We visited our Spotters in Kiev! We had a fantastic time visiting many of our locals’ Alex, Anna, Anton, Elena, Olena & Yuliya’s cool favorite spots . It’s really a beautiful and fantastic city, and we can vouch for the Spotted by Locals Kiev guide – it’s full of excellent and happening spots.
Some of our personal highlights:
Meeting our Spotters
As we announced our visit 1 day in advance (really cheap tickets!) we were happy to meet 4 of our Spotters for coffee at Blue Cup Coffee – unfortunately both Anton & Yuliya were away from Kiev for work.
Dancing at Kiev Teatralna metro station
Every Friday to Sunday grandfathers and grandmothers dance the cold winter away in the main hall of Kiev’s Teatralna Metro station, accompanied by live music. The older generation of Kiev has gone through a lot of trouble, and it is really heart warming to see these people take over the metro station and having fun together.
No tourists, no spectators at all actually. One of the most special spots we’ve ever visited – when we experience something like this we realize once again why we started Spotted by Locals. Thanks Elena for this amazing recommendation!
Cutting edge Ukraine design
We spent many hours visiting and admiring “made in Kiev” design in various spots all around the city. It’s impressive to see h0w much quality stuff is designed and created in Kiev – from cool casual clothing and funky souvenirs at Syndicate Kiev, to high end catwalk worthy design at XPOM.
One of our favorite shops in Kiev: Kvartira 31 – a shop hidden on the 2nd floor of an apartment (Yulia shares the door code in her article!)
We were also really impressed by the Pinchuk Art Center – a art center with very high quality exhibitions by (at least when we were there) Ukrainian artists. We learned a lot about the country from videos about the brave LGBT movement and the Maidan movement.
Flea market at Petrivka Station
One of the coolest flea markets we’ve ever visited, is the one behind the Petrivka book market. If you need a Ukraine made Axe, beer cans for Euro 0.20 or a retro Soviet lamp, this is the place to be. We were sad to be traveling with hand luggage only. We found it by chance – not on Spotted by Locals (yet?).
Cool street art in the historic center
Lots of huge commissioned – but cool – street art pieces around the city.
Cocktails & whiskey
For some reason we expected beer to be big in Ukraine. Actually, it was quite difficult to find a Ukraine made beer in many bars (although we know there are some excellent ones). The current trend is whiskey and cocktails. Kiev bartenders and their are very serious about cocktails! We found our favorite Kiev cocktail shakers in Pod Asfaltom Plyazh.
