As any quickly developing city in the world, Kyiv is permanently changing, offering its residents new cafes, restaurants, clubs, shops, services and all kinds of methods to have fun.

But many things general in the Western world are still missing here.

At the luxury end, the choices are abundant, while some of the basic needs of a modern urban dweller are still not satisfied. Anyone who has resided his or her life abroad before coming to Ukraine can easily name the deficiencies. Even native Kyivans who traveled in Europe can easily say what our capital city lacks. 

Street names in Latin

Kyiv is certainly not a directly tourist city, but it’s still a significantly popular destination, especially in warmer months. In view of Ukraine’s intensions to become an official part of civilized Europe, it would be only logical to supply the city with some basic tourist services – such as street names spelled in Latin letters. Average Western Europeans who come here for a week or two can hardly be considered to read Cyrillic. Light boxes with maps inside indicating your whereabouts could be a perfect idea, as well as street names pointing to popular destinations like Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Pecherska Lavra, Mariyinsky Palace and Mykhaylivska Square. Using the subway must be a real hell for the majority of foreigners. All names are in Ukrainian and no one is around to ask for help.

Coffee Mornings in the City

We know many friends will agree that Kyiv needs coffee-to-go, and hopefully many of the readers will, too. We don’t always have time to have relax at a cafe, especially if we are on our way to the office. Hot and aromatic coffee in a tall paper cup is a perfect way to start the work day. But it’s still not easy to seek one in Kyiv. The automatic coffee machines in some office buildings and supermarkets pour a rather artificial drink in small cups. The only actual coffee-to-go brand in Kyiv is Gloria Jean’s Coffees.

Parking

Whether you drive a car in the capital of Ukraine or not, it can hardly escape your attention that parking in Kyiv is a real problem. Kyiv simply doesn’t have enough places to accommodate cars on the move – or not on the move. Big cars being parked in the middle of the sidewalk force you to walk on the road just to get around them. And there are many other examples of crazy ways to park. But in the same time, proper parking places are not easy to seek, especially in the center. Paid parking is also tricky in Kyiv. The places determined as official parking lots, like parts of Khreshchatyk, Shota Rustaveli Street and Sportyvna Ploshcha don’t always provde easy options for parking paying. Sometimes there are parking attendants there with desire to take your money, though they are often inclined to cheat and may not offer you a special parking ticket unless you request it.

Street food

Many of us need to eat something quickly on the way, for lunch at work or simply to enjoy a meal on a park bench. Every European country has its own traditional street food, but it’s hard to say what’s traditional in Ukraine in general, and Kyiv, especially. Speaking of truly edible street food, one of the best known offerings is, of course, Kyivska Perepichka – boiled sausages deep-fried in dough, sold across from TSUM on Khreshchatyk. It's greasy and fattening, but many find it irresistible.

Trash bins

Sadly, many Kyiv citizens can be often seen throwing away garbage anywhere on the streets. That’s a style of life and a state of mind which is difficulty to change. However, even those of us who try to do the right thing have hard times finding garbage bins. You can walk for blocks with that empty fanta bottle or ice-cream wrapping in hand before finding a civilized way to get rid of it. Of course there is no guarantee that the majority of the population will use trash bins even if they are installed every step of the way. But some of them will and they will set a perfect example.

Low-cost airlines

While budget travel options are spreading all over the world, in our country you can only choose between two low-cost airlines – Wizz Air (wizzair.com) and Windrose (windrose.aero). Unfortunately, their list of destinations inside Ukraine is limited and their European destinations estimate only several. Windrose has flights to Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Simferopol as well as Moscow and Kaliningrad, Tashkent. There are still so many places in Europe alone you cannot come for cheap prices. We really look forward to more low-budget flights and air lines in Ukraine, that will make life for the majority of the Ukrainians and foreign guests easier.