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Yannis Papaioannou - welcome Yannis Papaioannou You are here: News » 02 April 2006 Latest News - Trip to Kiev! Kiev - Independent Square I am just back from my last trip to Kiev, in Ukraine and you probably would be interested to read about my observations while travelling there. You many find some of my comments controversial but these are my current views about Ukrainians and life there. Last week a Ukrainian Travel International Exhibition and Fair was taking place in Kiev, so I booked a flight with Ukraine International Airlines and went there. On the flight I noticed that the plane was nearly empty (I counted 37 people out of 158 seats). The service was good but I noticed that now they buy food from UK, which basically was rubbish, where previously used to bring food from Kiev and was nice. Independent Square I had plenty of time to chat the air stewardesses and discovered that they noticed the passenger numbers are going down because now they have direct competition from British Airways. As far as I was aware they have never flown a full aircraft and were running normally at around 50- 60 % capacity, which is just the breaking even point for most flights to financially survive. Of course that is no good news for the travelling public and prices from UK are extremely expensive when compared with other destinations in Europe. BA, LOT, KLM etc seems that all charging the same high prices and of course the Ukrainians try to be part of the same club! In my view if they do not change their selling practices soon will find themselves with huge losses and probably be forced to cancel the service. On arrival at Kiev airport, I was lucky and our flight was the only one arriving at that time, so the immigration desks were not that full or busy. Cheeky, as always, I went to the last desk on the left which is allocated for cabin crews. I greeted the two TatyanaвЂ™s officers (knew their names from before) in Ukrainian and I got a pleasant smile back and a cheerful welcome, which made a great change from before. Formalities were no more than 1 minute. Independent Square While Tatyana (the blondish one, the other has dark short hair) was looking my passport I glanced to the left, looking to another young female officer, around 27-30 years old, perched on a stool, with a mini skirt not covering anything and I had a good view of her great legs and moreвЂ¦вЂ¦..Amazing how Ukrainian women, even on an official position, can show their sexuality so overtly! I donвЂ™t think here in the west you will find any official person dressed like that! Tatyana (the dark hair one) jokingly or seriously asked me in very good English if I liked the other officerвЂ™s legsвЂ¦. And when I said they are excellent, she invited the woman to come close. By the way nobody was waiting in a queue behind me so the three of them started having a good joke and banter, while I was waiting for my case to come out. I donвЂ™t think it was my personality but probably boredom which made them to be so playful and I was propositioned by the owner of the great legs and extremely attractive face, to go out for dinner, next Sunday, her day off, which unfortunately was the day of my return. Well about 20 minutes later, disappointed, my case came out and had to get my taxi to the hotel. At that point I remembered a friendвЂ™s comments from last year and now I tent to agree with him regarding picking up women in Ukraine by only speaking English to them! Anyhow that was not the purpose of my trip. Krechatik Avenue At my hotel in which I have stayed several times before I was met by their usual unwelcome and indifferent attitude. Service has not improved not a jolt and the administrator (head of stuff at the restaurant) who recognised me, more stupid than ever. Unfortunately their rubbish system for serving clients has re-enforced my view of how unfriendly, cold and bad the client services are in Ukraine. I think they need more than 20 years to learn the basic rules and provide the kind of service we normally get in the west. Smiling seems to be prohibited, so you get greeted by scowling faces. English is hardly spoken anywhere and those poor sods who work those long shift hours for wages almost next to nothing, when they hear you speaking English, they are or show a total disinterest and unwillingness in providing good service. Of course when it comes to getting the money off you, they are very quick off the mark and now they add the service charge on the bill, like in the west. I think that the service charge is charged only to westerners, as I donвЂ™t think Ukrainians who are not used to tip and have not the money, will accept that, so you have no choice. Larissa and Anya The exhibition was held just close to Livoberezhna station (East Kiev) on the red underground line and 4 stations away from Chreschatik station, on Cherschatik Avenue, near the centre of Maidan Square (Independent Square). It is very easy and the more economic and efficient way to travel around on the underground but you must speak Russian or know how to read the Cyrillic alphabet. The Kiev underground is very efficient, is running very frequently, is clean and of course very cheap which makes it the best mode to travel. Paying fifty kopika (9 pence or 15 cents) one way anywhere on the underground, I donвЂ™t think can be matched anywhere on the world, so masses of Ukrainians use the system. The rolling stock is from the seventies but I have not seen any newer ones on the London underground. Inside the carriages they have small screens announcing the stations and also playing adverts. If only could thinkвЂ¦ and made the effort to have the names of the stations also in Latin then this would be excellent for any tourists visiting Kiev. As it happens I had to rely on my young and extremely helpful translator, who as we went along made more critical comments, then me, about the lack of knowledge of foreign languages by the Ukrainians. The exhibition was a real farce. The registration process was handled by young and untrained staff who hardly spoke any English, so the queues were very long. Inside the exhibition most of the desks representing the various local tourist boards were bare and nowhere to find any printed material in a foreign language. When we tried speaking to the representatives we only found 2 people speaking English, so my translator was very caustic in her remarks about it! вЂњ Ukrainians are durepas (stupid). Here they try to sell their country to foreign visitors and they expect the visitors to speak Ukrainian or Russian!вЂќ. In my view too, that says it all about the Ukrainian attitude on how they approach and promote their country. Krechatik Avenue Two days we visited the exhibition trying to make some new contacts but then I had to give up and not bother anymore. It really saddens me to see such a crass stupidity and there are plenty of young people who speak English or other foreign languages, who can do a splendid job if trained and paid well. Having taken the most important step to abolish the Visa requirement for most countries, last year, now Ukraine is missing the chance to increase the numbers of foreign visitors. Their hotel bed stock is very small in numbers (Kiev has only 12 Hotels) and old apart from one or two exceptions and of course they are terrible expensive. The two exceptions are in private hands where all the other hotels are Government owned and prices are decided by bureaucrats who are in the habit every 2-3 months to increase these prices. Signed contracts are just a peace of paper and Ukrainians donвЂ™t know what it means honouring your signature. Old habits die hard and we can only blame the Soviet system. Post Office Now everybody is on the game of renting вЂњmodernisedвЂќ apartments, like my friend Larissa, for prices starting from 50 dollars a night and up. To be honest the so called apartments (we call them studios as they are mostly one room) I have seen so far I am not impressed. For that kind of money you get a 10 times better studio or apartment in the west! Of course the property values all over Ukraine have rocketed and today there are very few Ukrainians who can afford to buy a modern apartment. In Kyiv a one bedroom flat starts from 120.000 dollars in not so good areas and the centre is a nogo area for Ukrainians. Independent Square I have read many times in various places that Ukrainian people are very friendly, warm and welcome but in my view that is not the case. Ukrainians are very secretive, cold unfriendly personalities and difficult to create close friendships. They always view foreigners as possible source of financial gain, will always try and overcharge you and when their goal is achieved their persona changes dramatically and go back to their aloof, distant, uninterested and unhelpful character. In Ukraine or in Russia donвЂ™t expect to find smiling welcome faces, like in Greece, where вЂњHospitality is a Duty willingly performedвЂќ. Of course I was taught at school that the exceptions prove the rule and that is the case with very few Ukrainians. It may surprise you but despite been so cynical I do have a couple of really good Ukrainian friends who are very happy to see me and yes they have put their hands in their pockets and have refused to accept money for things that they bought or done for me without the motivation of financial or other gain. About Ukrainian women, the words of a Ukrainian acquaintance come to mind: Lavra Monastery вЂњThere's thousands of gorgeous women walking the streets of Ukraine, so appearance is nothing special and looks alone won't get them farвЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦вЂ¦ There are only few western fools around, looking for a Trophy wife or an arm candy, who will fall for their overt sexuality and wouldnвЂ™t take advantage of their willingness to use sex as a means to escape in the west!вЂњ Finally I noticed also that you canвЂ™t find a quiet place any more to sit and enjoy a drink without the loud disco techno music from opening till close time. I think next time I will only go and visit Lviv, in the West of Ukraine, where I find it more pleasant, interesting and relaxing. 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