From Wikitravel

the food should be better discussed. More objective. I can't do it, because in the one year I was there, I tasted things so horrible, I was glad to go to macdonalds or places that sell "western food" (borshch is great though!)

Max: I've added couple of food items which could be of interest for westeners. Did anyone of you liked Vareniki with sour cream?

I was born in Kiev and lived there for 25 years and think that language situation is not described precisely. I'm Ukrainian, but I consider Russian to be my native language. There is absolutely no any problem if you'll try to speak in Russian to someone on a street for directions, etc. There might be some political tension from time to time between Russia and Ukraine but Russian language is still used by more than 50% of Kiev's population. Even in Ukrainian-speaking Western Ukraine (Lviv) attitude toward Russian language has improved significantly since early 90s.

[edit] University of Bribes

The author wrote "The red Shevchenko university is famous in whole Ukraine. It's also famous for asking for bribes for everything." I tried to find an unbiased source to confirm this and I have yet to find anything that says this is a corrupt university. Check out the Wikipedia article. I'm going to delete the bribe info for now. We should only add this back in if we can find an unbiased resource that confirms this allegation. Sapphire 19:05, 4 Jan 2006 (EST)

I hadn't noticed this, and it might also be a translation issue ("fees"? "donations"?). Thanks for cleaning it up. --Evan 18:44, 4 Jan 2006 (EST)

No problem. I've been looking to attend school in East Europe and this would have greatly affected my decision if I'd completely believed it. Sapphire 19:05, 4 Jan 2006 (EST)

By accident I found a source to back up the allegation that Ukrainian colleges take bribes, however, no one school was mentioned. I found this information on the Soros Foundation's website. The Soros Foundation was founded by Geroge Soros, the American-Hungarian or rather Hungarian-American (He was a Hungarian before he was American). Soros is extermely active in East Europe and third world nations. His group promotes democracy and prosperous economies in the regions it operates.

[edit] Contact

Removed the contact "information," Wikitravel is a travel information site, not an international dating site. Brian Hnatiak

[edit] Article status

I have just changed this article from stub to usable status. On a second thought, I think the eat and sleep entries need more details and their format should comply with our manual of style. I'm changing the status again now, to Outline, in hope that other contributors will feel compelled to add more details to the article. -- Rmx 13:29, 15 Feb 2006 (EST)

Hiya. I think you could argue for either usable or stub, but isn't outline for when there's just, well, an outline? I thought it was outline->stub->usable->guide->star... I'm gonna go RTFM now... 207.134.56.158 13:58, 15 Feb 2006 (EST)

Thanks, but according to Wikitravel:Article_status, stub is "level 1" (no template) whereas an outline has a template and some incomplete info. -- Rmx 14:47, 15 Feb 2006 (EST)

[edit] Article name

Per our Wikitravel:article naming conventions, we use the most common English name for a destination. I don't think "Kyiv" has passed up "Kiev" in the English language for this city. Note we explicitly don't use the official or local name; see Wikitravel:Why Wikitravel doesn't use official names. I've reverted the changes to this article that changed "Kiev" to "Kyiv"; please discuss here before changing back. --Evan 10:12, 1 December 2006 (EST)

I just reverted again; please discuss here before changing it back. --Evan 20:17, 3 December 2006 (EST)

Don't just change replace all occurrences of Kyiv into Kiev, a lot of those are English language local names (like you'll get "Kyivstar" not "Kievstar" on your phone and linking to www.kievstar.net you get some russian spam site, the map book will have "Kyiv Tour Guide" written on it, the university refers to itself as the "National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy" and so on.

Yes, I tried to recover all the proper names that included Kyiv. Let me know if you see any more. --Evan 20:30, 3 December 2006 (EST)

Hi sorry, am only new to Wikipedia editing. Just to let you know, 90 per cent of english spelling referring to the city name here in town is Kyiv. And the US government has recently agreed to only use 'Kyiv' when referring to the city ( http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/wireStory?id=2588280 ). Usage may increase in short time. -- BJT, 26 December 2006, 15:39pm

"Kyiv" is still a long way from becoming more common than "Kiev". -- Andrew H. (Sapphire) 08:55, 26 December 2006 (EST)

Google is not the arrguement See Ukriane vs the Ukraine

[edit][add listing] Do

I deleted the Tours section that links to a website that organises stag parties (and escorts) as I didn't think it adhered to the external links guidelines. Wikitravel isn't a dating agency. - user BJT, 26 December 2006

Thank you. -- Andrew H. (Sapphire) 08:55, 26 December 2006 (EST)

ehhhh.

-It is polite to chat loudly (e.g., in Metro) and wave one's hands.-.... this was listed... I can't imagine it is polite to chat loudly and wave on'es hands... I do it all the time though

[edit] Bring toilet paper...

The article suggests that you should bring a flash light and toilet paper with you to avoid "surprises". Although I would agree that Kiev and Ukraine in general is still well behind many Western European countries, toilet paper is not an issue and has not been since the end of the Soviet times. This comment could mislead readers as to how developed Kiev trully is. I suggest to remove it.

I agree that toilet paper may not be quite needed, but flashlight is a good idea. I never thought of it myself until I went a year ago with a friend. He read that you should bring a flashlight, and did so. While the apartment we rented was great, the building itself (the staircase) had absolutely no light, and was at best quite dim even during a sunny day. :) Mno 05:49, 9 April 2008 (EDT)