DoonTheSlope Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 (edited) I've just booked a flight to Kiev on the way back from Georgia and arrive at 8:30 on the Saturday morning. I don't want to clog the Georgia threads and forums that are all ready filling up so I'll stick it in here I am spending one night and have been looking at hotels close to Boryspol Airport which have free transfer shuttle buses. I'm just looking for something to do, I fancy the Chernobyl Disaster museum but it seems like the centre of town which could be handy for wandering about. Is there any other suggestions?? Also, I know Dontetsk is really suffering from the ongoing conflict but does anyone know first hand how Kiev is Edited May 30, 2015 by DoonTheSlope Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doonhameronthedon Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Stay in town. Get the bus if you don't fancy the taxi, if you want a taxi which takes half an hour then go to the official desk. Have fun, nice place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Thanks. Really looking forward to visiting a new place. I just need to try and keep it quiet that I'm going to Ukraine. I let slip to my mum a few weeks ago that Ukraine was a travel option and put it this way she wasn't a happy lady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deecie Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Do try to remember how big Ukraine really is. Donetsk to Kiev is further than Aberdeen to London. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisEDI Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I fancy the Chernobyl Disaster museum brave man, wouldnt be going anywhere near that after a multiple day bender Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 brave man, wouldnt be going anywhere near that after a multiple day bender Why's that lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Kyiv is fine (massive party happening on Ukrainian TV tonight to celebrate Dynamo winning the league). My Mrs is from Western Ukraine, but visited Kyiv many times over the last 12 years. Getting from airport to centre is pretty straight forward.... Most hotels will charge you $60 to do it, while agents $35.... But there is buses outside the terminal that does it for buttons. Usually I stay in Hotel Cossatsky on Independence Square (cheap and central) but due to the crash of the Hryvna everything is dirt cheap (gone from 12/13 up to 55 to the pound.... Back down to 33 now to the pound) and got a suite in the more up market Hotel Ukraine across the square for £25 a night! I am in town from the Friday until the Tuesday before Georgia. Regarding Chernobyl, never actually done it, but finally getting around to it this time (as the concert dome is going over it next year) and will post you the link. Anything want to know happy to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 (edited) Do try to remember how big Ukraine really is. Donetsk to Kiev is further than Aberdeen to London.16 hours on the train.... It's more like saying events in Copenhagen effect life in Edinburgh.All my friends in Kyiv I speak to just all say "life goes on" (as said there is a big concert going on in Kyiv tonight and my Facebook feed is just full of my Dynamo supporting friends enjoying this event) Would not stay near the airport as there is not much there and you will be missing out on a lot (head down to the Dnipro river at night for fantastic light show of te City) Edited May 30, 2015 by wanderer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Kyiv is fine (massive party happening on Ukrainian TV tonight to celebrate Dynamo winning the league). My Mrs is from Western Ukraine, but visited Kyiv many times over the last 12 years. Getting from airport to centre is pretty straight forward.... Most hotels will charge you $60 to do it, while agents $35.... But there is buses outside the terminal that does it for buttons. Usually I stay in Hotel Cossatsky on Independence Square (cheap and central) but due to the crash of the Hryvna everything is dirt cheap (gone from 12/13 up to 55 to the pound.... Back down to 33 now to the pound) and got a suite in the more up market Hotel Ukraine across the square for £25 a night! I am in town from the Friday until the Tuesday before Georgia. Regarding Chernobyl, never actually done it, but finally getting around to it this time (as the concert dome is going over it next year) and will post you the link. Anything want to know happy to help. You should start charging a fee!! you would make a fortune lol. Get you a pint or two in Gori or Tblisi It's not actually Chernobyl itself, if there was more time then I'd definitely be looking into the day trip. It's just a museum which is something I'd like to learn more about and would also kill a few hours. When you say $35, do they use dollars over there underhand?? I know when Hibs played Dnipro in 2005 people I know who went were talking about getting US Dollars but because I wasn't going I didn't really think to ask why Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 You are on my Gori trip, so happy to explain things to you during that. Best to take Dollers (though in recent years the pound, English notes only, has started to become very popular) as for some reason they have never took to the Euro, as that's what you will be quoted in by agents and stuff for tours. Cash machines are everywhere on Krusiatic Street (their version of Princess Street almost) with plenty of shops, bars and banks to be found here. Ahhhh, the actually Museum is in down town I believe (you can walk down St Andrews descent from upper town to down tour, which is a good walk passed all the stalls selling all the old communist tat and souvenirs) and then get the fanincular trian back up.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Good stuff. Thanks for all the help. Really looking forward to the Gori trip!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LewisEDI Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Why's that lol not somewhere i would want to go full of the fear after a huge bender. thats probably just me though haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich NATA Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I was in Kiev in January of last year at the height of the trouble and there was absolutely NOTHING to worry about. The agro was isolated to a small area round by the Dynamo Stadium. Only a short distance from Independence Square, but I was on the square and the main drag with the protester's; all tents and flags flying and comradeship. It was absolutely fine. All of that has now been cleared away and everything is back to normal in Kiev. The distant east of the country is another world. The Chernobyl Museum is in Podil; an area just north of the centre and I visited it last year. It was okay, but nothing was in English. For me, the photos were the most memorable thing about it. If you had more time, I'd say by all means go, but as you haven't... If you've never been, the number 1 thing you must see is RODINA MAT. The STUNNINGLY IMPRESSIVE memorial of the Great Patriotic War (WW2 to us). Catch the metro to ARSENAL. Turn left and keep walking. You'll eventually come to a park. Walk through there in the direction of the Obelisk (and its eternal flame). Vear right (past the religeous looking building, which is a museum covering the Stalin-instigated Ukrainian famine) and turn left when you reach the road keep going until Rodina Mat, her museum and her statue park come into view. She is without doubt one of the most impressive things I've ever seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich NATA Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 P.S. Dynamo Kiev now play ALL their matches at the Olimpsky Stadium. Since Scotland last played there, it has been completely renovated and very impressive it is too!! They offer a very good stadium tour and there are also TWO museums; one for Dynamo and one for Ukrainian/Soviet sport. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 P.S. Dynamo Kiev now play ALL their matches at the Olimpsky Stadium. Since Scotland last played there, it has been completely renovated and very impressive it is too!! They offer a very good stadium tour and there are also TWO museums; one for Dynamo and one for Ukrainian/Soviet sport. Dynamo have signed a long term lease on the Olympic Stadium, but still play some cup games in the Dynamo Stadium. A number of teams from Eastern Ukraine have moved in to Dynamo ground today (today Dynamo played a "away" game at the Dynamo stadium, then all the fans went to the Olympic stadium for a massive concert put on for them). Told there could be anything up to 4 games over 2 days when I am in Kyiv for the weekend when I am there in August. Also FC Start stadium (team that beat the Nazi team during WW2 and was influence for Escape to Victory) stadium is close to the Barba Yari shrine (site of a mass grave in Kyiv) that I am visiting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich NATA Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 I visited Baba Yar and the FC Start stadium during the TA visit. At FC Start, locate the footballer/eagle statue and line yourself up perfectly to see through the eagle's eye - you'll get a shock! DoonTheSlope: I'd recommend the book "Dynamo" by Andy Dougan. Essential. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flora MaDonald Posted May 31, 2015 Share Posted May 31, 2015 If yer an auld qûnt you'll get jumped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelbo009 Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 I'm heading to Kiev after Tbilisi as well, so you won't be the only Scot there! We can both nip Wanderer's heid on the Gori trip for tips on what to see/do... Have you booked a hotel? We're booked into the Ibis City Centre, less than £25 each for 2 nights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wanderer Posted June 1, 2015 Share Posted June 1, 2015 We can both nip Wanderer's heid on the Gori trip for tips on what to see/do... Will tell you all on the bus up from Yerevan, but for Gori I will put you on bus two Talking with friend in Kyiv today, and he mentioned as his only bit of of advice is to not bother with the metro system..... there is crack calls on bombs in the subway system happening almost on a hour basis these days, which sends the whole system into total shut down (he has been caught up in it a number of times on his way home from Work and does not bother with it any more). Kyiv is starting to get a really good reputation for a small (but fast growing) craft beer pubs and a number of new underground/Hipster pubs are opening on a daily basis, so will point out some to you after I have tried them for the first time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich NATA Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 I'm heading to Kiev after Tbilisi as well, so you won't be the only Scot there! We can both nip Wanderer's heid on the Gori trip for tips on what to see/do... No need - It's an open and shut case If you've never visited Kiev and have only 1 day available and probably only time to see 1 thing, then it absolutely has to be a visit to Rodina Mat and everything around and beneath her. On her plinth, as tall as a football pitch is long, she's absolutely astonishing. Having visited the Chernobyl Museum in Podil just 17 months ago, I would place it further down the list of anyone's priorities. If you were there for a number of days, then yes, okay, but if you're not, scrap it. The Olympic Stadium Tour and its (2) museums? Excellent tour, but small museums. Well worth a visit, but not at the expense of Rodina Mat. The FC Start stadium? More of a local football ground than a stadium, albeit with a superb statue commemorating what happened there, but you need to read the book and only then you can visit this place. I say that as a self-confessed 'stadium-anorak'...... I would prioritise Rodina Mat over the stadium's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoonTheSlope Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 Sounds like a really good place to visit. I just wished I'd thought about and booked a few days in Kiev en route to Tbilisi and I could've done the Chernobyl tour Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brassrubber Posted June 3, 2015 Share Posted June 3, 2015 Did the chernobyl trip in 2006 and one of the most interesting things I have ever done plus food in chernobyl old town hall was great and vodka about 20p a bottle. St Elias church very picturesue but hearing the full story and seeing the results of the disaster is quite something . We werent allowed to wear kilts due to radiation levels and got geiger countered in and out of the 12 mile exclusion zone.Would recommend if its still on the go and you have a spare day. WILL YOU GLOW LASSIE GLOW AND WE'LL ALL GLOW TOGETHER was the trip song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich NATA Posted February 25, 2019 Share Posted February 25, 2019 A different thread, bumped... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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