Well, my friend finally decided he wanted to try Kiev after years of me trying to persuade him so we did a long weekend there around 16th May. Last time I was there was 5 years ago so was really looking forward to the trip.
We arrived on the wednesday late afternoon and our guide met us at the airport as arranged to take us to the apartment. A nice 2 bedroom on a street parallel to Krashatik for $110 per night ( by the way guys don't rent ON Krashatik because they have all sorts of entertainment bands playing loud music at weekends).
So first night in town I decide to take my friend to the oldest club in town, yes, the infamous River Palace! Really, anyone going to Kiev has to try this place. Its a river boat with food/casino/club so caters for everything. Anyway the we hit the club part around midnight. This is how all clubs should be, around 4 to 1 girl boy ratio and all the girls are 9's minimum. It was packed. My friend couldn't believe it. Basically we hung out and a steady stream of girls kept coming over to chat. Great! Well actually NO, cause every girl kept asking the same questions "are you staying in hotel or apartment?" "you know what this club is don't you?". These girls were STUNNING but unfortunately all on the game ($200 a night). Anyway we had fun playing all innocent pretending not to kjnow the score etc.
THURSDAY our guide met us and we did the usual tourist stuff. I have to say that this city is STUNNING easily comparable to Prague or Amsterdam, and yet its completely undiscovered. Whoever is in charge of tourism in Ukraine should be shot! In the evening we ended up doing a heavy session in the millenium casino and I was lucky to get out of that place with my shirt on. My friend left early but I soldiered on and got chatting to an expat who was playing blackjack with me.
We ended up in the strip club downstairs by which time I was as drunk as I can remember. My main recollection was trying to grope one of the girls on stage and getting slapped! the look on her face was a picture. I left my friend Lawrence and I was in the mood for celebrating because I was about $400 up so grabbed a cab and headed off to.....yes the River Palace.
FRIDAY woke up with my new friend Helena! 24 years old. An interesting girl, not stunning but a great personality and very affectionate (probably because I kept giving her $100 notes at random intervals whilst at the River Palace) My mate really liked her and she made breakfast for everyone. Around 11am we had to leave (I never saw her again although she left her number) we went to a local gun club and did some male bonding with an AK47! It was a good laugh as we are not used to such things in the UK! In the evening we got something to eat and went home. I really needed to detox!!!
SATURDAY spent the day shopping etc. Bit boring really, everything is crazy prices and the shops are empty. Evening got a meal and went to the Buddha bar early around 10 ish. Well it was pretty empty at this hour but we got talking to a guy named Gil who looked liked your average American but he had a secret weapon, yes, he spoke Russian!! Let me tell you something, I saw this guy in action all night, just an average guy around 35, when he started chatting to a girl everything would be normal, but f**k when he said he spoke Russian every single girl practically wet herself! No kidding. So, we left and went to another bar , came back around midnight. Place was heaving. So we are chatting to all sorts of girls but like at some point I suddenly realised that I was focusing on all these young girls mid 20's (I'm 42) and getting no where, so I went on a recon around the place and found a couple of girls a bit older.
By the way, my outstanding memory of this place is how well the girls spoke English. Seriously I could have been in a bar in London! Anyway, I was chatting with this petite 34 year old, about 48 kg and after about 45 minutes it just seemed the most natural thing to invite her back to my place which as it happened was only 5 minutes away and she gladly accepted the invitation. By this time it was about 3am. We had to be up at 9am to catch our flight home, a bit of a bummer really as I wanted to spend more time with her.
OBSERVATIONS:
Overall I think the standard of living has gone down a little since my last visit.
Interest in bagging a foreign man has definelely gone down
Gap between rich and poor much bigger. Every other car is a $50,000 car! Mind you they need their 4x4's with those roads!
Quality of life? The same. What they lack in money they make up in relationships, be it family or friends.
Would I go back? Yes.