Whether it is for sport or art, food or history, the Ukranian capital – one of the venues for Euro 2012 – is a city that offers visitors an endless variety of attractions, writes TOM FARRELL
'EVERYTHING WILL turn out right, the world is built upon that." This quote from the Kiev-born novelist Mikhail Bulgakov is easy to believe on a crisp morning in the Ukrainian capital. The author of Master and Margaritawas born there in 1891 while it was part of the Czarist Empire. His house is one of the sights on the cobbled St Andrew's Descent, a 700m walk that connects Upper Kiev with the commercial Podil district.
Bulgakov described his birthplace in The White Guard, a novel set during the Russian Civil War, when control of Kiev changed hands 16 times. But variety is stamped onto the character of Kiev. This was obvious as I walked along St Andrew's Descent and made for St Sophia's, an 11th-century cathedral that had passed through periods of Catholic and Orthodox ownership in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Upon arriving in Kiev, I had arranged transport by taxi from Borispol International Airport, although Kiev has an extensive and reliable transport network. The city has one of the oldest tram systems in the world, dating from 1892. Each day, about 1.3 million residents take the Metro, with more than 45 stations and marble, Stalinist-style platforms, akin to Moscow’s underground. However, the mostly Cyrillic signage meant that I enlisted a taxi to get around.
The Monastery of the Caves, aka the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, should not be missed during even the briefest stay in the city. Entering via the Holy Gates, with huge oil-painted murals on either side, the Great Lavra Bell Tower loomed up before me, built in the classical style with tiers and a gilded dome.
The monastery dates from 1051, founded by two monks Anthony and Theodosius, during the golden age of “Kievan Rus” civilisation: by the time of the devastating Mongol invasion in the 1240s, the city’s population was past the 100,000 mark. The Kiev Pechersk Lavra is arranged like a series of little villages around the Lavra (Orthodox monasteries) and the streets led me from church to monastery: the caves are a series of caverns, up to 20m deep and extending for nearly 400m.
I ventured into the Refectory Church and was awed by its multicoloured tiles and its wall high representations of saints from the orthodox tradition. The Byzantine atmosphere of these churches, dark and enigmatic, is a world away from the almost jovial character of the Gothic, Baroque or Modernist churches that a western visitor will have experienced.
On that point, some sensitivity to local customs is advised. Amid the fragrant smoke of the piously lit candles, I was snapping shots of icons and tables laid with offerings. An angry smattering of Russian from a woman in a black shawl who had been watching told me to desist. Most religious sites, however, permit photography for a few extra notes of the local currency, the hryvnia.
ONE OF KIEV’S best kept secrets is its food and even if it is only to whet the appetite, a trip to the Besarabsky Market in the city centre is well advised. The country’s various rynok (residential markets) are represented by the tables, stacked with vegetables, meats, dairy products (Ukrainian sour cream called smetana is a speciality), flowers, ornaments and clothing.
With my stomach rumbling, I crossed Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) one evening, with its massive video screens pulsing and its trees garlanded in lights. Then it was down Kreschatik Street towards the Puzata Khata restaurant, where I ordered borsch, a thick vegetable soup made with meat stock and added cabbage, potatoes and onions. Beetroot is added to give it colour; although there is no set recipe, borsch is usually served with bread and garlic. It was an exceptionally tasty dish, tangy and rich.
But tasty or not, I was careful to leave the plate clean, at that or any other meal I consumed while in Kiev. Most Irish people will have gone to school and read about the Great Famine in text books. But the world of blight-wracked potato fields, poorhouses and coffin ships is beyond even our great grandparents’ memories.
This is not the case in Ukraine. And as I delved a little into the recent history of Kiev, I found myself looking out for some of the city’s oldest residents, shuffling along the streets or maybe lighting a candle in a cathedral. Had a translator been present, any of them could have related stories of human suffering on a truly stupefying scale.
Already brutalised by a civil war, Kiev underwent rapid industrialisation, becoming an archetypal Soviet capital by the late 1920s. Then came the famine of 1932-3, that swept through the USSR’s breadbasket, turning the Ukrainian countryside into a wasteland of skeletal children and unburied corpses. What locals call the Holodomor (literally “killing by hunger”) killed at least five million Ukrainians, although some estimates go as high as 10 million.
And its architect, Joseph Stalin, went on to liquidate almost all of the city’s intelligentsia in the Great Purge of 1937-8. As in Moscow, the architectural legacy of the Soviet era is often dour and unattractive, but it can impress too.
DURING TRAVELS by taxi around the city, I sometimes saw a huge sentinel figure peeping over the cityscape. Up close, the immense representation of a robed woman came into view, 62m tall and atop a 40m pedestal. This was the Motherland Monument. Kiev’s most fearsome matriarch gazes across the city, with a sword and shield in hand. At her feet is a 10- hectare spread of monuments and museums to the Great Patriotic War of 1941-5.
I asked to be left off at Ivan Mazepa Street and ascended a hill overlooking the Dnieper River. A little further, I found large bronze relief sculptures in the classic "socialist realist" style: the Fording of the Dnieper, Transfer of Weaponsand the Heroes of the Front and Rear.It would be difficult to find a city more mercilessly battered between the anvil and hammer of the two great tyrannies of the 20th century, Nazism and Stalinism, than Kiev. The German encirclement of the city, the massacre at Babi Yar (a ravine where over 33,000 Jewish residents of Kiev were massacred by the Nazis in September 1941), the Nazi occupation and the Lower Dnieper Offensive in late 1943: these were among the most terrible happenings on the wartime Eastern Front.
But when I emerged into the main square, I found an unexpected sight: a T-62 and T-80 tank facing each other with their guns crossed for peace. The armour of both tanks was sprayed with flower patterns and psychedelic colours, as if the philosophies of Lenin and Lennon had reached a strange accommodation.
However, the city has survived centuries of war and invasion with its culture intact. Along with Poland, Ukraine will be hosting Euro 2012 and to that end, there has been heavy infrastructural investment. The Kiev Olympic Stadium, where the final match will take place, is being rebuilt to house 73,000 people.
Meanwhile, a new rail link is being constructed between Borispol Airport and the city centre. But even before its completion, the visitor is unlikely to come away disappointed. Whether it is for sport or art, food or history, Kiev is a city that offers endless variety.
Get there
Air France (airfrance.com) flies to Kiev via Paris Charles de Gaulle. Ukraine Airlines (flyuia.com) flies from London. KLM (klm.com) and Lufthansa (lufthansa.com) fly from Amsterdam and Frankfurt. It is also possible to travel from Berlin to Kiev by rail.
Kiev where too...
Stay
Value: There are overnight rooms available for up to UAH400 (€37) at the Central Railway Station, along with two youth hostels: the Yaroslav International, in the Podil area, 00-380-444-173-189, and the Kiev International, on Artema Street, 00-380-443-310-260.
Mid-market: Hotel Kozatsky, Independence Square, 00-380-442-794-925, kozatskiy.kiev.ua. Single rooms for €75 and doubles for €86 (with breakfast).
Upmarket:Hyatt Regency,
5 Alla Tarasova Street, 00-380-445-811-234, kiev.regency.hyatt.com. This is close to St Sophia’s Cathedral. Double rooms from UAH1,200 (€110).
Eat
Value:Buddha Bar, 14 Khreschatik Street, 00-380-442-707-676, buddhabar.com.ua. For anyone hankering after Asian dishes, Buddha bar serves Indian, Thai, Chinese and Japanese dishes at budget prices (€5 and under).
Mid-market: There are several branches of Puzata Kata. puzatahata.com.ua, in the city, serving authentic Ukrainian food in peasant-style surroundings for €10-15. Marrakesh, on Sagaydachnogo Street, 00-380-444-940-494, offers Arabic and North African dishes for similar prices.
Upmarket:Lavinia, 59 Zhylyanskaya Street, 00-380-445-695-700. Although expensive, this is reputed to have the city's best wine list. A three-course meal with drinks should cost €20 and over.
Drink
There are two Irish pubs, O’Brien’s on Mykhaylivska Street, 00-380-442-791-584, obriens.kiev.ua, a few minutes from Independence Square, and the Golden Gate on Zolotovoritska Street, 00-380-442-355-188, goldengatepubkiev.com. Both serve meals. The Arena on Baseina Street, 00-380-444-920-000, arena-kiev.com, along with the Tato Fashion Club on Sofia Perovskoyi Street, 00-380-444-561-782, tatoclub.com.ua, and Azhur on Leontovycha Street, 00-380-442-347-494, avalon.ua, are brash, loud nightclubs popular with expats.
When to go
Kiev may be visited at any time of the year, although expect the city to be snowbound between mid-December and February. Dates worth noting include Victory Day (May 9th), Kiev Day (last weekend of May) and Ukrainian Independence Day (August 24th).
Visas
Irish citizens do not require an entry visa if staying for 90 days or less.
Useful websites
Information on Kiev can be found at kyiv.inyourpocket.com, lviv.ua and mfa.gov.ua