Andrew Shitov

Not too many news about the conference today, although I made a visit to Kiev as a bare tourist (well, actually, as a fan of one of the actors) and this note is about that.

Last Friday I went to Kiev from Amsterdam with a connection in Frankfurt (I did not realise until now that the connection was in the host city of the previous YAPC::Europe).

Even with a connection it was extremely easy flight, and not too long, something about three hours in the air. The ticket costs 213 €.

Kiev built a new terminal in their main airport Borispil (KBP). There's another one, but I have never been there. The airport is quite remote from the city, and if you use a taxi, you should spend about 20-25 € depending on which area of the city you are going to. Note that if you catch a cab you may expect to find a taximeter there, which I did not see a year ago, and that fact is just great.

There are still quite a few symbols of the Euro-2012 in the city.

You will also see more automata when you need to buy a metro ticket. And it costs only 0.2 € per trip, can you imagine that? Buy 5 tickets for 1 euro! Ugly looking but working, unlike the ones in Moscow.

My destination was a theatre in one of the streets running from Khreschatyk, so, having not too much time, I simply enjoyed walking along it, eating traditional perepichka (unhealthy, I think, food, but having the taste of Kiev's history).

I also hanged out in the book shop nearby (after Amsterdam, it is such a pleasure to dive into the place with thousands books in so adorable languages, Russian and Ukrainian, not mentioning the cafe in this three-storey bookshop).

I can also confirm that you will find free Wi-Fi in McDonalds (heh, another piece of unhealthy food :-) I discovered there that there will be a documentary with the 70 minute lost interview with Steve Jobs in the cinema nearby, which perfectly fit into my schedule. So, another hour and a half in my favourite cinema in Kiev Kiev with pop corn and Cola (I was hardly thinking if pop corn is compatible with Apple). This is remarkable because this time I took neither a laptop, nor a camera with me and used only iPhone 5 and iPad mini during the whole trip (these new devises are very technologically attractive, although an iPad lost a pixel on its screen after six hours in the air, probably suffering from the increased radiation).

Then I examined the venue. It stands on its place :-) By the way, once again I noticed that from the outside it doesn't look like a five-storey building.

Since long ago there's no single year when I do not visit Kiev at least once (usually more). The conclusion I made is: you always can find somebody or something protesting on the streets. This time is a long-living alley with tents and exhibition Yanukovych vs. Tymoshenko.

At our first Ukrainian Perl Workshop in Kiev in 2008, Peter Edwards and Jonathan Worthington made photos at the doors of jewellery shop named Perlina. Now the owners of it finally agreed that only the first four letters make real sense (Перл is Cyrillic version of Perl).

A short stay in the hotel for a couple of hours for quick rest, and then back to the KBP airport.

Then Munich MUC airport (with its barbed wired fences), and then AMS with an hour delay because of strong fog both in MUC and AMS.

Kiev is a great city, which, while really suffering from lots of modern changes, is still charming and attractive. See you there in August.