I was thinking about the difference between the metro in Kiev and the one in Berlin. But there is not much difference. The Kiev metro was build in 1960, the one in Berlin is from 1910, and Paris from 1900. In Paris you can see the age, but not in Berlin.
The 2008-2009 winter season gave us perfect ice. No wind, no snow, blue skies and cold nights created the best ice we have had in years. Totally black ice. You’re on the middle of the lake and you look down and all you see is bottomless black. And it feels very different from the stadium skate track where you have 5 centimeter ice on a concrete floor, this is ice floating on water and it makes a very distinct sound when you ride, ploink ploink ploink.
In Kiev you can buy a suit on high street, prices start at 1500 euro. Or you go to the market in the eastern suburb. This is cosmopolis, with Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Indians, Pakistanis and Ukranians. You buy a suit for 90 euro, and then they send you to the tailor who has a shop next to the market. Well, shop, it’s more like a shack with corrugated sheet metal on the roof, pallets, a door but no windows.
The TGV in Montparnasse or Rennes, or maybe the Thalys at Gare du Nord, I forgot.
McDonalds takeaway at Kiev metro station Plosjtsja Lva Tolstoho.