Ukraine - Day 1

Upon arrival we were fortunate to secure an apartment on the south end of the heart of the city. This is a view from our window. At the base of the picture (right below the Coke truck) is a ramp to a complete underground city and subway. I was amazed at the ability to walk for many city blocks underground to visit hundreds of shops.

At the very bottom of the picture is a concession stand like many we found in Kiev and Lviv. These are very social cities where people like to hang out in public. It's perfectly OK to buy a beer (for around 50 cents) and drink it with friends on the sidewalks. As you can see from the picture below there's an impressive selection of beer:

The Ukrainian beers ranged from .$50 to $.80. What surprised me was the Corona selling for $1.50. The Mexican beer was the most expensive import and found at most of the stands. I have no idea why anyone would drink the urine-flavored Corona when there were great Ukrainian beers to drink.

Note the McFoxy next to the McDonald's. It was closed as was another McFoxy I saw later. I'm sure McDonald's was not happy with the idea of someone copying their look.

*****

On the first day I realized this would not be an "easy" vacation. Virtually no signs were in English. Simple picture signs like "airplane" or "bus" were missing. Very few people understood English. The weather, however, was great! A high of 80 and by night it had the feel of autumn. It's been two years since I've felt that and it was wonderful.