Info on Ukraine

Ok, so living here for a few weeks, I’ve picked up a bit of information on this country. I am very limited in my access to the internet, so I do not guarantee these facts.

Ukraine is a very new country, only since 1991.

There is a new currency since 1996. You used to divide all the prices here by 5 to figure it out in Canadian, but now it’s by 7, so everything seems really cheap.

Ukraine is trying to join the European Union. They are currently a prospective country with plans to be official by 2015. They fly the EU flag everywhere.

Ukraine will co-host Eurocup 2012 with Poland. Both countries are not prepared, but especially Ukraine, which has almost no infrastructure, adequate airports, hotels, roads, and only a couple completed stadiums. Kiev will host the finals and the 100,000-seat Olympic stadium is nowhere near complete.

You can’t drink the water here. The water from the taps has to be boiled, and even then you have to worry about what metals are in it. Most people buy bottled water, so we have to lug it home, a lot.

You can drink beer on the street here, anywhere. It's considered a soft drink.

The public transportation here is very crowded. The metro and bus system is left over from the soviet area, like most things, and it hasn’t really been updated. I don’t think Kiev has any transportation planning or much infrastructure for active transportation. Private mini-buses, or mashrutkas, have taken up the slack and you can ride them to most places for about 30 cents.

There is garbage everywhere here. Littering is quite common and the streets are not really clean. Coming in on the train I could also see piles of garbage along the tracks and clogging waterways. The garbages here are usually overflowing. There is virtually no recycling of anything, not even bottles. Yeah.

Ukraine is the largest country that is entirely within Europe and the geographic centre of Europe is also located here.

It seems that it is considered bad luck to have the windows in cars or on buses open. Even in a heat wave, people will have the windows of their cars rolled all the way up, and if we are getting a ride somewhere, the owner will just have the doors open for a few moments before we drive away.

There are many poor old ladies on the streets. Most people here call them babushkas, or grannies. They are usually begging or selling vegetables near the metro or busy streets.

$8000 is the average income here in Ukraine. Kiev, as the capital, is a very expensive city to live in. Even though I think the price of food, restaurants, and alcohol is very cheap (usually about 1/3 the price of the same item in Canada), it’s usually double the price of other places in Ukraine. The price of apartments in Kiev is also crazy, our two bedroom flat is about $1000US per month. All this makes the capital a very expensive place to live on a Ukrainian salary.