Travel changes you. The last six months of traveling solo have changed me. With each trip, I find myself more and more comfortable with my surroundings. I used to leave home worrying about spending too much time alone. I remember when I first started traveling solo back in 2015, I would be so anxious walking into a restaurant. I felt weird eating alone. I remember booking private rooms in hostels, wanting to have the “backpacker experience”, but too nervous to dorm with strangers. I felt judged sleeping in a room with others. I remember walking into hostel common areas and only sitting down if there was an empty table or seat with no one else occupying the space. I felt too shy to socialize. Fast forward to 2017. I now walk into restaurants without any hesitation. I book the largest dorm in hostels that fits the most people. Walking into common areas, I take the closest seat next to other travelers. I initiate conversations. I socialize. I extend and accept invites to explore the surroundings together. Acceptance is no longer important to me. Judgment no longer scares me. Well, for the most part – I did miss out on an opportunity to communicate with the man in 37E. I traded in anxiety for excitement. The more I travel solo, the more excited I get about where I will go and who I will meet next.

Kiev
I arrived in Kiev in the middle of the night on Saturday, February 18, 2017. I had spent the day exploring Vienna on an intentional 14 hour stopover [see post: 14 Hours in Vienna]. I quickly hopped into a taxi and headed to the Dream House Hostel Kyiv. I did not prearrange any transportation. The hostel charged the equivalent of about $18 USD for airport transportation. The taxi ride cost me close to the same amount. Outside of the airport, I would not recommend taking a taxi from the street. Unless you are from the area and know how to deal with drivers trying to screw you over. Public transportation includes a shuttle bus service that takes you from the airport to the Central Train Station. Although six times cheaper than taking a taxi, I did not want to explore this option in the middle of the night. I also looked into taking an Uber while in Kiev – the fare estimates ranged between $1 and $2 USD. Scam? These prices seemed questionable when compared to the cost of taking a taxi. Although later, I would learn from backpackers staying at the hostel that Uber is in fact ridiculously cheap and legitimate in Ukraine.

Travel. Dream. Get Inspired. These three words covered the walls of the common area. My type of place!

Like everything else in Ukraine, accommodations are cheap. I paid about $27 USD in total for three nights in a four bed mixed dorm at the Dream House Hostel, which is centrally located in Kiev on Andriyivskyy Uzviz (Andriyivskyy Descent). The hostel is joined with a bar, frequented by travelers from all over the world. Breakfast is offered at the bar’s Druzi Cafe for less than $3 USD. The staff is friendly and helpful. They offer to arrange activities and regularly host Friday night bar crawls, movie nights, and Ukrainian language lessons on a weekly schedule. Arriving in the middle of the night, I missed the bar crawl.

I am the type of person that does not like to waste a minute of the day. Especially when traveling. I am usually the first person up and ready to go explore at the crack of dawn. I had no plans for my day in Kiev. None. I did not even research what there was to do in the city. For some reason, I was not interested. The purpose of my trip to Ukraine was to visit Chernobyl, and that was not until the following day. So, I slept in.

I winged the entire day. With a map in my hand, I made a left out of the hostel.

Looking around, I questioned how I would find enough activities to fill my day. I saw a church on top of a hill, and wandered the streets looking for a route that would take me up there. In the meantime, I spent a good hour Googling “things to do in Kiev” on my phone, before I realized that the street the Dream House Hostel is located on (Andriyivskyy Descent) is the road that connects to all of Kiev’s main attractions.

I turned around, and walked back towards the hostel. As the snow was melting away, I wished it was a bit colder. I was glad that I brought my waterproof snow boots. I followed the steep, winding, cobblestone street up the hill, browsing at the various things being sold by locals. Lined with souvenir stalls, the street itself is a major tourist attraction; it is one of the oldest and most popular streets in Kiev, and it connects Kiev’s Upper Town neighborhood to the Podil district.

At the top of the hill, the church that I had spotted in the morning after leaving the hostel.

Passing the St. Andrew’s Church, I found myself at Sofiyskaya Square.

Towards the back of the large plaza is the St. Sophia Cathedral. I purchased a ticket to enter this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I figured that I would keep exploring. At each main intersection, signs identifying tourist attractions are displayed with corresponding arrows pointing you in said direction. I started following the arrows which led me to random parts of the city.

Wandering around aimlessly, I found myself in the city center, on the main street. My instincts did not lead me astray after all.

I walked both sides of the long street until I ended up at the scene of a memorial at Independence Square.

It took me a minute to piece the scene together – a protest for the Eastern Ukraine conflict. Unaware, full blown war returned to the area the weekend that I was in Ukraine.

Knowing to stay away from crowds of people in such situations, I walked the other direction in search of food.

After lunch, I continued wandering around aimlessly. My goal was to simply walk up and down each street in the city center. I wanted to cover as much ground as I could. By this time, I had wandered off at least an hour’s walk away from the hostel. As the sun started to set, I decided to make my way back.

I figured that I would make it back in time to socialize and meet people to invite out to join me for dinner. Instead of taking the same route back to Andriyivskyy Descent, I crossed through some alleys and stumbled upon a park filled with strange sculptures.

From here, the views of Kiev and the city’s highlights were spectacular.

By nightfall, I made it back to the hostel. The common area was deserted. I grabbed my laptop, ordered a glass of sangria, and proceeded to write about my day while waiting for people to make their way to the bar.

Apparently, the Friday night bar crawl took a toll on everybody. Oh well. I had two more drinks and headed to my dorm to prepare a bag for my trip to Chernobyl the next morning [see post: The Exclusion Zone: Chernobyl].