So I went to Ukraine for the EURO2012 to watch Germany - Portugal, Ukraine - Sweden, and Germany - Netherlands. It's been two weeks now and I miss it like hell - here are some random tidbits from my trip.
Amazing one week. One thing first: Everything negative anyone said about Ukraine is utter BS. The country is amazing and full of the most friendly and nice people. All the concerns about safety were just laughable once you were there. Just a few examples:
In Kiev a few friends arrived just to find out that the hostel they booked didn't exist anymore. A girl noticed them walking around confused and asks what's up. They told her about the situation, she pulled out her cell phone and started calling people. An hour later they had an apartment 200m from Olimpiyskiy stadium for $20 the night. We met the same girl again at 5am in the night - she promptly got us a cab for $3 instead of $30 what the guy asked. We took her out to lunch the next day and she gave us a tour through the city, and even managed to get a bus ticket to Charkiv for one of us, when all the trains and buses where fully booked. Angel.
Friend of mine had expertly planted all stadium and train tickets under his pillow in the overnight train - only to leave them there when we got out in Kiev. Train was gone so were out tickets. When we were talking about the situation in the metro random guy overheard that and immediately started calling people he knew at the train service. Found out where the train was headed, called guys to intercept it before it left for Moscow. We didn't get our tickets back in the end but hey.
So we arrived in Charkiv without a ticket back to Kiev where out flight back was the next day. Went to the Ger-Ned game (amazingggggf!). Afterwards partied all night with locals in a open cafe thing. They just went to the next store, bought Vodka bottle after bottle ($2-$4 wtf haha...) and we drank until the morning. Then we asked them if they had an idea how to get back to Kiev. One girl called a friend, and when the morning came we had our ride back to Kiev in time to catch our flight.
Oh yeah overnight trains are amazing haha. Train was basically all night partying with other fans or Ukrainians or Russians. And when you are finally destroyed you have a comfortable bed to sleep the last couple of hours.
Sometimes it was absurd to see how they jacked up prices for the EURO. Entry into any club in Kiev was $20. That's more than I would pay in Germany. One song lap dance $80. That's just ridiculous. On the other hand, an entire night of drinking in Lwiw in a bar with 5 guys 5 girls with Vodka from the bottle, pivo, soda, snacks, etc was $40 which is equally ridiculous. A long night in Charkiv with something like 8 bottles of Vodka from the store was maybe $25.
Once bad experience just when I was about to leave the country. At the airport the security just took money out of the bin where you put your stuff in to get it through the scanner. I didn't notice until later and in the end could do nothing but laugh about it.
Oh yeah and it has to be said: Ukrainian girls are amazingly beautiful. And they know it and they care about it. I spent two afternoons just sitting in a cafe at Kreshchatyk to watch the runway show. That travelers digest article is spot on.
Favorite city is probably Lwiw. Downtown Lwiw is so beautiful, and I love the more European feel of the city with all the cafes, restaurant and bars. I could spent an entire vacation there just drinking vodka all night and sitting in cafes smoking shisha and drinking pivo all day.
All in all amazing week and I wish I could be back soon TT. We didn't take many, but here are some pictures. It appears we only took pictures before and after the games when lots of Vodka had already been destroyed. Contrary to what the pictures and videos suggest I was actually not an obnoxious drunk German all day, like so many others.
Alright and finally here are a couple of stupid videos. The group of guys I went with we do this thing were we fake TV interviews. It probably doesn't come across how hilarious this is. Usually we do this in a manner that's completely obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people think they are actually on TV when you hold an improvised mic that's made from a spoon and a sponge in their face. This time we had a sleeping bag with a taped-on cell phone for the camera man. The videos of us picking up Ukrainian girls using the TV crew thing got lost (fortunately :-).
Ukraine is one of my favorite places for a friend of mine to go, out of all the places he's traveled. So many glowing reports about it. It really is nice. Too bad I'm not into football XD
Well, you did have a nice experience, but a lot of shit goes unnoticed by a tourist, like poverty, low living standards, definitely crime at worse parts of the country, etc. Kyiv and Lwiw are nice for sure (btw if you spell it Kiev you have to spell Lvov, because those are Russian versions of the name), yet the rest of the country can be hit or miss. Aside from "jacked up prices" Ukraine is dirt cheap, I remember vacationing with a friend for 14 days spending about 250$ total (South West right at the sea)
Nice to hear you enjoyed it. I went to school exchange 7 years ago when I was 17 to Kiev and it was exactly the same then for you, people made it sound like I will get mugged and raped and whatnot but in the end the people were some of the nicest I met out of all the european countries I have travelled to so far. The cities remains one of my favorites, awesome nightlife, some nice and relaxing places if you move a little bit outside along the banks of dnieper river, beautiful girls and you feel like you go down to fucking hell when you take the escalator down to Arsenalna Metro Station (105 meters, deepest station in the world).
Well, I've read a lot about ukraine, unfortunately your post touches on pretty much nothing I'm interested in about the country... lol. At least you found some nice parties.
Wow this sounds like it was an amazing trip! I hope to visit Ukraine someday and even though I've never heard anything about it all the way over here in the US, it's so nice to hear that the locals were so hospitable!
I don't speak any German but that video of you interviewing Jogi Low sounds hilarious!
im ukranian, although i live in britain. i really miss it sometimes, the sun, the friendliness of some people, the ridiculously hot girls everywhere (wearing nearly nothing in the summer). even though in ukraine i would now be a foreigner since i havent lived there for about 9years now... i still love it
EPT
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