“It’s worth a trip to Ukraine for the food and beer alone!” – was my husband Rick’s continual comment throughout our visit. Cosmopolitan Kiev and touristy Odessa offer a large selection of cuisines and price ranges, but our choice was to seek out restaurants serving up home-style Ukrainian fare. Traditional Ukrainian cuisine is rich with […]

Now’s the time to visit Ukraine! It’s an exciting time of progress and challenges with Ukraine’s evolving new identity post-Soviet rule. Still in its infancy of tourism, prices are reasonable (compared to Western standards). The historic churches, monuments, top-notch museums are amazing, the mountain vistas and beaches are dazzling, and then there is the famed […]

Today we were leaving Kiev for the Ukraine countryside again, this time by bus. A week earlier, in the same uncomfortable July heat, we had journeyed by electric train to visit my cousin’s dacha (cottage). During the train ride, varied characters sold their wares, indifferent to the sweaty passengers. It was a dilapidated parade of […]

Kiev, the capital and largest city in Ukraine (population over 2.5 million), seems to be shifting slowly, but inexorably to a developing “westernized city”.  A visitor experiencing Kiev the first time will be struck by the unique blend of old and new worlds colliding. Kiev, Ukraine, founded in the 5th century as a trading center, developed rapidly as a former Soviet republic during the […]