The Mall

Since downtown (aka City Center) is still off limits today, we opted to head out to the Mall, which turned out to be the largest mall in Kyiv.  It was on several folks' to do list just to see how different it was to what they know at home and because some expected to get some good deals.  Ha!  Unless you are going to the City Center or work / shop / eat nearby where you live, you have to take the Metro or you have to get a taxi (which for foreigners, will be twice the price of locals).  We are getting pretty good at riding the metro, it's cheap (about $0.30 one-way), quick, and efficient, although it is crowded.  After a quick metro ride and a bit of a walk we ended up at the Bolshevik Mall, which has been renovated from an old, closed factory.  It is a very modern mall, very bright and glitzy, but it's very hard to navigate and not because the map is in Ukrainian.  This is not your ordinary square box mall with three levels, there are stairs that you think will lead up to the next level but actually they lead you up to a restaurant; another set leads you down into a store.  Hmmm...

The mall, by comparison standards to malls in the U.S. or India on a Sunday, was very empty and we expect the reason for that was because everything was very expensive (wages are not high here in Kyiv) and people really can't afford to shop there.  Cheryl and Flavia had come thinking they could get a good deal on items but they are as expensive as what you would pay back in the States, definitely not a bargain.  One cool thing we did discover is that besides having an ice-skating rink, it had a bowling center, and a large arcade for kids.  I could see the value in having these things at Barton Creek Mall in Austin - your kids could go and play while you shop. 

We're going out for Indian food tonight, the guys have found us a place to give us all a good lesson in Indian cuisine and, of course, we will take the Metro to get there. I'll come back and post pictures from dinner later. 
--- OK, I'm back from dinner and I completely forgot to take pictures, but it was without question the best Indian food that I have ever had.  Kailash (our team photographer) had made the dinner arrangements, so we let him order a variety of dishes so we could all try a little bit of everything.  Amazing, I even had the sweet dessert and I'm not usually a dessert fan.