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One of the advantages of smaller cons is that the staff tend to have more time to take care of you and put on events which are somewhat out of the box. This manifests itself in a number of ways but one thing that WUFF did, along with Gdakon last year, was conduct a guided tour of the city, largely for the benefit of overseas visitors. I find this very useful as it adds a holiday dimension to a con, while it helps people do some touring as navigating foreign places can be difficult, particularly when you don't speak the language. Furthermore, there is no-one better than a local guide to help you get to know a place, and indeed this is one of the reasons why I try and meet up with furs and other friends when I am on my travels.
A guided tour of Kyiv was particularly appreciated as the con hotel was a long way out from the city centre, meaning it was quite hard to visit the main sights. The nearest Metro station was a 5km ride away and I didn't trust myself on the local buses - both in terms of how to use them and the routes they took. Granted, we could have got a taxi but these too are fraught with issues, certainly when it comes to being ripped off, so it was a great piece of serendipity that as we walked out of the hotel mid-afternoon last Wednesday, we chanced upon a group of Ukrainian furs who were going into town anyway with the Swedish furs in tow. We opted to tag along and soon found ourselves on a cramped and battered old bus paying the princely sum of 7 hryvnia (22 pence) to get to the Metro station. The journey was surprisingly long, not aided by the bumpy roads, and it soon became apparent that walking to the Metro (as had been our original plan) was certainly not viable. About 15 minutes later, we were deposited at the station and after buying a quartet of tokens for the four of us, soon we had made our way through the barriers, onto the train and into the heart of the city.
Stray had been up most of the previous evening and had not had any lunch - indeed it was a minor miracle he was with us at all as he had completely missed the food at the hotel and was initially for staying in bed, leaving Wolfie, Taneli and myself to go touring. We managed to persuade him otherwise and this delay was to our benefit as it meant we bumped into the others as we were leaving the hotel. However, this also meant we needed to stop off and grab some food, picking up an interesting pasty from a takeaway not far from Tetralna Metro station. It was basically a hot dog wrapped in a pastry not too dissimilar to a Yorkshire Pudding. Wolfie and I had had this before when we visited back in 2011 but we took a bite as the group of about 12 of us moved onto the main street of the city, Khreshchatyk. One of the things that was remarkable about out trip into Kyiv was the number of memories which came flooding back from our initial trip. Very little had changed, even if the political circumstances of the country now look quite different. We spied the squat toilet where Wolfie got the shits five years ago while further up we soaked in the impressive Maidan Square, with the Column of Independence taking pride of place in the middle and the Hotel Ukraine behind it. Everything was as it was five years ago but of course the area has seen significant bloodshed since then, with nearly 130 protesters and police officers killed in 2014 as part of Euromaidan, with the bloodiest days being 18-20 February of that year. Many of these deaths were through sniper fire although some were through grenades or rioting. On the pavement at various points around Maidan Square there are painted the outlines of men where they had fallen. It was quite a strange feeling to be back at a place that had seen such events in the period between my two visits, particularly as I remember everything unfolding on TV. Of course, the square itself felt pretty normal, with people observing the wonderful fountains and others trying to place birds on your shoulder in exchange for money, but it was definitely a more poignant place than it was before, with the numerous white outlines really highlighting this.
After our trip to Maidan, we headed up the hill towards the Museum of Water, Philharmonic Society and the Puppet Theatre. To get there, we had to go through a number of subways, one of which had some interesting murals representing Lviv and Donbass either side of the symbol of Ukraine. We also stopped off for some candy floss here, watching the skilled artisan with his hot sugar was quite a treat while I found a burnt rolling pin discarded in the bushes. From atop the hill there are excellent views down into the valley through which the mighty Dnieper River flows while on the far bank you can see the glistening gold domes of the churches for which the city is most famed. There is a little amusement park up here and we noticed there was an exhilarating zipwire upon which you could ride over the valley to the other riverbank. Getting back across the river by an adjacent bridge seemed time consuming and we were on quite a strict tour, albeit one in which we just saw the main sights with very little explanation as to what was what. With my guidebook in hand, I tried to fill in some gaps, but a lot of the buildings and the breathtaking views explained themselves. After looking down at the river, remembering a walk we did along it five years ago (evidence of more memories returning), we rode down the fernicular towards the riverbank, something we hadn't got round to doing since 2011. It was a pleasurable little journey, even if all of the furs were somewhat cramped in the car, and soon we were at the bottom, walking towards the government and theatre district where we were to grab some food. We stopped in a square where there was an assortment of different takeaway stands, largely smartened up little shacks which seem to be quite popular in Eastern Europe (think pop-up restaurants built of basic building materials). We spied a hotdog place that looked interesting and, not being particularly hungry, thought this would strike a good balance. The menu was in Russian but with names like New York, Bombay and Lazio, the content was pretty obvious while I could understand the majority of the words. Either way, the gentleman behind the counter asked me if we wanted an English translation, to which I replied 'no', with his response being 'so it'll be a surprise for everyone'. The hotdogs took a while to make but they were worth the wait, in fact they were some of the best I had ever tasted. I went with Lazio, an Italian themed bun with lots of cheese and white sauce. It worked really well and for just 39 hyrvnia (£1.10) per hotdog, great value too.
It was around this time at the other furs decided to head off as they wanted to grab dinner at the hotel and catch the WUFF opening ceremony. However, Taneli and Stray both wanted to see the Motherland Monument (which we had dubbed The Iron Lady) and so we decided to stay behind, fearing that the city's relative inaccessability from the hotel meant that this may be our only chance to see it. Wolfie and I had seen it before, but our companions had their hearts set on taking a look, so we opted to stick together and guide them to it. However, we had been on our feet for a good three hours so first we stopped off at the Porter Pub, where we tried a number of the interesting beers brewed in house. This was a microbrewery in the Czech style with something of a biker theme. It had a dark, slightly forboading interior, but the external terrace overlooking the Metro station where we said goodbye to the others was pleasant in the searing sunshine, which made for perfect Springtime walking weather. Opting for the shade, I tried their standard pale lager while Wolfie decided to go for their unique caramel flavoured beer, which wasn't as rich as I had expected but got more and more sickly the more you drank of it. Both beers were pretty pleasant, although I was a little disheartened to see a Carling advert in the toilet with the odd phrase of 'Do you drink English?', the answer to which was a pretty affirmative 'No'.
After the bar, we hopped on the Metro and headed to Dnipro station, again on the banks of the river. From there, we tried to navigate our way up the steep incline towards the park in which the statue is situated. We couldn't see the huge monument from behind the trees but we could see a number of churches and a monestary. However, finding our way up proved to be tricky as the park complex seemed to be shut off by gates whichever way we turned. After scrambling up a rather steep flight of stairs which hugged the wall of the monestary, we were disheartened yet again when we came across a padlocked gate (our second of the adventure), but fortunately there was a hole in the fence off to the right, which we ducked through pretty easily. Seeing people in park number one on the other side was somewhat reassuring and soon we had joined the modest number of people enjoying a late evening stroll in the Spring sunshine. Along the way, we spotted a small open air barbeque where we could grab another beer, with Stray feeding his belly yet again with some spitroast chicken which looked incredibly delicious. The old lady here seemed very interested in us and I am not particularly sure why, but perhaps she was enlivened by our good spirits and craic. Either way, once Stray had finished his food, we strolled around the park with our beer, frustrated time and time again with our inability to reach the statue due to the number of locked gates which stood in our way. We could see the damn thing but over and over we couldn't get close to it, becoming tantalisingly nearer and yet never any cigar. We weren't the only ones as we bumped into a charming couple who were on the same mission that we were, and who eventually followed us all the way round and up the hill in order to access the second park in which the statue was contained. This whole park is a memorial to World War Two, with military equipment dotted around including tanks, helicopters and armoured vehicles. There are also a number of museums, which we visited back in 2011, while the memorial to the Hero Cities stands under the base of Mother Motherland. The statue itself was just as imposing and as impressive as I remember it, but it's certainly a structure from which you need to take a couple of steps back to appreciate fully. There are also a number of blocky Soviet style memorials to the fallen of World War Two, poignant perhaps but also a testament to concrete. Walking around here was quite thought-provoking though, with the collection of tanks on the forecourt in front of the monument adding a weighty air to a glorious evening.
With the Sun going down and time ticking away, we headed down off the hill just before dusk, meeting a major highway at the bottom. The plan had been to walk back to Dnipro station, get a Metro back towards the hotel and hop on the familiar 721 bus to take us back to the hotel. However, this was complex enough in the daytime, let alone at night and Stray had a sudden attack of the bowels, necessitating us stopping off at an Indian restaurant, the New Bombay Palace, for him to use the toilet. For the use of such facilities, we felt obliged to buy drinks, eating up yet more time. While here, I thought about the range of cuisine available globally now, with Ukraine following similar gastronomic trends (sushi, hipster burgers, Indian food) as we do back home. Wanting to get back, we decided to book a taxi, asking the restaurant to oblige. They duly did and about 15 minutes an unmarked VW with no meter turned up, which made me somewhat suspicious. Still, the lady in the restaurant said that it would be a VW collecting us and the other three seemed happy enough so I ended up breaking two of the golden rules of travelling simply because I wanted to get back to the hotel. I was a little apprehensive on the way back but I needn't have worried, with the driver very courteous and the ride very cheap, but I won't lie in admitting I was very relieved when the familar lights of the hotel loomed into view. All in all then it was a good day of revisiting the city, both with the furry group and then independently. Many memories of happy times came flooding back and all in all I felt quite comfortable. Oddly, back in 2011, visiting Ukraine seemed quite exotic yet now it felt quite familar, mundane even. I'm not sure whether that's because I knew the city from before or whether my travelling since then has altered my perception but either way, it was an interesting feeling nonetheless.
A guided tour of Kyiv was particularly appreciated as the con hotel was a long way out from the city centre, meaning it was quite hard to visit the main sights. The nearest Metro station was a 5km ride away and I didn't trust myself on the local buses - both in terms of how to use them and the routes they took. Granted, we could have got a taxi but these too are fraught with issues, certainly when it comes to being ripped off, so it was a great piece of serendipity that as we walked out of the hotel mid-afternoon last Wednesday, we chanced upon a group of Ukrainian furs who were going into town anyway with the Swedish furs in tow. We opted to tag along and soon found ourselves on a cramped and battered old bus paying the princely sum of 7 hryvnia (22 pence) to get to the Metro station. The journey was surprisingly long, not aided by the bumpy roads, and it soon became apparent that walking to the Metro (as had been our original plan) was certainly not viable. About 15 minutes later, we were deposited at the station and after buying a quartet of tokens for the four of us, soon we had made our way through the barriers, onto the train and into the heart of the city.
Stray had been up most of the previous evening and had not had any lunch - indeed it was a minor miracle he was with us at all as he had completely missed the food at the hotel and was initially for staying in bed, leaving Wolfie, Taneli and myself to go touring. We managed to persuade him otherwise and this delay was to our benefit as it meant we bumped into the others as we were leaving the hotel. However, this also meant we needed to stop off and grab some food, picking up an interesting pasty from a takeaway not far from Tetralna Metro station. It was basically a hot dog wrapped in a pastry not too dissimilar to a Yorkshire Pudding. Wolfie and I had had this before when we visited back in 2011 but we took a bite as the group of about 12 of us moved onto the main street of the city, Khreshchatyk. One of the things that was remarkable about out trip into Kyiv was the number of memories which came flooding back from our initial trip. Very little had changed, even if the political circumstances of the country now look quite different. We spied the squat toilet where Wolfie got the shits five years ago while further up we soaked in the impressive Maidan Square, with the Column of Independence taking pride of place in the middle and the Hotel Ukraine behind it. Everything was as it was five years ago but of course the area has seen significant bloodshed since then, with nearly 130 protesters and police officers killed in 2014 as part of Euromaidan, with the bloodiest days being 18-20 February of that year. Many of these deaths were through sniper fire although some were through grenades or rioting. On the pavement at various points around Maidan Square there are painted the outlines of men where they had fallen. It was quite a strange feeling to be back at a place that had seen such events in the period between my two visits, particularly as I remember everything unfolding on TV. Of course, the square itself felt pretty normal, with people observing the wonderful fountains and others trying to place birds on your shoulder in exchange for money, but it was definitely a more poignant place than it was before, with the numerous white outlines really highlighting this.
After our trip to Maidan, we headed up the hill towards the Museum of Water, Philharmonic Society and the Puppet Theatre. To get there, we had to go through a number of subways, one of which had some interesting murals representing Lviv and Donbass either side of the symbol of Ukraine. We also stopped off for some candy floss here, watching the skilled artisan with his hot sugar was quite a treat while I found a burnt rolling pin discarded in the bushes. From atop the hill there are excellent views down into the valley through which the mighty Dnieper River flows while on the far bank you can see the glistening gold domes of the churches for which the city is most famed. There is a little amusement park up here and we noticed there was an exhilarating zipwire upon which you could ride over the valley to the other riverbank. Getting back across the river by an adjacent bridge seemed time consuming and we were on quite a strict tour, albeit one in which we just saw the main sights with very little explanation as to what was what. With my guidebook in hand, I tried to fill in some gaps, but a lot of the buildings and the breathtaking views explained themselves. After looking down at the river, remembering a walk we did along it five years ago (evidence of more memories returning), we rode down the fernicular towards the riverbank, something we hadn't got round to doing since 2011. It was a pleasurable little journey, even if all of the furs were somewhat cramped in the car, and soon we were at the bottom, walking towards the government and theatre district where we were to grab some food. We stopped in a square where there was an assortment of different takeaway stands, largely smartened up little shacks which seem to be quite popular in Eastern Europe (think pop-up restaurants built of basic building materials). We spied a hotdog place that looked interesting and, not being particularly hungry, thought this would strike a good balance. The menu was in Russian but with names like New York, Bombay and Lazio, the content was pretty obvious while I could understand the majority of the words. Either way, the gentleman behind the counter asked me if we wanted an English translation, to which I replied 'no', with his response being 'so it'll be a surprise for everyone'. The hotdogs took a while to make but they were worth the wait, in fact they were some of the best I had ever tasted. I went with Lazio, an Italian themed bun with lots of cheese and white sauce. It worked really well and for just 39 hyrvnia (£1.10) per hotdog, great value too.
It was around this time at the other furs decided to head off as they wanted to grab dinner at the hotel and catch the WUFF opening ceremony. However, Taneli and Stray both wanted to see the Motherland Monument (which we had dubbed The Iron Lady) and so we decided to stay behind, fearing that the city's relative inaccessability from the hotel meant that this may be our only chance to see it. Wolfie and I had seen it before, but our companions had their hearts set on taking a look, so we opted to stick together and guide them to it. However, we had been on our feet for a good three hours so first we stopped off at the Porter Pub, where we tried a number of the interesting beers brewed in house. This was a microbrewery in the Czech style with something of a biker theme. It had a dark, slightly forboading interior, but the external terrace overlooking the Metro station where we said goodbye to the others was pleasant in the searing sunshine, which made for perfect Springtime walking weather. Opting for the shade, I tried their standard pale lager while Wolfie decided to go for their unique caramel flavoured beer, which wasn't as rich as I had expected but got more and more sickly the more you drank of it. Both beers were pretty pleasant, although I was a little disheartened to see a Carling advert in the toilet with the odd phrase of 'Do you drink English?', the answer to which was a pretty affirmative 'No'.
After the bar, we hopped on the Metro and headed to Dnipro station, again on the banks of the river. From there, we tried to navigate our way up the steep incline towards the park in which the statue is situated. We couldn't see the huge monument from behind the trees but we could see a number of churches and a monestary. However, finding our way up proved to be tricky as the park complex seemed to be shut off by gates whichever way we turned. After scrambling up a rather steep flight of stairs which hugged the wall of the monestary, we were disheartened yet again when we came across a padlocked gate (our second of the adventure), but fortunately there was a hole in the fence off to the right, which we ducked through pretty easily. Seeing people in park number one on the other side was somewhat reassuring and soon we had joined the modest number of people enjoying a late evening stroll in the Spring sunshine. Along the way, we spotted a small open air barbeque where we could grab another beer, with Stray feeding his belly yet again with some spitroast chicken which looked incredibly delicious. The old lady here seemed very interested in us and I am not particularly sure why, but perhaps she was enlivened by our good spirits and craic. Either way, once Stray had finished his food, we strolled around the park with our beer, frustrated time and time again with our inability to reach the statue due to the number of locked gates which stood in our way. We could see the damn thing but over and over we couldn't get close to it, becoming tantalisingly nearer and yet never any cigar. We weren't the only ones as we bumped into a charming couple who were on the same mission that we were, and who eventually followed us all the way round and up the hill in order to access the second park in which the statue was contained. This whole park is a memorial to World War Two, with military equipment dotted around including tanks, helicopters and armoured vehicles. There are also a number of museums, which we visited back in 2011, while the memorial to the Hero Cities stands under the base of Mother Motherland. The statue itself was just as imposing and as impressive as I remember it, but it's certainly a structure from which you need to take a couple of steps back to appreciate fully. There are also a number of blocky Soviet style memorials to the fallen of World War Two, poignant perhaps but also a testament to concrete. Walking around here was quite thought-provoking though, with the collection of tanks on the forecourt in front of the monument adding a weighty air to a glorious evening.
With the Sun going down and time ticking away, we headed down off the hill just before dusk, meeting a major highway at the bottom. The plan had been to walk back to Dnipro station, get a Metro back towards the hotel and hop on the familiar 721 bus to take us back to the hotel. However, this was complex enough in the daytime, let alone at night and Stray had a sudden attack of the bowels, necessitating us stopping off at an Indian restaurant, the New Bombay Palace, for him to use the toilet. For the use of such facilities, we felt obliged to buy drinks, eating up yet more time. While here, I thought about the range of cuisine available globally now, with Ukraine following similar gastronomic trends (sushi, hipster burgers, Indian food) as we do back home. Wanting to get back, we decided to book a taxi, asking the restaurant to oblige. They duly did and about 15 minutes an unmarked VW with no meter turned up, which made me somewhat suspicious. Still, the lady in the restaurant said that it would be a VW collecting us and the other three seemed happy enough so I ended up breaking two of the golden rules of travelling simply because I wanted to get back to the hotel. I was a little apprehensive on the way back but I needn't have worried, with the driver very courteous and the ride very cheap, but I won't lie in admitting I was very relieved when the familar lights of the hotel loomed into view. All in all then it was a good day of revisiting the city, both with the furry group and then independently. Many memories of happy times came flooding back and all in all I felt quite comfortable. Oddly, back in 2011, visiting Ukraine seemed quite exotic yet now it felt quite familar, mundane even. I'm not sure whether that's because I knew the city from before or whether my travelling since then has altered my perception but either way, it was an interesting feeling nonetheless.
