Changing my mind so quickly.
Due probably to that bit of accumulated laziness I was mentioning in
my post about second day in Odessa, now it is more difficult to be committed to a one-day excursion as I did several time especially in Croatia and Albania.

Provided that I already had to exclude the idea of going to Chernobyl because there were no available places anymore and, by the way, price was quite crazy (more than 100 Euro), I’ve considered to go to Chernigov, similar name but completely different place. In this case it is a village with a precious old town.

In order to reach it I take the metro going to Lisova station where there should be minivan going there in about two hours. Red line of the metro crosses the river Dniepro on a bridge, not through a tunnel and the view I see is really incredible. The beautiful Unesco site of Pechersk monastery is shining with its golden domes and white walls under the sun. By the way, I didn’t say it yet but today seems to be a wonderful day. At this view I start to think that tomorrow I have a flight to Tallinn in the early afternoon and that because of that I will have very few hours to spend in Kiev. Now, I’m asking myself: does it really makes sense to stay at least four hours in a minivan to see a probably nice town while I have Kiev and good weather? I took two stops of the metro, a pastry with cheese and a black coffee to find the answer. Based on that, I’m taking the metro backward to stay all the day in Kiev.
Hidropark.
Roughly at the two sides of the bridge there are metro stops, one is called Dnipro, on the central part of the town, the other is called Hidropark.

I get out on the latter because I want take pictures from the opposite side. This area is also called Hidropark as the subway station and it would be probably very crowded during Summer because it hosts best Kiev’s beach and of course also some cafe and restaurants. Someone of you could maybe ask about Kiev’s beach. Well, yes, as I saw also on Tiraspol, in these towns there are beaches on the river bank. I have no idea if the water fulfil all health requirements for bathing but I’m sure that in summer when the sun shines, here there will be tons of Kievans sunbathing and swimming.

I’ve said when there is the sun on purpose because the wonderful sunny day that so much influenced my decision of staying in Kiev seems to have gone. Now I can estimate 80% clouds and 20% sun. However, now I’m here and then I go along the beach with a privileged view on the Pechersk Unesco Site and on the huge Motherland statue similar to the one in Tbilisi called Kartlis Deda (Mother of a Georgian). On the beach there are few people sunbathing but someone is going away due to the lack of the raw material: the sun. There are a lot of fishermen with the cane pole. I keep going on but when I’m close to the other bridge I discover that I can’t use it because it hosts a sort of highway and I have to go back.
A quick lunch and some climbing.
Even if the sun seems to play hide and seek, day is hot and so far I think I walked already some six or seven kilometres so after crossing the metro bridge on foot, I look for the first place available to drink a fresh beer.

Close to the bridge the only place seems to be one with a curious name. Gangnam style, like the South Korean song. Inside instead is absolutely Ukrainian (or maybe Russian, I don’t see much difference) style Stolovaya. I take the wished beer but then I decide also to eat a shashlik. There are two girls inside the bar, the waitress and a friend of her. They’re very friendly even if they don’t speak any English. After lunch I would like to finally reach what I’ve seen from the opposite bank but apparently there is no a shortcut to climb up. Theoretically one should go about one kilometre along the main road and then going back, slightly uphill through a second one. I really don’t want to do that and so I study for few minutes my map and I decide that it should be quick to climb up on the little park on the hill laying over the metro tunnel. At the beginning I’m not so convinced but when after 300 meters I start to hear roar of cars on the upper road I realise that mine was a good idea.
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