A first-person travel vlog transcript of Kara and Nate Buchanan's one-day exploration in Kiev (Kyiv), Ukraine. The hosts describe staying a week in a Soviet-style apartment, visiting the Petruka weekend flea market (noting very low prices and a $20 USSR-made watch), descending into a metro station described as 105 meters deep, touring the Cave Monastery/catacombs (caves close at 4:30; mummified holy figures described), visiting Independence Square (site of the Maidan protests where over 100 people were killed), seeing St. Michael's and St. Sophia's cathedrals at sunset, sampling a coffee and croissant sandwich for about $5, and joining Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations. The tone is informal, observational, and enthusiastic about Kyiv as an affordable, historical, and characterful destination.
Questions this video answers
105 meters deep.
4:30 (PM).
$20.
$5.
About $1 (they mention seeing a jacket for a dollar).
Chapters
We had no idea. Welcome to Ukraine.
Thank you.
I love it here. It's Independence Day.
We're Karen and Nate. We've been traveling full time since January 10, 2016. Since we're constantly on the road and technically homeless, sometimes we need a week to catch up on editing and to do some travel planning. So we'll book an Airbnb and call it home for the week, which is.
What we have been doing for the last seven days. We have holed ourselves up in this interesting Soviet style apartment that has some elements of a museum and a spa.
So even though we've already been here for a whole week, 90% of our time, we have been sitting in this apartment on our computers all day, every day. We've pretty much only left to eat, which is why we are so excited the work week is over and we're going out exploring today.
Freedom.
I not speak English.
Okay.
We typically like to walk or take public transportation when we are exploring a new place, but when a 20 minute Uber ride is less than $4.
So we've just driven out of the city center to what's supposed to be the largest flea market in all of Ukraine.
It's called the Petruka Market and it only happens on the weekends. All the locals come out and just spread all of their antiques all down the street. I can't even see the end of it. It is huge and I'm so excited.
It is crazy how cheap some of this stuff here is. I've seen a jacket for a dollar, like a winter coat, jeans for a couple dollars, shoes for a couple dollars. Unfortunately, I don't have much footage of any of it because no one here is a big fan of the camera. It's like I walk up just holding the camera in my hand, not filming anything, and they start speaking loudly to me in Ukrainian and pointing to the camera.
To be fair, I would say 50% of the people who got angry were holding a shot of vodka in their hand.
Yeah, I don't know if they're like, selling stuff that they're not supposed to be. It's kind of a weird vibe here.
I just got some rings. I love buying jewelry as a souvenir because we can't carry that much stuff. The lady was really nice, but she didn't want to be on camera. And Nate even got something.
Normally, Cara likes to spend about 10 times longer than I do in those markets. And so usually I pass the time by looking at antique watches. If they have them for some reason. That's like the one thing that interests me. But I can never like actually bring myself to buy one. But today, 20 bucks made in the USSR. It's like a little piece of history which has five band for it, Rocchetta, 16 jewels. I look at em all the time. I know nothing about watches.
So proud of you.
Thank you.
We have just descended into the deepest metro station in the world. It is 105 meters deep.
There are two escalators that take you to the top. And we've heard that it takes five whole minutes. So we're timing it.
There.
Not quite five minutes, but definitely the longest escalator I've ever been on. Nice ice cream. You want some?
Yes.
Thank you. I shopped too long at the market, so having ice cream for lunch.
So in order to cross almost any big road in Kiev, you have to go underground. They don't really do crosswalks here, but it's never just like a tunnel. They're always selling stuff. So if you need like pistol or a lighter or a new purse or a backpack, you can buy it while you're crossing the road. Or like a traditional guitar, some pottery, a map, essential oils, necklaces, nail polish. Get your nails done.
So there are a ton of beautiful churches here in Kiev, but we've chosen to start with this one because it's listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
And we've read that there are underground caves filled with mummies.
The name of this church actually translates to cave monastery.
This place is huge. It's like a complex. Is that what you're going to say.
In case you're planning a trip to Kiev? The caves close at 4:30, which is a bit of a bummer because it is 5 10. But we wouldn't have been able to show it here on the video anyway because a lot of no camera signs around.
But I wanted to see him and we've been looking for so long, literally.
We'Ve been here probably since 4 trying to find this place.
Yeah. So if you come here, you gotta go all the way down the hill and when you think that you're too far, you're not there yet.
Keep going down the hill. And it's like hidden back behind one of these churches.
On the plus side, Nate now knows how to say cave in Ukrainian. Show us your skills.
I actually have no clue how to say cave in Ukrainian. I just know it's N or a letter that looks like N. E upside down. H is the first three letters.
We just got a private tour of.
The catacombs from the guy who cleans the floors.
Okay, so let us explain what just happened. The security guard was like, no, it's closed. Nobody can go in there.
Definitely not.
So we were just standing there, like, please. And he was like, no. And this guy came out of nowhere and was like, what about the group of ladies? Oh, yeah. And this group of ladies all walk up.
There's, like, 20. And you can tell they're being very persuasive with the security guard.
All of a sudden, he moves the sign, and they all go in.
Here we go.
We're sneaking in. I'm, like, trying to blend in. And he's like, no. We're like. But they just. And we're trying to explain, where are they going?
Not today. Not for you.
That's when the guy comes out of.
He literally, like, walks out, like, with a bucket. He's been cleaning the floor. And then finally, he says some words to the security guard in Ukrainian. And then he's like.
And so we were like, yes. And so we followed him in, and he just took us downstairs. And all the monks were just down there. Like, people were wiping the windows.
It was like, just us. Well, and the ladies. But they went somewhere. It's true there are a lot of.
Mummies, but they're not like mummies. They're literally in these glass caskets, covered from head to toe, but their hands are exposed. And he told us, like, in broken English, like, the cave, like, preserves them and they don't disintegrate. Like, their hands were still there. I could see their fingernails. I just.
The mummies have been there for, I believe, 900 years. They were never embalmed, and the bodies are still intact. That's why it's such a holy place. They think, like, this is an obvious sign that these men were holy because their bodies are still intact 900 years later.
Tight. Like, I just. I couldn't stop looking. It was amazing.
I mean, it was just their hands. Like, that's all you could see there was covered.
Yeah.
But obviously there was no filming because it's a very holy site.
So we need to probably keep this short since we have nothing to show. But we're really excited we got to go in.
It was great.
I was so sad.
G was so disappointed off camera. She was like, that was the one.
Thing that I really wanted.
Yay.
So many people told us that we had to come to this coffee shop. It's super hip. It's right in the middle of town. We got two giant croissant sandwiches and two coffees and all of this together.
$5.
I needed it.
Yum. There's an egg on this sandwich. It was the first one on the menu and we just pointed to it. Everything was in Ukrainian. The picture looks nice. It worked out.
This is Independence Square. The apartment where we've been staying is right there. So this is pretty much like our backyard. And the first few days we're here, I was like skipping, running through this square, like, oh, look how pretty it is. Look at the fountains. Doing my Insta story. And then we watched this Netflix documentary called Winter of Fire. And I have not been able to walk through this square this night. Here's what was happening here just five years ago.
This was the epicenter of the Ukrainian revolution. So five years ago, people spent an entire winter living in barricades in this square as a protest. Over 100 people were killed. And now just five short years later, you would never have any idea. Now it's just beautiful. Everybody's out having fun.
So we're definitely not the History Channel. There's so much more to this story. But we're so glad that we learned about what happened here because I seriously have not been the same. I haven't even, like, looked at the people here the same. Like, knowing that they were here when all that horrible stuff was happening. It's crazy.
Basically what she's trying to say is you should probably turn this video off and go watch winter Fire. Really good.
So about a two minute walk from Independence Square are. Boom. Two of the most beautiful cathedrals I've ever seen. Like golden and colorful and shiny. The first one is St. Michael's Cathedral, which is also in that documentary that we watched. And behind me is St. Sophia's which is the oldest standing church in Kiev. We saw some people at the top, so. So we're going to try to see if we can catch the end of the sunset up there.
You can go up and it's not closed at 8 o', clock, which are both very surprising. Don't know how many steps it is, though. Wow.
Cool.
Worth $3.
What a view. It keeps going. Look at that.
Wow.
Okay, this is to sound a little random, but stick with me. A few weeks ago, we were in Switzerland to celebrate Swiss National Day. Like, we intentionally traveled to Zurich to do that. And then we planned a trip to Liechtenstein because we had heard that the prince threw a party at the castle for their national day.
And guess what? Today ends.
I was like, wow, everyone in Ukraine is just so patriotic.
We had no idea. Welcome to Ukraine.
Thank you.
I love it. Thank you.
It's Independence day.
So we're celebrating Ukraine's independence with them.
The last three countries we've been to. It's been their most patriotic day of the year. We don't really know what the rest of the night holds, but there's a lot happening.
So K was never really on my bucket list, and I feel like it's because there's not, like, one thing day that you have to go do in Kiev. But really, it's just all the things, like this city as a whole, it's just so cool. It's cheap. The food is amazing. Which, by the way, we're doing a food tour tomorrow, so all the food will be in tomorrow's video. It has history, it's beautiful, and it has a lot of character. Like, it's just rough enough around the edges to make it exciting, but still, you know, nice and safe and fun. I'm really glad we ended up here. I'm so excited to spend more time in Ukraine.
That's the ending of the video. Letters.
I thought you sounded it out.
Sounded out Ukrainian? Yeah. No, I just been claiming I can read the sign because I memorized the first three symbols.
Nate's Ukrainian accent's really good. Ukraine. That's how they say it here. Ukraine. I think I just feel very like if I'm like this, it's, like, casual.
