Kiev , Capital of Ukraine
By Marianne Gray
Photography by Dominika Trelinska
I
first went to Kiev, the
elegant 19th Century
capital of Ukraine, 15 years
ago. I was utterly floored. It
was still very hinged in the
communist era. Everything
was written in Cyrillic, not
Russian, and virtually no
signs were in the Latin
alphabet. Working out the
metro stops (like
Khreshchatyk,
Nezalzehnosti, Livoberezhna)
in Cyrillic, even with specs
on, was a real real
challenge.
This time, however, much had
changed. For starters, the
annual Eurovision Song Festival
had been there (9th to 13th
May) and there were signs a
non-Ukrainian could read.
Many people spoke English,
the restaurants had marvellous
men