KieVVision

Carry Me in Your Dreams (2009)  Buses, trolley buses, trams - and "marshrutkas"  There are two road transport systems. Let's start with the simplest and most relevant for visitors to Kyiv. If you want to travel on a tram, bus or trolleybus there is a single ticket system. To buy a ticket there are two options: 1. Find a ticket kiosk (see below) and give the lady 30 hrivnas (€1) and say the word "desyat" - which means 10. She should then give you a little booklet of 10 tickets. 2. The second option is to get on the vehicle and find a person in a brightly coloured sleeveless house coat, with the word контролор (or controller) written on the back. Give them any multiple of 3 hrivna for the desired number of tickets. The only exception to this rule is if you are on a public transport vehicle late at night (they generally stop working around 10.30pm), when you may have to buy the ticket off the tram driver directly. Once you have your tic...

Разом нас богато (2005)  The City Centre  KYIV DESTINATION: Around Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) This square, cut into two parts by Khreschatik street, symbolises Kyiv for many tourists, but in ancient times this low-lying boggy area was outside the city walls and protected the city from attack. However in the 21st century this area has become the epicentre of living history. Almost all of the key moments of Ukrainian history since independence have happened here. Most recently Euromaidan. In the 19thC Maidan Nezalezhnosti was an elegant shopping area and park, but it was almost totally destroyed by the retreating Soviet army during WWII. Therefore the architecture today is almost uniformly 1950's "Stalinist baroque". Now it has a metro station and shopping centre. Let's explore it a bit further. Emerging from the metro you come first of all into a large underpass below the street packed with souvenir shops. The underpass is covered in wacky m...