A Tiny Kiev for a Tiny Girl

Today we spent another great day at the beach.  No big whoop there, in fact maybe less of a whoop because the cute, fat “sausage puppies” we had grown to love were conspicuously absent.  We spent quite a few good hours at the beach, reading American magazines and eating fresh fruit, cheese and bread we had picked up at the market.  But after the beach, we made our way to the attraction known as Kiev-in-Miniature, or “Mini-Kiev.”  This jewel of a tourist trap is hard to find, but we were assured that it was there at the same Gidropark (Hydropark) as the beach.  After a long walk along the boardwalk-type boulevard of rides and vendors, we finally found it.

Now, when I say “Mini-Kiev,” what do you picture?  I pictured a sort of tiny town, with all of Kiev represented in a small case as if a choo-choo train were going to circle it.  The ten griebna admission price should have alerted me this was not the case.  Actually, Mini-Kiev is a small park in which all the major buildings of the city are rebuilt to a tiny scale.  It was a total riot!  For one thing, it isn’t set up in reflection of the actual city, but in its own random order.  Also, it’s not really to any one scale, but all the buildings are about the same height.  It was very interesting to see which buildings made the cut.  Of course, all the famous cathedrals were there, but also represented were the train station, hospital and universities.  Finally, for a tourist attraction, it was very hard to find.  The other patrons seemed like locals, and included an old man, a young mother with her baby and a group of rowdy teenagers.

Would I have done this kind of thing in America?  Absolutely not.  Do I regret going?  Absolutely not.  I felt proud being able to recognize most of the tiny buildings, having been to the great majority of them.  In case you’re wondering, my favorite Mat-Rodina was there, and barely came up to my ribcage.  At first I thought this was a ridiculous, cheesy, hokey Ukrainian thing, but then I heard there is also a Mini-Paris.  And as if this weren’t all enough, on the way to Mini-Kiev, we saw the most amazingly cute sight imaginable: a family of cats and kittens living on the roof of a beachside restaurant.  It made the whole experience as remarkable as, as, as a kitten on the roof!