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A Weekend in Kyiv
Kiev was not a natural choice for my stag party, but was one of the best weekends of my life and of the 7 other chaps that came along. To be honest my inspiration was drawn from Michael Palins travels, but with a little more nightlife.
"Transport"
I found a guide on the Internet, but he did not turn up at the airport with our transport, so we talked to some locals and caught the bus into town, much cheaper. The bus stops at the train station so all transfer to the underground to get into the centre. Having not read lonely planet at this point, we all preceded to buy a single underground tickets with what must have been 50 pound notes.
Get the underground everywhere, some trains have wallpaper in side them. Make sure you get a English and Russian map, as it seemed only the young speak English, and mobile phones work on the stations even the ones near the earths core.
Taxis try to rip you off, but telling them how much in advance helped. They also drive like World class Nutters. They had a race in 2 old Lada's past Maidan Nesaleznosti(independence square), hard core techno on full volumn, running lights at 50-70mph across cobble stones, the thing slid sideways at one point. I thought I was going to die.
"Khreschatik Hotel, Nightlight and Food"
The hotel Khreschatik on Food is cheap, we had a 3 course meal for next to nothing 10GBP in some back street place, and I would recommend the Miami Bar for a lovely breakfast after a hard night in the town you can sit outside and sun yourself.Khreschatik Street was clean old fashioned, about 90USD. A large woman who spoke English and an ex-teacher had us well under control , well at least when it came to paying the bills and moving rooms. The hotel had permanent security on the door, actually this is there to see who you are bringing back so I?m told. http://hotelsukraine.com/details.phtml?&hotelid=e57a5b1f956b5c8451e054bb7b303964&refid=10080
The few clubs are excellent and priced the same as any decent club back in the UK. Weekend on the town. Bar 111 had to score high, it was like gate crashing a modelling agency party Wow, every girl wanted to talk to you. Its got a rotating bar with stoles to sit on, one minute your mates are behind you the next they?re over the other side of the room. Also don?t miss the chill out room behind the dance floor its behind a concealed doorway. Moda was like some space ship from the future of clubbing, it?s in the basement of this huge steel floating brand new Chinese restaurant on the river. I?m told it can be pretentious, but hey. We did not meet any local blokes they just didnt seem to be around, but we did see a few flash types driving a convertable merc. If you go in the summer make sure you watch the sun rise over the river on the decking out the back. All in all we were getting 4 hours sleep a night living of adrenalin, coffee and cheap pizza.
Finally
Sorry if the theme of my pages offend anybody, please remember this was a lads weekend away. and I have to say I would love to return with wife half to explore and travel in what seemed a great country.
