Ukraine

baltimore sun

I live in Poland and my Polish friends want to go to Ukraine in a few weeks for a long weekend, can I go with them or will I need to organise a visa? Maybe Poland & Ukraine have a travel agreement where its easy for their citizens to cross each other's borders but I'm Irish so I don't know if I'll need to get something organised.

cailinoBAC

I had to get a visa in 2004, but as far as I'm aware they lifted the visa requirement temporarily in 2005 (around the time of the Eurovision!) and then extended it and it hasn't been needed since.

baltimore sun

thanks, i'll give the irish embassey a call later too and see what they say, cheers

cailinoBAC

http://www.mfa.gov.ua/ireland/en/8655.htm
See attached for confirmation (Ukrainian embassy website)
Actually it wouldn't really be a good idea reintroducing visas when they are cohosting the european championships in 2012.

RATM

You don't no longer need a visa for the Ukraine since 2004, they'll just stamp your passport at the border. I'd advise to go to a city called Lviv (Lvov in Russian) . Was there a few years back and its a cool place. I wrote an article about it at the time which you can see here, it is on page 21

http://issuu.com/trinitynews/docs/tn1-5

I've never been to Kiev but have heard its a dump and crime-ridden. Lviv is much more pleasent for a weekend trip and if you are starting from Krakow it takes about 8-9 hours to get to on the train (one change and then the border crossing)

cailinoBAC

Oh no! Kyiv is lovely! Of course, I haven't been to Lviv, so can't compare, but I thought Kyiv was beautiful. Then again, when I went there I had spent a year in Minsk, which is not the most beautiful of cities....but, even so...
I remember one of my friends (a kind of Russian nationalistic Belarusian and this was around the time Ukraine started looking west) complaining about the fact that the Ukrainian capital was only beautiful because the Russian Orthodox Church had had its base there and she hated the fact that all these years later the Ukrainians were benefiting from this. I didn't really say anything, even if inside I was thinking 'um, get over it, it's not the present day Ukrainian's fault that the Russian church decided to up sticks and move to Novgorod'.

Still, probably a bit far for a long weekend from Poland...

thebuzz

Going to Ukraine in a couple of weeks. Flying into Kiev and will be heading to Poltava in the east for a football match (possibly just a day there). I'll be there for 3 days in total and just wondering for stuff to do and that.

Is Chernobyl currently closed for tours? Finding info on whether it has re-opened or is definitely still closed is hard.

Any other tips/advice?

thebuzz

BUMP

Any tips for Kiev at all? What to see/do etc.

ardmacha

Kiev is a pretty big city and far from a dump, although I suppose that some parts of it are less pretty than others, like anywhere else. It seem notably more prosperous than Lviv when I was there (2005?, after the visas opened anyway). I seem to recall a number of Orthodox churches and monasteries of interest and a Chernoybl museum. I went out to a folk park on the outskirts with lots of wooden houses in a forest, which may or may not light your bulb, but it was very pleasant on a warm day (this time of year).

The Ukraine seemed to me an interesting blend between a modernised place like Poland and a place looking back to the Soviet era, like Belarus.