The hostel was an absolute furnace last night. Sleep wasn't assisted by the bright exit light above the door. Nevertheless, we were up and out by 9, navigating the slippery icey pathways of Western Kyiv.

It turned into a bit of an adventure even finding the nearest metro station. We took a couple detours, along railway tracks and through abandoned industrial estates, as well as a breakfast stop. Had a Ukrainian breakfast of Symrda (or similar) - a set of weird dumpling-type things with tough skins and gooey almost quiche-like interiors, mixed with sour cream and cranberry sauce. All in a very European style cafe.

We eventualyl found the metro station and headed down the many deep, dark escalators to one of the deepest metro systems in the world. We headed for Arsenalna - the deepest station in the world - at 105m below the ground.

From there it was an intriguing pramble through a large, snow-covered park. We descended into the forest, past stunning memorials, a couple with fires still burning at the centre of reefs.

We wended our way to the back entrance of the Pechersk-Lavra, a stunning complex of Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. It was clear that many Kievans are still devoutly religious in spite of the efforts of Soviet Russia. A highlight was making our way underground to the caves with their stunning portraits of religious figures and atmospheric, waxy smell from the dozens of faithful carefully carrying round their candles.

From the Pechersk Lavra we passed the Motherland Statue, an only 40 year old but 100m tall statue celebrating Ukrainian history - Ukraine's answer to 'Mother Russia'. We lunched at a very Ukrainian Irish Pub where to Rob's delight there was football on then made our way back via the metro to Independence Square.

This is the sight of Kiev's many revolutions - the Orange Revolution of 2004 and the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013-14 the most recent. An epicentre of recent Ukrainian events, a symbol of the divisions in this complex land and the place where we bumped into a rather unfortunate scam.

The square is full of various photogenic beings - men and women in zebra costumes etc. as well as people wielding various birds of prey. In a sense Rob was photomugged unwittingly by a man wielding birds of prey - sweeping us up into a 'let's stand in front of this I Love Kyiv sign with a bird of prey photoshoot' that left us debating the cost of said activity. The man asked for 500 Hyrvinia...maybe not mate. A fair point that the whole exercise couldn't be for the free, we ended up parting up 200 to him - Rob was especially convincing at the whole "I don't have any more money sorry" because he very literally he had no more money...

By this time, the cold was starting to get to us. It isn't just the cold on its own, its how cumbersome wearing all your warm weather gear is, and how much longer it takes to get anywhere when walking on ice and snow. After a non-alcoholic beer at a 'gentlemen's drinking club' we scouted a taxi who looked as if he was about to go on a fag break to take us to the circus.

The circus was...interesting. A grand, spectacular building almost shrouded in fog and surrounded by snow - it was packed with kids. It was pretty easy to get in and find our seats. The performance was, perhaps a tad tacky, but intriguing nevertheless. The worst animal cruelty was the forcing of porcupines to walk around centre stage with sticks - much better than feared. Other than that it was a range of stereotypical circus tricks that ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous - mega-talented rope swingers vs frogs shouting "BAH". Oooh and a lot of Ukrainian covers of famous christmas songs, especially Mariah Carey hits!

Anyway, all very tiring, back in the furnace, sorry - hostel, and will probably get dinner soon. Hopefully something a bit Ukrainian... and hopefully Rob won't spill an entire bottle of coke, again.

So what is Kyiv like? Cold. Bloody freezing. Bone-shatteringly freezing. Ukrainians seem surprisingly friendly given the general reputation most post-soviet countries have. Sure they have a serious staring habit which may make the self-conscious a bit wary but any interaction (well, one involving words) is usually warm-hearted.

Kyiv is a very grand city, plenty of swanky, western style developments everywhere. McDonalds, KFC, Dominoes the lot of them everywhere and the streets are hugely wide and not particularly packed with cars. There also appears to be a dense forest in the middle of the city - following the banks of the city's main artery the Dnieper. It's most definitely not the world's most exciting city but worth a day to explore when bound for Chernobyl. Kyiv

Anyways,

Laters!