smit0847

What a stunning TR. What were the tents in the square for? A protest?

arlflyer

Manti, manti....want manti...might need to go get some right now. There is a place down the road...

I like mine with so much sour cream on top you can't even see them, perfect. Mmmmmmm. ^^

Mrtrash757

Loved this TR, putting all three on my list.

Did you have any issues with visas and getting in and out of any of the countries?

Also, how much was the food? I only saw the price for the Big Mac :P

DanielW

Thank you, isaifan. Although not your typical european trip, it was fairly safe and easy. The language/Cyrillic bit was probably the biggest difficulty, but quite manageable though with a bit of sign language with the locals sometimes.

Thanks, exilencfc. Yes, Kiev is safe and peaceful. All the action is out in eastern Ukraine which is ~800k's away from Kiev.

The Belarus VOA was fairly easy to organise. Just have to organise a LOI in advance, which cost me 30 euro's through www.Belarussianvisa.com.

I think you can organise a VOA too if you have an embassy in your home country too, but it costs twice as much as getting it from the embassy.

Thank you, Andriyko. Really enjoyed my time in Kiev, definitely the friendliest people of the cities I visited.

Cheers, goodeats. Yes, scary to think that if Chernobyl went fully thermonuclear they reckon they would have had to evacuate Minsk too.

Many thanks, smit0847. The tents are basically left over from the Euromaidan protests earlier this year. An interesting article in the NYTimes earlier this week on this: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/wo...-end.html?_r=0

Yes, was craving some Manti on this trip too! Had them quite a bit in the Baltics, and was missing some good borscht too.

Thanks, thetravelingRedhead. Yes, definitely recommend putting all three on your bucket list.

No problems with visa's. I used my UK passport for Ukraine, so no visa required. Used my NZ passport for Belarus (since much cheaper than UK). Just had to organise a LOI in advance which was easy through a website (www.belarussianvisa.com). NZ passport for Russia too because of the cost, and just did it through the local consulate after getting the necessary LOI (online too).

Food in Ukraine was very cheap, <$10 for a decent meal. Belarus was fairly reasonable too, and could get a meal at a cafe for $10-15. I went to inexpensive places in Russia, and the most I paid was $18 (at the cafe at GUM) for the full meal (main, entree, dessert, drink etc).

Loose Cannon

Thanks for the fascinating Trip Report

jason8612

Wonderful trip report!
I really enjoyed all the photos.

jackthedog

Great report. Thanks for posting.

paul4040

Brilliant TR - thanks for posting! Photography was lovely.

WorldTraveller13

Beautiful photos

themapelligroup

I'm always amazed by your trip reports DanielW, in fact I'm organizing a trip to Algeria and Tunisia in the second half of October following your recent trip report. Thanks again for sharing!

polandspringuy

Always impressed with your photos. Along with a couple others on this forum I find myself trying to emulate your photography. It's made me less obsessed with buying the latest gear and more focused on actually getting out there and shooting.

Thank you for continuing to share your wonderful trip reports.

karung99

Great trip report, enjoy these pics and love to travel to that part of the world in the future.
Thank you for sharing.

SAtraveller

This is one of the best trip reports I've ever read.
Every single picture of yours tells a story and is filled with emotion.
Thank you.

Xevus

Actually, it says "People, start to think".

ironmanjt

Ditto....and Moscow, I've been several times now, ALWAYS in December. It looks to be a rather beautiful city in summer. Thanks for posting!