Monday, April 20, 2009

Metro and Concert

On our third weekend in Kyiv, Larissa invited us to a concert at the “Palace of Culture” in the centre of Kyiv. The zoo is located on the outskirts of Kyiv so to get to the concert we needed to go on the Metro. Kyiv Metro has three lines, which seem to be extremely efficient. The stations are beautiful – very Art Deco period. Travelling on the tube is extremely cheap. It costs about 17 pence for however far you want to go, regardless of how many of the different lines you use. To get to the trains are the longest escalators I have ever seen, and they are also extremely fast – you have to be very careful not to trip over when you get “flung” off at the bottom or top.
We managed to get on the Metro in the right direction, which was not easy as we are still trying to get used to the Cyrillic letters – it’s hard to read the station names.
We got off the train at “Kheshchatyk” which is Kyiv’s main street and walked to Maydan, a popular fountain filled square. At the weekend Khreshchatyk is closed to all vehicles, and is full of people, stalls, musicians and other diversions.
Larissa met us at Maydan and we walked to the Concert Hall which was on the far side of the square.
The concert was given by a local amateur traditional orchestra, playing Ukrainian and world music, accompanied by various singers, choral groups and solo performers using a wide variety of traditional instruments. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening.



Beautiful building on Khreshchatyk Street

Maydan Square






The Palace of Culture


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