A week in Kiev

The trip to Kiev happened extremely suddenly. We needed US visas for a trip to PAX East. The embassy or consulate (I can't remember the difference) in Minsk doesn't issue B1/B2 visas to mere mortals. I absolutely hate Moscow. Not everyone had Schengen open for Vilnius. So we went to Kiev. The visa story is a separate story that ended very badly. Now about Kiev.

The last time I was in Kiev was about three years ago and only for two days. Came, saw, flew away. Stayed overnight at a friend's amazing apartment, which was rented for their employees by local Crytek. It was summer, beer, and endless pre-election campaigning. But overall it was fucking awesome.

This time - pure sadness and melancholy. Rented an apartment in some bedroom district (Kustanayskaya St., ~$35/day) with archetypal gopniks outside the window. Weather - lead. Roads - fucked up. Life - not life. Well, whatever, maybe just unlucky with the place and time. Now about the useful stuff.

Taxi. There's a super convenient service/aggregator of taxi services http://uklon.com.ua (there are mobile apps for all platforms). You enter your address, final address, and immediately get the amount for the trip. No meters, etc. Nuance number one, if you agree to the offered price - broken-down cars arrive. If you add money on top (there's such an option) - broken-down cars that managed to grab the order earlier arrive. But it's more than enough to get from point A to point B. Average trip 40-60 hryvnia (or $1.5-2.5 of normal money). To Boryspil airport from our Kustanayskaya 230 hryvnia (~$9). Nuance number two - you need to specify a phone number. And if you're on a Belarusian number in roaming, your order may be canceled. Just add "Belarusian number" in the comments to the order.

Communication. And to avoid hassle, it's better to buy a local SIM card. They cost 25 hryvnia (~$1) in any store. But all with zero balance. You can top up with Yandex Money. Belarusian cards are ignored by all local payment systems. And I don't know how it's done with Kyivstar, but the first 55 hryvnia that I deposited disappeared without a trace the next day (then I deposited another 20 and used it all week). You need to be careful with the SIM cards themselves at the time of purchase. They come in different sizes. If you missed with the size, you can go to the nearest operator's kiosk and they'll cut the SIM card for free.

In general, hold off on Kiev. At least until summer.