A weekend in Kiev

Kiev – not just famous for the awesome deepfried breadcrumbed chicken with garlic and butter, also a destination to visit for the amazing orthodox architecture and for the more adventurous, the opportunity to visit Chernobyl. I loved Kiev and can’t wait to go again, provided you have a European passport, it is a cheap, lovely and easy place to go for a fabulous long weekend.

Kiev is a wonderfully walkable city which is safe and lovely. The highlights of our weekend were

Walk around town and see the amazing architecture

Wander up Andriivs’kyi Uzviz (Andrew’s descent). This is a lovely old street with nice shops, albeit some of them are a bit touristy. At the top there is the lovely St Andrews church, designed by an Italian architect.

St Andrews
St Andrews

Then head down to the sky blue St Michaels Monastery which is quite lovely, and cross over to see St Sofias – Kiev’s oldest standing church. You can easily see the highlights of Kiev old town in a 30 minute walk, but I would stretch it out to a couple of hours to see everything. Ladies – don’t forget to cover your head when you visit the churches (either a scarf or a hoody works)

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St Michaels
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St Sofias

You can also wander a bit further and see St Volodymyrs cathedral and then walk down to Independence Square through the modern bit of town. Less lovely, but still interesting

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Volodymyrs
Walk/Bus out to Lavra to see the monastery

Kiev Pechersk Lavra is a monastery based on a 900 year old underground cave system which still has mummified remains of the founding monks. Visiting the caves is a pilgrimage for many who walk the tunnels with lighted candles. Behave appropriately. Outside of the tunnels the orthodox church architecture above ground are beautiful

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Lavra
Head up to Chernobyl

I didn’t actually visit Chernobyl as had concussion and wasn’t up for the drive, but my darling hubby did and found it pretty interesting (photo’s are his). There are multiple tour options to head out there, all of which involve a bus, tour guide and a meal of some sorts. Interestingly, darling hubby did think that the Chernobyl experience was somewhat ‘curated’ as there were a few places where oxygen masks were artfully displayed alongside kids tours.

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Eat Chicken Kiev

We had intended to try a couple of different restaurants in Kiev, but after the first meal at Kanapa we just kept going back. It is expensive for Ukraine, but the food was astoundingly good. I would be tempted to go back to Kiev just to eat their Chicken Kiev. In addition to Kanapa, there were plenty of good cafes serving great fruit pie.

Additional Info
  • We were in luxe mode this weekend and we stayed at the Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv, which was pricy but cheaper than the Radisson or the Hyatt It was nice enough, but the breakfast was a bit pants. Hotels were expensive here!
  • the town is very easy to walk around, don’t bother with cabs
    • The free in your pocket guides are pretty good and can be downloaded here

 

Visited May 2015

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