Kyiv, Ukraine,
So I arrived in Ukraine which is not in the EU but still very European.
I had a 2 hours transit at Doha, Qatar, in a very crowded airport.
I chose to come here because it is one of the only doors of entry in Europe that was easier for me to enter from Sri Lanka. Many places in Europe are more restrictive about the entry of their territories.
Also, I can practice my Russian here, even though they use Ukrainian too.
I am experiencing a big change in my daily life in Asia. It has been almost 2 years that I stayed on the Asian continent. Here things are different and I can point it out. Since it is summer, the sun stays longer in the sky than when I was in Malaysia and Sri Lanka (near the Equator). The daytime is from 5 am to 9 pm, a big change for me.
Another thing that jumped to me and that I did not expect, is the number of people outside walking in the street. And it seems masks are not mandatory outside anymore here, so it feels very different than all the time I had from March 2020, wearing masks at all times.
The city of Kyiv is huge and surprisingly very green in some areas, but way drier than Sri Lanka. The buildings are a mixture of the square soviet era, modern, and historical buildings, but also many cathedrals with golden domes. There are few lines of metro running around the city.
I am staying in an interesting place near the river where there are huge walkways all over, I am surprised at how pleasant it is. I can witness a lot of birds fauna (and frogs at night) striving along the bank of the river, even in the middle of the city.
As it is the middle of Summer, I believe there are lots of tourists roaming around the city.
I will explore better the city center which I haven’t seen well yet.
As expected it is a little overcrowded city.
