stuffed cabbage rolls, veal salad, duck brisket, and
a dumpling soup served in a loaf of bread.
So there is my soup.
And if I kind of touch the bread it is starting to get a little soft because we've been taking
so many pictures.
Haha.
We have.
So I should probably dig in before it starts like seeping through the bread.
But yeah, if you have a closer look in here.
Look at this.
It looks so good.
Some real mushrooms in there.
Some carrots, there is dill and nice broth.
I'm so excited for this.
I skipped breakfast purposely for Ukrainian food.
So here is some of the behind the scenes stuff that we don't always film.
We wanted to visit this one particular church that has these catacombs so we rode the metro
to what looked like the closest stop to the church on Google Maps.
And then we got off and there was like a highway there and no clear path.
So we were like walking along the side of the highway.
Then we hiked through a forest.
We ended up on another path.
Now we're walking along some abandoned road and it looks like we're really close to the
church but we can't seem to reach it because it is just blocked off every way we've tried.
So yeah, walking in circles in the middle of nowhere in Kiev (Киев).
So we started our adventure this morning right by that highway.
There is a metro station down over there.
And we've walked up the mountain.
Oh my gosh.
As an FYI, the closest metro station to Kiev Pechersk Lavra (Києво-Печерська
лавра) is Arsenalna, NOT Dnipro, and even then you’re looking at a 20-minute
walk.
So next up we are visiting Kiev Pechersk Lavra which is like this massive historical and
religious complex.
They have monasteries, churches, there is caves with the bodies of monks.
There is museums and yeah there is a lot to do.
So much to see it is like this massive huge space.
And admission we ended up paying the equivalent of $3 US dollars in order to be able to enter
all of the buildings.
Exactly.
It was 75 per person and where they really got you though was the camera.
The camera was 200.
200 which would be about eight US dollars.
Which is quite pricey to take photos.
And they checked.
And they've been checking for tickets.
Every time we enter a church or a museum they are like ticket.
Ticket.
Yeah, so for the camera.
Haha.
We first visited the Dormition Church, with its gold domes and beautiful frescoes, followed
by the Refectory Church which has more of Byzantine style.
Lastly, we walked downhill and eventually found the entrance to the cave complex.
There is no admission fee for this, but you do have to buy a candle at the entrance in
order to light your way through the tunnels.
If you’re a woman, you’ll also be able to borrow a skirt in order to enter.
Another place we visited in Kiev (Київ) was the Chernobyl Museum (Український
національний музей "Чорнобиль"), which documents the 1986 Chernobyl disaster
and its aftermath.
On the way into the museum, you walk up a set of stairs that displays road signs for
the villages that were abandoned as a result of the nuclear accident.
The images you see with a radiation symbol signify that the individual died as a result
of exposure.
From there, we walked to the One Street Museum (Музей Одной Улицы), which
is a small museum along Andrew’s Descent, which chronicles the story of this street
over the years.
It’s filled with photos, antique postcards, historical documents, manuscripts, and even
costumes from the turn of the 20th century.
Another attraction we couldn’t miss in Kiev (Киев) is the Motherland Monument (Батьківщина-Мати
- Родина-мать), a 62-meter stainless steel statue, which is kind of hard to miss.
In one hand, the statue holds a sword and in the other, the State Emblem of the Soviet
Union.
Now going back to churches because it’s been a while; nearby our AirBnB, we also visited
St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral (Патріарший кафедральний собор св),
which is designed in the Old Byzantine style and is considered the ‘mother cathedral’
to the 'Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Moving on to food, one place we frequented in our neighbourhood was Katyusha, which had
a bit of a retro vibe and served traditional Ukrainian dishes on a budget.
We tried things like borsch, potato pancakes, and dumplings, and we liked that the portions
were small enough that you could order an assortment of dishes to sample.
For more Ukrainian food, we visited Pervak, which is more of a high-end Ukrainian restaurant.
We ended up having a few traditional dishes here, like pork fat spread, pickled herring,
shots of vodka, as well as the city’s crowning dish, Chicken Kiev, which is coated in breadcrumbs
and stuffed with butter, garlic and parsley.
Since we’re speaking of food, we also have to recommend Georgian cuisine, which is super
popular in Kiev (Київ).
We ate at Mama Manana on two separate occasions and had the biggest feast of feasts.
Last but not least, the Kiev metro is an experience in and of itself with train cars that rattle
and screech to an abrupt stop.
Also, fun fact: Kiev is home to the deepest metro station in the world: Arsenalna, which
is a whopping 105.5 metres below ground!
So I actually timed the escalator ride at the metro station by our apartment and it
takes almost two minutes to reach the exit.
So I don't even know how many meters underground we are but it is really really deep.
We're still going.
Train sounds.
And that’s a wrap for our visit to Kiev!
This was our first time travelling in Ukraine (Україна), but we were hooked right
from the start.
This destination felt very underrated with few tourists around, yet we were surrounded
by beautiful architecture, there were churches galore to visit, the cuisine was hearty and
filling, and everything was super affordable.
So, if anyone out there is thinking of travelling to Kiev, we hope this video was able to give
you a taste of what it’s like.
Now you guys know the drill, if you have any other suggestions of things to do in Kiev,
that we may have missed, feel free to share your tips and suggestions with travellers
in the comments below.
Wishing you happy travels and until next time!