[ Sept.2018 ] We visited Kiev, the capital city of Ukraine.
This 
was our second visit and the first time was seven years ago.
Our Ukrainian friend, Alina, arranged the itinerary this time and it was a very satisfactory holiday.
First, about our hotel, which was called Hotel Ukraine.
I was surprised to see that our hotel was the one we had taken a photo of last time.
This building stands out, looking like one a building of Stalinist architecture.
Apparently, they renovated it but the atmosphere was as it had been before.
In fact, the renovation work was still going on and some of the floors were closed.
This hotel stands in front of Maydan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) and apparently it was the hangout for journalists in 2014 when the Ukrainian revolution happened.
The Maydan was the centre of the riots, so “It was scary because sometimes the bullets flew towards the hotel” said a journalist friend of mine who was sent there at that time.
This revolution led the Russian military intervention and the conflict has not yet been finished, but at least current Kiev was peaceful.
We
had lunch at the spacious hotel restaurant.
We had Bolscht (the soup which every Russian restaurant has, but in fact the origin is Ukrainian), Holubtsi (cabbage roll filled with rice) and the honey cake as dessert.
All of them tasted nice and mild.
We had a glass of Georgian red, Saperavi, which we had drunk a lot in Georgia when we went there recently.
Alina told us that Georgian wine is very popular in this country.
After the good lunch, we went out for sightseeing.
The guide, called Miloslava, took us around on foot from the hotel.
She started the tour by talking about the history.
Before Russia was formed, in the 9th century Kievan Rus’ was established and Kiev was the centre.
Therefore, Kiev was prosperous, but the Mongolians destroyed it.
Kiev declined significantly and became a mere local town.
In the 19th century, Kiev became a sugar making town and because, in those days, sugar was precious, Kiev became prosperous again.
There was an area in the city called “Paris in Eastern Europe” in those days.
The rich people started building decorative buildings and started renting them as their business.
We saw many decorative buildings still standing.
Miloslava told us “Although the outside of those buildings is gorgeous, there are ordinary apartments inside”.
We passed a park, which used to be a pond, where people stayed in winter and went up a slope next to a drama theatre.
Here there was “White House of Ukraine”.
This was built in the 1930s to be the headquarters of the communist party, as Kiev was a part of the Soviet Union in those days.
I remembered that we had seen this building from the other side seven years ago.
At that time, the president was Yanukovych and he was the one who ran away to Russia during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.
Currently, Poroshenko, a wealthy man who was elected in May 2014 after the revolution, is living there.
