I <3 Kiev, Ukraine

In my experience up until two days ago, although I like Ukraine, I didn't think I'd ever want to move here permanently. Exploring Kiev in the daytime changed that. I absolutely LOVED Kiev. It was beautiful, the buildings were mostly pre-Soviet or new, and it felt... cosmopolitan. I even heard English spoken on the streets several times. Whoa baby. English! Alex and I rode into the city with Oleg and Nastya and Angelina because it just so happened Nasya was going to meet some friends in the city. We parted ways at the end of the metro and Alex and I went to see where he went to university. It was a beautiful part of the city with artsy looking students and big buildings. Very chic. After we walked around for a bit we went to get dinner in the center of the city (really the only place I'd been). Stupidly, we chose an Applebees (seriously!) because I was feeling sentimental and Alex wanted nachos. The food was awful. After, we went to Alex's uncle and aunts place. We spent the night there and had a lovely time. They were doting and sweet and tried so hard to make me feel at home. I kept thinking, "wow... these people will be FAMILY soon." Good thing I like them. We talked and ate more and I tried home-made vodka. Then Alex and I slept on a wildly uncomfortable pull out couch. The change of pace was so nice... funny how something as simple as sleeping in a new place can remind you how much you adore someone. There was one point at about 5 am when Alex sat up and I woke up and said, "what are you doing?" "I just realized you're probably thirsty." he said. Yeah, he's amazing. Have I said that before? In the morning we had mini pancakes and then headed off to find the U.S. embassy. It ended up taking about 4 hours of us walking around Kiev, but that was okay because it was beautiful and I really love exploring cities. Except maybe wearing 4 inch heels was a bad idea because my bad ankle was not okay. At all. After we finally found the embassy and then realized it was the wrong place and found the consulate (not next to each other, of course) my ankle was killing me so I sat for a minute and Alex scoped out a place for lunch. He came back and said, "I found a place. It looks out." Turns out, it was SUSHI. I was totally excited. Alex wanted to make me happy, but he doesn't like sushi. Or should I say DIDN'T. I assumed, and was correct, that the reason he didn't like sushi was because he'd never had good sushi and omg this place had good sushi. Alex loved it. I loved it. And we spent a whopping $20 on the whole meal. Yess. After sushi we walked around the city again. There was this one place... the place that made me realize I could totally live in Kiev... that overlooked a sort of mini-canyon (Kiev is very hilly) and inside were all these beautiful old houses painted these brilliant colors. It was gorgeous. 

And then we went home. But I want to go back. Now.