Kyiv!

Kyiv is how the Ukrainians transcribe Kiev. Kiev is the Russian version.

I have just got back from a month in Kyiv, and besides the elegant old eastern european buildings, cobbled streets, beautiful girls, good beer and 10 pence metro, the second-hand and flea markets are off the chain.

If you ever find yourself in this city, you have to visit the second hand spot by Lisova metro station. It's at the end of the red line in the west of the city. Exit the station and turn right, you can't miss it. Don't eat the deep-fried snacks either. If you are hungry there's a falafel take-away in the middle of the market.

The market is enormous. I reckon there are about 100 stalls in prefabricated corrigated steel shacks. I copped so much stuff that i had to buy another suitcase to take it all home. Which i also copped from the market.

The things I copped were Fred Perry polos, numerous of, some classic English and Argentinian football shirts, an agnes b shirt, some Pringle, some day-glo jarg Nike caps and some presents for my girlfiend. I paid between 2.50 and 5 pounds per item. You can haggle for everything: most of the stalls seem to belong to Arab people.

There was a family of cats living under on of the stalls. There's a picture at the top of the blog.

Mark D.