First Impressions of the Grand City on Foot

I have just returned from a three and a half hour foray into this great city. Here are some random first impressions:

It is bitterly cold this weekend. I slept very well during the night without any covers, due in large part to the high BTU output of the Soviet-Union-Era steam heating system in the building (complete with Soviet-Union-Era paint in many layers preventing one from turning off the unit or turning it down). Indeed, the apartment has been so cozy that from time to time I have opened a window to let in a little cool air. Thus, when I left the apartment this morning, I was unprepared for the bitter cold.

I walked first up to Taras Schevshenko Park. There were many people walking their amazingly well behaved little dogs on the east side of the park. On the south side, in a little walled off plaza are a multitude of stone benches and tables. Under a gazebo was a lone man with a chess board, I suppose waiting for his opponent for a chilly match. There were others in the park, including two or three women sitting on benches, and an old man in an ornate military uniform with braided cap, walking, absorbed deep in thought. In he center of the park is a soaring bronze statute of the writer, Taras Schevshenko.

Walking in the immediate neighborhood of the apartment, I was struck by the vibrant commercial and entreprenuerial spirit in this city. Everywhere people are doing business--in storefront shops, in basement restaurants and pubs, in kiosks on the street, on makeshift platforms at curbside, on the street itself or on the sidewalk. Everywhere people are selling, advertising, doing business. Flowers are for sale at the corner, vegetables under a green awning. And everwhere the advertisements are pervasive, emblazoned in streaming banners from tall buildings, neon lights atop steel frames, on temporary billboard signs, and in hand-scrawled or printed fliers. These are pasted on telephone poles in such thick layers, that the original metal or wood is long obscured, buried under the alluvium of commerce.

I next ventured for the first time into the underground world of Kyiv. My head is still swimming. There is an entire subterrean world in this city, and, at least in this weather, the underground city is more massive and vibrant, if possible, than the one at street level. At the corner of nearly every major intersection there is a staircase leading underground, and underneath the intersection is a kind of mall lined with little shops, or by people hawking things from tables or platforms. It is also warm and dry below ground, and the snaking and twisting corridors were full of people. At intersections boasting a Metro station, the below ground commercial world is more ornate, tony and upscale, as these passageways are also connected to the vast Metro or subway system of the city. Much more about the Metro in a later post.

After a few hours of exploration, I found the grocery store in Mandarin Plaza and returned home for a bite of lunch and a rest. More later.