Entertainment

I have bought some thirty (yes, 30!) CDs today. If you need music on Petrovka, here the right address: row 24, place 7, the name is Oleg. He has EVERYTHING! And you'll get a very good advice too! I have his number if you need to order something in advance.

Today I've realised that I experience some usual everyday things here in Kiev as a sort of exotic entertainment. I am really becoming a foreigner. :-| Anyway, here is how to entertain yourself:
1) Take a marshrutka (a minibus) to some remote part of Kiev. Sit in the back. It's a good alternative to a rollercoaster but then without seat belts or any other safety precautions. The thing does not actually turn upside-down, but it sure feels like it does!
2) When you arrive to this remote part of the city, walk into a tall old apartment block and take a lift (elevator) tot the top floor. If you are lucky, you'll step into a little cabin decorated like a passage to hell: very low light (if any at all), brown walls covered in you don't want to know what, numbers on the buttons are hardly readable and it smells like hell to get you in the mood. Once the cabin starts moving, the light will blink and the walls will shriek. All the way to the top you will be wondering whether the cabin will make it to the top without getting stuck somewhere in the middle (which happens a lot) of falling down. Random episodes from horror films will cross your mind. Those things move incredibly slowly, so by the time you reach the top floor you will want to take the stairs back.
3) While still in this remote part of the city, go to a restaurant. Look for one that looks clean and pretends to be "luxurious". Order some food and drinks and wait till they announce some entertainment. If they announce Gypsies, you will probably see a woman dressed as a Gypsy with her hair dyed black. Later on the same woman will perform some mixture of Arabic and Indian dances (I've never seen Gypsies doing anything like that). And please don't ask me what the man on the photo is doing!
4) You'll still have to get back from that remote part of Kiev and after the restaurant it will probably be too late for marshrutka. You will have to take a "taxi". Look for a car that is made in the USSR (Lada, Moskvitch, if you're lucky). That will provide for the same effect as marshrutka, but then exclusive, in the dark and while you're drunk.
5) The next day, when you wake up from a nightmare and cannot sleep anymore, go for some soft entertainment. If the weather is warm, go to a café and sit outside. If it's not warm outside, go to a fancy night club. Watch the girls show off their underwear, they are very creative!

Trivia: I prefer traditional means of transportation like tram or metro to marshrutkas.