KIEV (KYIV) JULY 2004
My interest in visiting Kiev developed over a short period of time. I do try to regularly explore new countries and cultures (perhaps as my name means someone who finds new worlds). Last summer I had explored Warsaw and inspired by the visit I retuned to Poland in October 2003 to visit Krakow.
One of my favourite books is Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov and I learnt not long ago that Bulgakov was a doctor who practiced medicine in Kiev before leaving for Moscow where he wrote in Russian and left medicine, well that is something I would like to do (that is leave medicine and start writing although if ever I can write it will be English rather then Russian!).
In April 2004 I was in Budapest to attend the European Academy of Dermatology meeting, incidentally I became acquainted with a couple of Ukrainian dermatologist and we started discussing ideas of developing an academic collaboration between my university and the Kiev medical school. I found that dermatology and medicine as a whole is practiced quite differently in Kiev as compared with England, I felt it will be interesting in doctors/students to have an exposure to this aspect of medical practice while obviously Ukrainian doctors can learn a lot from spending time in our institutions.
Katerina and Alex the two dermatologists that a met invited me to visit their department.
After retuning to England I started gathering information on the practical aspects of such a visit. I found out that I will require a visa and for this an invitation or confirmation of hotel booking is the main requirement.
I was in email contact with Katerina (whose father Professor Kolydenko is the head of dermatology at Kiev university and also president of Ukrainian association of dermatologists) , and Alex who told me that he has to do both dermatology and business as it is not possible to survive on a doctors salary in Ukraine!
I found out that there are not many good hotels in Kiev and the ones are good are rather expensive (Premier Palace $250 per night). I came across a company offering high quality accommodation in central Kiev with reasonable prices and range of services, so I decided to give a go living in an apartment (A few years ago I had done the same while visiting Prague). I found no direct flights to Kiev except from Heathrow and as going through Heathrow is pure hell I booked a flight from Manchester via Munich . According to my schedule I was arriving in Kiev at 5 PM on 3rd of July (leaving Manchester 0730).
The visa was easily arranged via post and I was ready for departure.
I had now done some research on Ukraine and Kiev and had bought a recently published guidebook by Andrew Evans. I realized that there are hardly any guidebooks available in English about Kiev, Evan’s book covered the whole of Ukraine. Nevertheless it gave me general idea of what to expect and what to try and sea.
An annoying situation developed as Lufthansa advised me about a change in their flight schedule and now I will have to stay at Munich airport in transit for 5 hours and arrive in Kiev at 2230 hours, this meant the whole of Saturday was to be wasted in travel.
Anyway I parked my car at airport and reached Munich airport, there it was quite boring to wait and I passed time playing on the internet and reading a book I had just bought(The Last Legion: an historical fiction novel by Valerio Manfredi).
Finely we were asked to board the plane to Kiev, a gentleman was in queue ahead of me and the lady checking his passport started to look through every page for a visa, he said oh I have been there before and was finally allowed to board the plane, curiously the same lady waved me on without bothering to look at my visa!
On the plan I found the same gentleman sitting in the seat in front of me and found out he is a pharmacist who works in California and always spends his holidays in Ukraine. He was on his way to Crimea after a few days in Kiev. He joked telling me not to tell any American how nice it is to visit Ukraine as they will all start going there and spoil the place. We talked about tennis as it was the day of Ladies final at Wimbledon and I informed him that Sharapova from Russia (who looks like a model and plays like a champion) has beaten Williams from USA, he was delighted to hear this and started dancing with joy! Another gentleman had now arrived in the seat next to mine and he was from Germany so we started talking about the European championship (the final was on Sunday night), the American soon lost interest as he did not know anything about football (they call it soccer).
The German (Gunter) told me he works for the cultural department of the German embassy in Kiev and recruits teachers for teaching German in Kiev. He had been in Kiev for 2 years and before that was in Minsk for 4 and half years, I asked him if he speaks Russian now and he said only a few words as most people he deals with speak German.
He offered me a lift from airport to central Kiev but I had already arranged airport transfer through the agency. I did accept his offer to watch the football final at the Irish pub on Sunday (4th of July).
The flight to Kiev was uneventful and we queued up for the passport check, my guidebook had said that this process at Borispol takes and hour, however I was in front to the passport officer in 20 mins., During my time on the plane I was trying to decide how I should great the passport officer, according to the guide book the formal greeting in Ukrainian is dobre dehn and initially I was going to offer this, then I thought well maybe I should be using the Russian greeting for good evening (dobre veycher) given that it is late at night so that is what I uttered as I offered my passport. Well he did not show any pleasure at all and just busied himself in processing my passport which took him 10 mins, I was now in the luggage hall waiting for my bag. I saw a stack of trolleys and went to get one and found to my astonishment that I needed to pay 25 kopecs to get the trolley. Now it is not possible to get any Ukrainian money from a bank in England and therefore the only money I had was dollars, how on earth can I produce a 25 kopecs coin from nowhere?
I asked one of the porters, he said oh you don’t have any Hryvnas? Oh only dollars? Do you have one dollar? Knowing well I was being taken for a ride I offered him one dollar, he discreetly accepted it hiding behind a pillar and brought a trolley for me.
My next worry was the custom declaration form, I was under the impression it is to be filled by everyone. I was concerned about my lap top and camera as I did not want any problems when leaving Ukraine. I asked a lady at customs and she said no you only have to fill the form if you are bringing more then $1000.
Finally my bag arrived, I loaded it on the trolley and proceeded to the checkout. A young girl was passing through in front of me and the custom officer kept asking her questions in Russian repeatedly while she kept shaking her head in negative. She was finally allowed through and my turn came. A very attractive, female custom officer stared at me with the slanted eye demure look that I find is a feature of Slavic women and asked how many dollars I have? I said 1000, she said only 1000? I said well maybe 10 pounds as well, she said are you sure and I said yes. She then asked what is the value of gifts I am bringing? Well I did have some small gifts for my dermatologist friends and I said well maybe $100, she said is that all and then let me go through.
I exited to the arrivals hall and found the driver waiting, he guided me outside to the car and we started for central Kiev.
I found we are cruising on a wide highway, strongly I came across a few people who were taking a stroll along the edge of the highway, something I don’t recall seeing before!
I asked Eugene what is the speed limit and he said 135 km, I asked what if someone is caught speeding and he replied well you then pay 25 Hrivnas and are allowed to go, he refused to believe that in England a fixed fine of around 600 Hrivnas is to be paid for a speeding offence (I assured him this is true having it experienced personally 3 times so far).
After a brief stop for check in I arrived in my room which I found quite luxurious and well equipped.
Sunday 4th of July
I woke up around 8 and got ready. The first thing was to explore the area around the apartment. So I got out and walked to Kreschatyk which took me about 10 mins. I then returned to the flat and went in the other direction and found a supermarket about 100 yds from the flat. I went in and exchanged some dollars, then I bought some bread, fruit, juice etc.
Returning to the flat I relaxed and phoned Alex, there was no answer, I then phoned Kateryna and she told me Alex is away on business. She said where I am staying is very near their hospital and she will come on Monday to show me around.
That done I phoned Gunter and he gave me instructions to come to Independence Square and from there we walked to O’Brian’s Irish pub. The establishment was heaving with football fans from many nationalities and yes a few Greeks were present but alas no Portuguese supporters!
The match was on a giant screen through sky TV satellite channel Of course with my German friend and his friends the beer flowed, not used to this amount of alcohol I barely remember the second half of the match although I can still recall the ball going into the Portages goal and Ronaldo weeping bitterly after the match.
It is rather strange how we make sporting events a matter of life and death, sometimes this takes the fun out of sports. Here in England people are still smarting from the defeat of English team in the quarter final. The biggest blame is being credited to the Swiss referee who disallowed the English goal in the last minutes of scheduled time. One of the leading stores offered all Swiss nationals in England free eyesight checks! Very few people realized that the referee had actually signalled a foul a few seconds before the English players made an attempt at the goal and therefore the goal could not have been legal!
Anyway around midnight I crashed into my bed.
Monday 5th of July
I got up and finished dressing, had a light breakfast. At 10 AM Katerina phoned and said she will be there in 10 mins. I got out and waited for her, soon arrived and we started walking towards the hospital which was only 10 mins from my flat. I was guided to the dermatology department and introduced to Professor Kolydenko, unfortunately he does not speak a word of English so Katerina who has average command of English acted as the interpreter. I was given a guided tour of the department and met other members of the team. I was surprised to find out that most of the doctors (and most of the patients as well) were on summer holidays!
Eventually I did a short presentation about my department to the limited audience and we sat down to have coffee and discussed ideas about future development of the collaboration.
It looks as the hospital in Ukraine are working in a way that they were in UK during the 1950’s. Certainly a lot of funding and planning is required to improve and modernize the infrastructure of these units. I hope that in my humble way I could help in such improvements, mainly by exposing the Ukrainian dermatologists to modern ways of patient management, we will see.
I now had a meeting with Dr. Hulchly, vice rector of the medical school and in charge of international relations. The meeting was in her office in the administrative block. So Katerina led through miles of walking before we arrived at her office. By now it was almost 3 pm and I was sweating under my coat and tie. Dr. Hulchly had good command of English and the first thing she did was to present me with her business card. This is something I have noticed in all Ukrainians I have met so far, they just adore business cards and on the other hand business cards are not very popular among the medical community in the UK, so I don’t carry any and when they know this they look surprised and disappointed.
The meeting went smoothly and I was presented two books, one on the 160 years of the medical university and the other with information about all the deans of the university to date, of course both books are in Russian. I tried to impress Katerina by reading individual letters from the book (I had tried to learn some Cyrillic script from the guide book) and found out that I am already confusing Russian and Ukrainian!
The meeting ended and Katerina asked me if she could show me some parts of Kiev, I said well first of all I want to go back to flat to put away my coat the next thing is to eat something as I am starving.
From the flat we set out for Podil, we went all the way up the hill at Marinsky park and then found out that the road from there to Podil was blocked. Katerina got a call from Alex on her mobile and found out that the roads are shut as Olympic flame has arrived in Kiev. Finally through a different route we got to Podil, Katerina explained that there are lots of good restaurants in Podil and that is way she wanted to come here rather then Kreschatyk where only fast food is available. I don’t think that she realized that by then I was so famished that I would have eaten anything even grass.
Finally I got my lunch at half past five. Katerina then suggested a cruise on the river and we proceeded to that, by then I was feeling rather sleepy but the cruise was pleasant. I got to look at the beautiful buildings lining the left bank of Dnepr. The steel statue built to rival the statue of Liberty is a bit of an eye sore.
I was in no mood to walk anymore so Katerina directed me to a taxi, she said as she has a car and driver available the next day she will pick me up at 10 and show me other attractions, I thanked her and returned to my room. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing and resting.
Tuesday 6th of July
As promised Katerina arrived at 10 with the car and driver. We set off for Andreyevsky Spusk. I walked through this popular street. I knew that number 13 was Bulgakov’s family house but Katerina thought it was no. 11, however there was no problem recognizing Behemoth on the wall of the restaurant next to No. 13.
Finally we arrived at no. 13, Katerina found out that no English guided tour was available and so a Russian guide took us around with poor Katerina once again acting as the interpreter. Well I did enjoy the tour, the house has features from Bulgakov’s novel the White Guard and amalgamates the lives of the Bulgakov family with the Turbins.
Rather disappointingly but understandable there is nothing about his work of Genius ’ Master and Margarita’
I remembered the words of Akhmatova in memory of Bulgakov:
Here is my gift, not roses on your grave,
not sticks of burning incense.
You lived aloof, maintaining to the end
your magnificent disdain.
You drank wine, and told the wittiest jokes,
and suffocated inside stifling walls.
Alone you let the terrible stranger in,
and stayed with her alone.
Now you're gone, and nobody says a word
about your troubled and exalted life.
Only my voice, like a flute, will mourn
at your dumb funeral feast.
Oh, who would have dared believe that half-crazed I,
I, sick with grief for the buried past,
I, smouldering on a slow fire,
having lost everything and forgotten all,
would be fated to commemorate a man
so full of strength and will and bright inventions,
who only yesterday it seems, chatted with me,
hiding the tremor of his mortal pain.
It never seizes to amaze me how people in such hardship create such beautiful works of art and literature, such gems are a testimony to the indestructible spirit of the human soul.
Having strolled through Andreyevsky Spusk we drove off to Pechersky Lavra, here I got and English guide who showed all the areas of this vast collection of monasteries and museums. I noted that the style of architecture of the buildings is predominantly Baroque style superimposed on Byzantine style, this is perhaps due to the fact that most of the buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt at least once. The guide pointed out that much of the destruction blamed on the Nazis (the bombing of Church of Assumption) was carried out by the KGB!
The guide was a very nice lady who was passionate about the churches and deeply religious. Once again discussion turned to Master and Margarita and the religious significance of this book, she explained to me that the name Margarita means like pearl and signifies people who help others at their expense while the big black cat represents the institution of state led persecution, to be honest I was not too pleased at her character assassination of my beloved Behemoth!
She then showed some of the effigies showing God’s wrath and said that we are all Gods children but when we make him angry then he can make us suffer.
I cannot convince myself that it is right to give God human characteristics. Anger, pleasure, jealousy etc. are all emotions, how is it possible that God manifests such attributes. No I don’t think God is watching us on a giant TV screen via a satellite channel and making decisions about rewards and punishment as the show goes on.
Dostoevsky wrote ‘ The death of a single child makes God unacceptable’ and yet there are thousands of children who die everyday many in the most horrible ways imaginable.
How can a all powerful and just God allow this? Well because he is not all powerful, he has his limitations. It is either this or that he consents to such heinous things to happen and in that case we could not accept him as a God, rather more like a demon! No I cannot believe in a all powerful God. Anyway this is besides the point.
The guide strongly recommended the museum of micro-miniatures and although it is interesting to sea a flea wearing golden boots the museum has little historical value except to provide an insight into the Soviet mentality of the 1970s. Oh yes there was my name (MI\IP) written on a human hair!
We decided not to visit the caves and set of for the medical museum. Dr. Hulchly had arranged a tour with a young and energetic English speaking guide. He took us around the museum which is quire large and very interesting. I have not come across a more impressive medical museum anywhere else. In many places medical scenes from the past have been recreated and the effigies used are so life like due to a special material used as their skin. Interestingly poor Katerina was once again working as an interpreter as our driver had come along for the tour and as he knew no English she was translating what the guide said into Russian for him.
After the tour I was asked what else I wanted to see but feeling that I have imposed myself enough I asked to be dropped off at my flat. I thanked my hosts for all the help and said goodbye.
After resting a little and having a shower I set off and walked to the river, I saw a place called Moda Bar which the guide book mentioned as a place of noisy musical parties so I went in to see what goes on there. I was told that the bar opens at 10 PM although the Casino is open. I decided to try the Chinese next door. This is called Mandarin and I found it to have a great atmosphere and good food. I just thought maybe one day I will come back here in the company of a beautiful lady.
After dinner I decided to give the Moda Bar another go, it is in the basement and has two levels, the lower level is a long bar with giant screen TV and the upper level has arrangement of sofas. I sat on the long bar and ordered a drink which as expected was overpriced, there was however some amusement provided by the barman who preformed juggling tricks while mixing my drink. The only other customers were a man who was sitting at some distance from me, standing next to him was a girl in a very short skirt, another girl was constantly dancing next to them, she regularly interrupted her dance routine to perform rather obscene acts on the man or the other girl!
The music was deafening, I took my drink upstairs and on a little stage a fashion show was being held.
I made my way out and was approached by several taxi drivers, I showed one the card with the address to my apartment and asked how much? 50 Hrivnas , that is too much, oh it is the night rate. I threatened to walk and he said how much you give? I said 30 he said ok 35 and off we went. I got back and after playing a little on the lap top turned in for the day.
Wednesday 7th of July
After a light breakfast I decided to pay another visit to Andreyevsky Spusk. I took a taxi to the street and wandered through it looking at the various souvenirs being offered. I did buy a few little things and then walked up the stairs of St Anderi’s Church. This church has a unique hybrid design being the work of Rastrelli who also deigned the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. Inside the church there are two interesting paintings of St Andrew and Prince Vladimir. I then had a look at gallery 36 featuring works of various contemporary Ukrainian artists and then saw the Museum of One Street that is a cute little museum where the history of this street is presented through articles collected from various addresses. Unfortunately unable to read Russian spoils the fun
After having lunch in the Armenian restaurant ( the one with Behemoth on the wall) I set off to visit St Vladimir’s Cathedral, inside there is the painting showing the baptism of the entire population of Kiev in the Dnepr. I am sure the water was a lot cleaner at that time.
As I came out I received a call from Alex who suggested that we meet, I made my way back to my flat and soon Alex arrived and took me out for a spin around the city in his car. Eventually we ended at his home and was treated to a delicious Ukrainian/Russian meal cooked by his wife. I did find it hard to keep my head intact through all the toasts. Alex was quite willing to drive me back to the flat (despite having consumed a bottle of wine and few vodkas) but I insisted on a taxi.
Thursday 8th of July
Got up with a headache and sore throat. Slowly I got ready and then Ludimela (the maid) arrived to clean and tidy up the apartment. She does not speak any English but asked me where is the remote control for the CD player. I gestured that I have not seen it either, she looked very worried and gestured that she has looked everywhere. She then phoned the reception (incidentally the agency has flats in various locations with a central 24 hour reception). She asked me to speak to the receptionist who was not much interested in the lost remote control. I assured Ludimela I will look for it. At mid day I strolled to the Kreschatyk and after a quick lunch took a taxi to the Caves. I purchased a beeswax candle and entered the caves. Visiting the caves gives an excellent insight into the Orthodox spirituality and is a interesting though somewhat claustrophobic experience.
This done I headed for Kreschatyk and wandered there for a couple of hours, at times sitting on the benches and watching the world go by.
Eventually I had dinner and after some more wandering came back and retired.
Friday 9th of July
I got up and started packing. I found that the CD player remote control had slipped into my suitcase. At 11 Ludimela arrived and was relived to find the remote control safe and sound. The driver arrived at 1140 and we headed for the airport. This time I have enough 25 kopec coins to get a trolley and I headed for the airport terminal. Certainly it is much more difficult getting out of Ukraine then coming in. First there was a queue to get my bags through the X-Ray machine, as I was collecting my bags a man asked the girl minding the machine if it was ok to take my trolley and she said yes and off he went with it. ’Excuse me this is my trolley’ Oh its yours sorry! Now I arrived at the customs counter. The officer asked me I have any antiques and I said no, how much money I have? I said maybe $300, he said show it to me, he counted it and found that it was about $310, oh he says, mister come with me. Once again my bags were put through an X-ray machine closely monitored by two custom officers. The officer then asked me to follow him into a room with many steel tables and informed me he is from special branch customs etc. and wants to know how much money I am carrying. Now I emptied my wallet and he found that I had about a 100 Hrivnas as well, oh you should declare this he accused me, I said that I did not think this was so important (having never encountered such a situation), ok show me your bag he pointed to the carrying case of the lap top, he then proceeded to try and leaf through any book/magazine in it and when he did that to my diary I couldn’t stop bursting into laughter and told him if he is looking for money he won’t find anymore. Immediately he became very apologetic, said it was his job and I can now go.
Frankly I fail to understand what the fuss is about. Why should I try to smuggle large amounts of Ukrainian money out of the country and to take out dollars is even more absurd as I can get as many dollars I want from my bank. Anyway I headed for the check in desk and joined the next queue, when my turn came another official arrived with a woman and asked the girl to check her through first.
Next was the queue for immigration check out.
Finally I arrived in the departure hall and found out that there is no information screen. There were two doors, one had gate 12,3 on it and the other had gate 4 and 5 on it. I asked a girl standing on one of the doors which gate is the flight to Frankfurt and once again she looked at me with the slanting Slavonic woman’s stare and said ’ Wait please’ So I waited, on my boarding pass I was supposed to board through gate 5 but eventually we boarded through gate 3 and after the last queue I boarded the plane.
As I settled in my seat I heard the gentleman in the seat behind me finding out that he is sitting with his fellow Americans. He was delighted and started talking loudly about his visit. Well it is great to talk about this but I fail to understand why Americans have to speak so loud, after all not everyone in plane is interested in them.
As the plane took off I had a last look at Kiev from the window and turned to read the last few pages of The Last Legion.
Epilogue
I agree with my American friend that Kiev and Ukraine have to be sheltered from the ills for too much commercialised tourism. This is what has spoiled beautiful cities like Prague.
Will I return to Kiev? Well there are so many place from where when departing I have said to myself that I will return. To some I have been back, to others I have not.
Certainly I would like to visit Kiev again and maybe other parts of Ukraine. Somehow I feel I have a partly Russian soul and find attracted to this part of the world.
Also I know that Valerio Manfredi is best known for his Alexander trilogy so I need to find the voyages where I can read these books. But seriously I hope that there will soon be a compelling reason for me to make a return trip to Kiev, I live in hope…………..
