The capital city of Kyiv is located centrally in the country and to the North. The population of this majestic city is close to 3 million souls. Kyiv is an ancient city close to 2 thousand years old and one of the oldest cities in Europe. Ukraine as a country was known as ‘the breadbasket of europe’ , due to it’s rich agricultural land, and Kyiv was, and is, surely the prize gem.

Russia did not want to lose Ukraine as part of it’s territories, and apart from the historical ties and geographical importance of Ukraine, it was surely the majestic gem  that is ‘Kyiv’ that they sorely missed, and lost.

The city of Kyiv is situated on the Dnieper River. In fact the river divides the city in half. It is a powerful, impressive river that flows down to the black sea located to the south of Ukraine. One of the first thing that grabs you when you visit Kyiv is how spread out it is, and how green it is! A visit during the spring or summer is my personal favourite and you can go down to the beaches on the river and take a picnic, and have an amazing, cheap day out!

A question many people ask, ‘Should it be Kiev or Kyiv?’

Currently, Kiev is still most commonly used English name for the city, but since the 1995 adoption of by the Ukrainian government as a preferred spelling, the Ukrainianized version Kyiv is gaining usage, and is the official spelling used by Ukraine and the exact translation.

Kiev is actually the Russian language spelling and since Ukraine has been independant for years it has now been replaced by . Of course some tour operators etc. in the west are behind on this, but due to National Pride and the adoption of the most important bodies in the world, the correct spelling is being aggressively and patriotically pushed.

The forthcoming European Football Championship in 2012 should clear away the cobwebs in Western Europe.

Following the independence in 1991, the Ukrainian government introduced the national rules for transliteration of geographic names from Ukrainian into English.

Kyiv is the spelling used by the United Nations, all English-speaking foreign diplomatic missions, several international organizations, Encarta encyclopedia, and by some media, notably in Canada and Ukraine.

On October 3, 2006, the United States federal government changed its official spelling of the city name to Kyiv.

Resources:

United Nation Map of Ukraine & Kyiv http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/profile/ukraine.pdf
Resolution of the Ukrainian Commission for legal Terminology 1995 http://www.uazone.net/Kiev_Kyiv.html

U.S Department of State Change Official Spelling to ‘Kyiv’ 2006 http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2006/74784.htm

In the first instance the holiday needs to be booked through a reputable company that are ‘ABTA’ backed. That is to say they are members of the Association of British Travel Agents.

Travellers sunscribe to the free ‘Know Before You Go’ emails packed with information, then even if the worst happens they can be contacted and contact via text to find out what to do and to get valuable advice.

Here is the link to the FCO Website & the ‘know before you go’ campaign page: www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/about-kbyg-campaign/

Actually launched as far back as 2001.

FCO minister Chris Bryant said: ‘This service is a great example of how we can work closely with industry partners to ensure travellers are prepared for their trips abroad.

Obviously, your personal list will vary according to which travel operator you are using, and which country you are travelling to and from, and you will need passports, visas, clothes, tickets and everything else! But here are a few helpful reminders:

*Before booking make sure you have a valid passport with at least a few months remaining on the term, otherwise in many cases you may have to apply for a new one. Very often you may need 6 months remaining on term. Check! The wait varies but if you want it pronto it will cost and will take at least a week, often , weeks. At the same time, check and doublecheck which visas are required.

1. Research where the nearest embassy will be , go online to your home countries site & find out the address, email, telephone numbers, and opening hours.
2. Get comprehensive travel insurance. If you are a UK citizen, the post office generally offers the cheapest and best cover, and you can get annual family cover for frequent travellers. Take the original certificate with you & leave a copy at home in case you lose it.
3. If you are an EU citizen & travelling within the EU, then get your free European Health Insurance Card . Emergency telephone number in Europe is 112
4. Go online, preferably to Vacation.mobi from your pc or mobile phone or to your government travel site and check what vaccinations or shots you will need. You can also ask your tour operator, they should know.
5. Let other people know you are going away, for how long, and leave contact numbers.
6. Leave copies of important documents online or at home.
7. Buy a good guide on your destination country, study maps, online articles, you will enjoy your trip far more if you are educated about your destination.
8. Be aware of driving restrictions and laws if you are driving abroad, if your licence allows you to drive. Even in Europe you need to be 25 years of age to get a hirecar and insurance!
9. Know what you can take into a country in terms of limits, alcohol, cigarettes etc, and what you can bring back! At best it will be taken off you if over limits, at worst you get fined. If you take anything illegal into a country and it is a country with bad human rights abuses like United Arab Emirates for example, BEWARE. In Dubai for example simple painkillers or alcohol are highly illegal. See our guide on this.
10. Again, on the subject of restrictions, think about what you’re doing, don’t go taking photos of potentially sensitive places like police stations or army bases. Greece anyone and the planespotters??? This applies to video and recording items also.
11. Respect local traditions, keep your eyes and ears open, go with your instincts.
12. Look into internet access and mobile phone coverage and costs before you go. You don’t want the dreaded huge bill when you return. Sometimes its cheaper to buy a cheap local pay as you go sim on arrival if you need to contact your home country. Don’t use the hotel phone.
13. Never leave your bag unattended whilst travelling to and from your destination, it is your responsibility. Of course never agree to carry anything for someone unless you have checked it and know it is an innocent present. Use luggage locks or cable ties on your luggage.
14. Try and fit in locally wherever you travel, try not to look too much like a tourist walking into shops with large amounts of cash, or walking around with maps. Don’t carry too much money at any one time, keep your passport and the bulk of your money in the hotel safe, or draw out as & when you need.
15. Drink bottled water, and keep plenty in your room. Don’t eat market foods or anything you can’t be sure of its origin. Your stomach isn’t as tough as the locals. Take diarrhoea tablets and a small first aid kit where necessary, again look at local rules , particularly carrying of painkillers etc in arab countries.

Above all, take the advice, plan well, and have a great, safe vacation.mobi

Freedom revoked

While all of these different faces of the city are true, Amsterdam is also in a process of change. Certainly, those same things that the city is notorious for abroad are gradually being clamped down on: smoking cannabis is no longer a ubiquitous freedom and sex in the Red Light District is facing stricter new laws. The city’s tolerance has taken a battering too, first with the murder of Pim Fortuyn, then with the murder of Theo van Gogh and later, to a lesser degree, with the attack upon a gay American journalist in the city centre – events that led to plenty of soul searching, hand wringing and, unfortunately, mud slinging.

A city in progress

Things have settled down now, at least spiritually, because one look around town reveals that this place is quite literally rebuilding itself in a massive regeneration programme that has turned the centre into a huge building site. The main locus of this is the docklands, the new cultural quarter and the reason that, a few hundred years ago, Amsterdam originally sparkled in the Golden Age. In among the plate-glass high-rises you’ll still see old barques and spice warehouses, the building blocks on which the nation’s wealth was first founded.

Beautiful Amsterdam and it's stunning architecture

It’s all in the balance

In fact, it’s this same ability to find balance that makes this Janus-faced city so unique. Squalor sits alongside gentility in the Red Light District, the part of town that symbolises modern Amsterdam, for good or bad, to many, but which is also its historical heart. It was near here that the river was dammed in the 13th century; then came man-made canals, imprinting the city with a shape still seen in Cornelis Anthonisz’s 15th-century map, now in the Amsterdams Historisch Museum. Then came wealth, and with it expansion, including the addition of the Jordaan and the Pijp, residential areas lacking in major attractions but irresistible in their own funky ways. Less explored but up-and-coming suburbs include Noord, on the far bank of the IJ, and even the Bijlmermeer, a concrete ’60s experiment that houses immigrant factories, which comes alive with summer’s Kwakoe festival and is now getting some groovy galleries exploring the area’s unique heritage.

One thing’s for certain: whatever happens in the future, Amsterdam will continue to grow, as it has done since 1200, whether literally or metaphorically.