Minsk to Kyiv

Our flight to Kyiv was at a good time (1:30pm) so we had time to sleep in and have a relaxed breakfast before packing and checking out. We took a hotel transfer for the 45 minute drive to the airport, passing by many of our favourite Minsk buildings along the way, like October and the National Library. The hotel offered us water for the ride which is easy for them but we thought a nice gesture (first time we’ve seen it).

We checked in and then went through security and immigration. The immigration officials were just as deliberate on the way out, verifying all the anti-forgery stuff on the passport, including checking every page of mine to make sure they were all there! They didn’t look at the stamps, just the page number.

We debated having a snack at the airport cause the flight was around lunch but there wasn’t much selection. Anyways we had just had a big breakfast so we weren’t even hungry.

There was a lot of rain today, but luckily it stopped when we had to board, cause we had to walk on the tarmac. No Cobus 3000s here, I guess they use the Russian equivalent for the buses that carry passengers from the terminal to the plane.

The flight took off a bit early. It was only an hour but we still got served a little Joe Louis-type snack and a tea.

We landed at 2:30pm and beating all previous records were at the hotel by 3:15pm. Yes, it took 45 minutes to get through immigration, pick up our bags, meet our driver, and get to the hotel. It helped that the airport is pretty close to town.

We decided to have a larger lunch and then a small dinner cause of the time. Just ate at the hotel top floor restaurant with a nice view of the city. We both liked the feeling of being back in a big city (Kyiv is about the same population as Toronto). Minsk is also fairly large, but Kyiv has a much denser core.

Anyways the food was good at our hotel. The rest of the afternoon we did some research on places to see in Kyiv.

Later in the evening we walked down Volodymyrska St, the main street in Kyiv. It was closed to traffic, we suspect it’s pedestrian-only on Sundays. There were thousands of people enjoying the evening with buskers along most of the route. The sun was just setting and it was quite beautiful.

Got back to the hotel, I was a bit peckish, Heather was still full from lunch, so I just went to the hotel restaurant for a quick snack. Tried salo, a popular dish/snack which is sort of a cured pork fat, served sliced with pepper and other spices. Very good with beer :)

We had an excursion to Chernobyl early the next morning so went to bed around 11ish.