We live in the Sviatoshin section of Kyiv. In Cyrillic it kinda looks like "CyberTown." You be the judge...
We have been wandering the streets here for a few weeks and have found some crazy things. First, it turns out that you do not want to buy fruit from the local farmer's market, as most of produce is grown in Chernobyl. Don't get me wrong, it tastes great, but the glowing is a bit off-putting. Below is a picture of one of those markets just below our apartment window.
The "farmers" stand outside the entrance to the subway stations and hawk their radioactive goods. Fortunately, the stuff in the stores has been checked by the local government gieger counter office, just down the road.
Here is another cool thing. Kvass, is a liquid bread drink that is slightly alcoholic. It is sold on the streets from a large yellow drum on wheels. The stuff is dirt cheap: like 2.5 Hryvnia (greev-na), which is only about 20 cents. Here is a picture of one of the drums.
While on the topic of cheap things, I thought it might be interesting to share with you all a wonderful fact about Ukraine: it is cheaper to buy a liter of beer than a half liter of water.
Let me run that by you one more time:
It is cheaper to buy a liter of beer than a half liter of water.
The current rate for a liter of Slavutich (a decent local beer) is 3 Hryvnia (which is $0.24 US). A half liter of Bon Aqua (the Coca-cola brand of water) is 4.5 Hryvnia. You have got to love Eastern Europe.
Speaking of drinking in Eastern Europe, the cost of Vodka here is frightening. A half liter of the local favorite (Nimeroff) costs 8 Hryvnia. For those of you doing the math, that is less than one dollar... You have got to love Eastern Europe.
This last picture is of a bottle of ketchup I purchased the first night here. At the time I could not read the type of ketchup, I simply recognized the bottle and lable. I got the bottle home and it tasted very strange. A week later I was finally able to read the lable.
It turns out that this is "mexican-ski" ketchup. I am not sure what that means, other than it is not the normal type...
Have a great week people...
