Capital of Ukraine

The central square in Kiev - Khreshchatyk
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Kiev is Ukraine´s capital and a much larger city than Lviv and didn´t have nearly as much contact with the Austrian/Hungarians.  As a result the architecture of the city is much more Russian in style.  It looks like as Ukraine is developing a significant portion of the money and energy is being invested into the capital.  The central square is amazing.  Not only is it a typical center in the sense of monuments, fountains, and open space, but there is a mutli-story shopping center built underground right below it!  Based on product prices and selection, the middle and upper class of Kiev is doing pretty well.  Downtown is also where the Porche, Bentley, and BMW dealers are located.  Kiev is a high-energy, a lot happening kind of place.  The penchant for wandering around with beer bottles in tow is alive and well here too.  One of the highlights of our trip was visiting the golden-domed complex of churches, museums, and caves that sit along the Dnipro River.  Not far away is a 108 meter tall statue of a woman which according to our guidebook is affectionately known as "Tin-Tits" by the expatriot community.  What she really represents is the Defense of the Motherland Monument.  I also had the interesting experience of touring a Russian Military equipment museum where I got to see live a bunch of tanks, helicopters, etc that as a kid I used to try to shoot all the time in various computer games.