Kiev Layover

Sofia Church in Kiev.

 

We arrived in Kiev at roughly 10 in the morning, after another overnight train ride.  Most of the crew was staying in some hotel whose name I can't remember right now, but I had booked a single room in the Hotel Dnipro.  At this point I was looking forward to having some privacy and space again!  The two hotels were only a block apart, so I got out of the van at the other hotel and started to walk to mine - and was welcomed to the bit city by a couple of people who tried to scam me along the way. 

 

 

 

 

 

Monastery in Kiev.

 

As I was walking, a man came running up behind me, bent over, and came up with a plastic baggie in his hand, just FULL of cash.  There were US dollars, Ukrainian hryvna, and who knows what else besides, but it looked like there were hundreds if not thousands of dollars in there.  He looks at me, smiling, and says "you speak English?  I find!  50-50!  We split - 50-50!  You speak English?"  Confused, I took his hand and shook it, said "I speak English, it's not my money".  He just kept saying "50-50?".  About 20 seconds later, another man came running up, in a bit of a panic, and said "mister!  you speak English?  I lose money - maybe you see it?  You speak English?" 

 

Amazingly monolithic government building.  The scale of the building is really very impressive, especially as you get closer.

At this point, I realized they were trying to scam me, when the panicked man then pulled out an American dollar, pointed at the federal reserve logo, and said "my dollars are all marked with this mark - show me your money, please."  Just how stupid do they think tourists are?  It took me a good minute or two before I was able to get ride of them by repeatedly saying "I DON'T have your money, now GET AWAY!". 

 

 

 

 

There was a giant celebration of the city going on while we were in Kiev, including a bicycle race and fashion show.  This crowd is in the main city square, in front of Hotel Ukraina.

Absolutely huge street arts and crafts market (read:  tourist trap).  It went on for well over a kilometre, with these kinds of crowds all along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ewen, Orin and Rishi joining a parade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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