Ukriane
UKRAINE TRIP REPORT
On October 14th 2001 Elena and I went to Ukraine for a 10 day break. We spent a couple of days in Kiev and a week down in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. We had a wonderful time and over the next few pages I'll give you some idea of our time there.
We arrived in Kiev after a 2 1/2 hour flight from the UK. You can fly direct into Kiev if you fly British Airways from Gatwick. Fly elsewhere and you'll need a change over in Europe which could put a few hours on your travel time. On entry to Ukraine the biggest difference compared to entry to Russia, was how strict they are with declaring anything valuable and dollars you are bringing in. You must declare mobile phones, laptops, camera's, video camera' and all the dollars or currency your are bringing in. You will get a declaration form on the plane. Fill in 2 copies and go through the red channel. They will stamp this form and you will keep a copy to show any police who may stop you and ask you for it. I've not been stopped yet! If you don't declare your valuables and have the form stamped you will have these items confiscated when you depart Ukraine or will have to pay fines and taxes. Don't risk it. Never hide anything! The red channel was full and I had to queue here for about 20 minutes. It seemed everyone on the plane had something !!
We stayed in the President hotel in Kiev. It's comfortable and clean. We were there for only 2 nights and saw very little of the city. What we did see of Kiev was very impressive. It's a beautiful city, full of history and tradition. When we returned to Kiev at the end of our trip we left our luggage at the train station and hired a taxi to give us a guided tour of the city for a few hours. It cost ^50 and was well worth the money. The taxi driver didn't speak English except for the words 'David Beckham' and Man Utd! For the American guys reading this it won't mean a thing to you, sorry!! Just 'soccer' talk for the Europeans!!
Once we had finished discussing the football the driver took us to some of the famous landmarks around the city. You can see some of the pictures on this page. Above is the entrance to a church called Mikchailovska. It's a must see! It covers a huge area and sits high up and overlooks the city of Kiev and the river Dnepr.
To the left you can just see the gold dome's of St Andrew's Church. Again the views from here are spectacular. The setting here is lovely with cobbled streets and painters, photographers and craftsmen selling their wares.
Here you can see the 'Square of independence'. Since this picture was taken a statue is present in the middle of the square to mark Ukrainian Independence. All the buildings around the square are impressive. There is a lot of construction work taking place in Kiev. It looks to me like the Ukrainian government is spending a lot of money on renovation. All the churches for example are in a wonderful condition. Admittedly we were only in Kiev for a short period of time but I have been left with a very good impression and look forward to returning soon. On to On to Sevastopol
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Mikchailovska Church |
Independence Square |
St. Andrews Church |
