Kiev Off The Beaten Path

Kiev Zoo is a hundred years old.
It occupies a vast area in Victory Avenue opposite the campus of the Polytechnic Institute (“Polytechnic Institute” metro station).
It’s one of the places in the capital where you can find lots of vacant benches to sit and relax.
The benches are also unique and represent different wild animals in marble.
The Zoo area includes a large park consisting of different kinds of rare trees and shrubs, a number of exhibitions and pavilions such as ”Animal World” exotarium, “Bears’ Home”, “Monkey Home”, “Insects’ World”; attractions for kids, cafeterias and ponds.
You can see animals from all over the world: bisons, camels, lamas, lions, tigers, even a cassowary from New Guinea, eagles, etc.
You can spend the whole morning there strolling along the park lanes and exploring the pavilions and exhibitions, especially if you come there with kids.
The entrance fee is 20 UAH ($2.5,
the exhibitions charge extra 5 UAH.

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The Afghan War memorial is located between the Cave Monastery and the Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 (Second World War memorial).
This impressive monument is dedicated to all those residents of Ukraine who perished in that stupid war.
I was impressed by the figures of the soldiers and the memorial itself.
It contains the names of all fallen soldiers and officers who left for the war from different regions of Ukraine
It represents the figure of a soldier and an officer who fought in Afghanistan in 1979-1989.
The statues are surrounded by tombstones with the names of the fallen soldiers and officers and the years 1979 . . . . . . . . . .1989 at the entrance.
The memorial was dedicated in 1999 to the tenth anniversary of the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan.
This place is included into most of the city tours in Kiev.

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Visiting the Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 located next to Kiev-Pechersk Laura (the cave monastery) you will see this statue called To the Fallen at the entrance to your left.
The statue depicts a dying soldier and is the memorial to all the soldiers who did not come back from the front.
The statue of the dying soldier at the entrance to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War is located on a small hill and is one of the most modern monuments to the heroes of that war.
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Nobody is forgotten,
nothing is forgotten!
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- this famous motto from Soviet times lives on till now, too, and lots of people come to this place especially on Victory Day, May 9 every year.
Another famous monument of that museum is the huge monument to the Motherland built in 1981.
There is a three-storey war history museum in its pedestal.
The monument to Motherland is very impressive and can be seen from afar. This monument dominates the right-bank hill of the Dnipro. It can be seen from the trains coming to the capital from the east.
The National Museum of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 occupies a huge area – over 10 hectares on the high bank of the Dnipro. It was dedicated on May 9, 1981 and is visited by lots of people every year.
There is a three-storey war museum in the basement of the Motherland sculpture.
You can also see memorials:
Hero-Cities Alley,
sculptural composition “Forcing the Dnipro”,
the eternal flame called “The Flame of Glory”.
There is an outdoor exhibition of war equipment and weapons,
“Tragedy and Valor of Agfhanistan» and “At Other Wars” exhibitions.
The address is:
44 Ivan Mazepa Street
(the end stop of trolleybus #20),
the museum is open from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m. daily;
the tickets to the exhibition are 10 UAH,
excursion tickets are 15 UAH.

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If you'd like to see the 19th century Kiev, why not walk along Petro Sahaydachny Street in the Old Town.
The street connects Post Square and Contract Square and can be reached by the metro ("Post Square" station or "Conrtact Square" station).

There are lots of stores, cafes and restaurants, a casino, a night club and what not there.
The street is also famous for its "Impressa" hotel, one of the most expensive in the city.

At the beginning of the street you can see the monument to Petro Sahaydachny, a 17th century Cossack leader who was a field marshal and an elected ruler (Hetman) of the Cossack Republic.
This old fountain known since 1840 was very famous in the then Kiev as a place of meeting in Contract Square that used to be the heart of the business life of the city.
Now it's one of the cites of the capital.

You can take the metro directly to Contract square from wherever you stay in kiev.
Enjoy the view and don't forget to drop in at "Corsaire" cafe to have a bite!
This is one of the European style hotels called “Impressa” that is located in Sahaydachny Street not far from “Post Square” metro station.

My American friend Michael stayed there, so I often visited this hotel during my stay in Kiev.
By the way, there are/were projects of turning Sahaydachny Street into the second pedestrian presinct in the Ukrainian capital.
The hotel has a German restaurant called “Edelweiss”.
The hotel is at 21 Sahaydachny St., 04070 Kiev.

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There are lots of modern and ultramodern buildings in the Ukrainian capital now, both office buildings and apartment houses.
This is the view of newly built apartment houses in Pechersk district of Kiev.
You can see the perfect harmony of the buildings of different styles.
Lots of such ultramodern apartment houses are being built now in many districts of the city.

The northern districts of Kiev are among the least discovered places of Kiev - near "Minskaya" metro station.
If you cross Obolon Avenue, you will have a wonderful panorama of the newly-built districts and see this monument to Archangel St.Michael, the Patron Saint of Kiev.
You can have a bite at McDonald's and then walk as far as to the Dnipro embankment and enjoy the view of the district and then come back to the metro station.

This is a very rare view of Kiev - from Leo Tolstoy Square located not far from Bessarabian Square at the end of Khreshchatyk.
There is a metro station with such a name.
The building with a clock (the third from the right on then picture) is the famous "Kiev-Donbass" business center with a prestigious 'Concord' restaurant at the top.
"Donbass" means "The Donets Basin.)
"Kiev-Donbas" building was built in 1996 (42/4 Pushkin Street).
It's a luxurious eight-storey building where different banks and companies are represented.
There are also offices for rent whose price is rather high: from $50 for 1 sq.m (all expenses included).

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You can see construction sites almost everywhere in Kiev now. Even in the Old City brand new apartment houses are being built and put into operation.
I wouldn’t call these apartments very cheap.
This construction site is near Bessarabian Square at the end of Khreshchatyk, the central street.
Now there is a real underground city under this square, it's called "Metrograd".

Bessarabian Square is an old city square located between several streets: Khreshchatyk, Basseyna Street, Velyka Vassylkivska Street, Shevchenko Boulevard and Steep Descent.

There was a post station in this square two hundred years ago. The square was called Bessarabian because many farmers from southern Black Sea provinces used to trade at the market located here.
The present market building is one of the oldest in the city. It was built in 1912.

There are lots of modern and ultramodern buildings in the Ukrainian capital now, both office buildings and apartment houses.
This is the view of newly built apartment houses in Pechersk district of Kiev.
You can see the perfect harmony of the buildings of different styles.
Lots of such ultramodern apartment houses are being built now in many districts of the city.

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You can see two other beautiful churches in Contract Square in Podil District (Lower Kiev).
This one is called St.Nickolas Church.
It's on the way to Flor Monastery, a well-known women's monastery in Ukraine.
The Church of Assumption of the Most Holy Virgin only looks old, but was built, or to be more precise, restored, in 1995 at the place of the ancient church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Godmother that was built in 1135 and ruthlessly destroyed in 1935 during the Bolshevik inspired atheist campagne.
(Contract Square, next to the Embassy of Holland).
Another church in Contract Square:
Church of the Annunciation of the Mother of God.
This is the dome of the church of the women’s monastery in Podil (Lower Kiev).
The domes of Ukrainian Orthodox churches are pear-shaped and the domes of Russian Orthodox churches in Ukraine are said to be onion-shaped. To which church does this one belong: to Ukrainian or Russian one? Can you see the difference? I can’t.