Living part time in Sofia, part time in Berlin and part time in my native Los Angeles, the world is feeling very small indeed.

Globalisation is perhaps most evident to those of us whose lives span countries. In the beginning it was Coca-Cola, then McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Benetton and Nokia who went roaring into foreign cities. Today one major shopping street or mall can look almost exactly like another all over the world, depending on the wealth of the customers.

But as curious travellers, we long for some differences, some “foreignness” to our travels, even though we are admittedly drawn to cities. In late July we went to Kiev from Sofia, a short one-and-a-half hour hop on Aerovit Airlines, a national airline which is considered low cost, but certainly isn’t budget. The cost for the trip was about 300 euro round trip. The alternative was to take a bus.

Given the twice-a-week flights from Sofia, we decided on staying a week, time to really get to know the place, wander and not feel pressured. Checking into hotel rates, we nearly keeled over when we found that they were astronomical and considered generally crummy, so we decided to go to an apartment, something we had done in many cities worldwide before. A three star is from $95 to $130 a night (without A/C) in a notoriously humid city, and four stars are from $210 to zillions. The two brand-new five-star hotels start at zillions as well.

So, the hunt was on. We chose a really nice-looking user-friendly website that seemed to have the same apartments listed as others but gave better details. We decided on No. 127 because of its location, the fact that it had airconditioning, DSL hookup and simple furnishings.

Reality, ick
Unfortunately what was not shown was the swarms of circling flies in the rooms, the A/C that reached only the living room, the broken locks in a city with warnings about security, and the smell of cat urine that was incredibly intense at the dark, dank basement entrance.

The windows couldn’t be opened because of the rubbish piled outside. It was advertised as “semi-lux”. Heaven help those in “standard”. The DSL did not work and we thought it was our out to the place but the Brit who owned the company (and had supposedly worked for Microsoft) and my husband got it working, so the company insisted the apartment was “as advertised”. He said he would bring over fly poison the next day. We decided to live with the problems as the city looked fabulous, and the main street was just around the corner.

Luckily for us, a gift from the gods, our apartment’s electricity went down at about midnight and did not recover. The night got hotter, longer, the flies were attacking and we got madder. The next morning we demanded another place or a refund. The company agreed, and found us a wonderful, grand, spacious and fully A/C place in an even better location. A bit chagrined and a bit threatened by us, the owner insisted he had not seen the discredited apartment “in nine months” and admitted that it was substandard.

Not exactly France, but...
So we moved into Kiev Versailles, a block from the main street, Kreshchatyk, and five blocks from the place where the Orange Revolution started in late November 2004, the giant Stalinesque Independence Square, obviously called something else in Soviet times.

On Sunday, the day we arrived, the huge street had been cordoned off for foot traffic only. There were thousands of strollers; probably 20 per cent were young women wearing four- or five-inch heels and shorts with bare tummies. Not a lot were beautiful but they were super flashy. We started to notice a lot of weird signs saying “Meet girl of your dream” and “Marriage makers” and “We introduce Butiful (sic) women”. We weren’t in the skuzzy part of town. This was a respectable wonderful family strolling street with some interesting architecture, much Stalinesque as the street was heavily destroyed in World War 2 by the Germans.

After looking for a tourist bureau to get maps and tips and tours, etc, we were told that there were none. People either come on business, or on package tours, or they were men coming as independent travellers hoping to find a, um, “guide” very quickly. The men came in droves until last year when, we were told, their numbers began tapering off. Once they were mainly Americans; now there are more Europeans and Middle Easterners. There aren’t sex signs and bars and stuff. It’s much more subtle. Our rental company told us they used to rent almost exclusively to single men in Kiev to find “partners”.

With whose money?
Shopping for food the first day, we were in shock at the prices. Having LA and Berlin and Sofia to compare with, many prices were higher in Kiev than any of the other cities. One can stick to basics, but even bread is costly. I kept popping into the hard-to-find markets to check the price of jams and coffee, bread eggs. Generally there was one affordable domestic brand, like the overly sweet apricot jam and Nescafe-like coffee, but beyond that the prices shot up.

Kiev is expensive, much higher than other Ukrainian cities. And the real estate there is astronomical. One forgets that Moscow is now the most expensive city in the world; Kiev is striving to be a second Moscow.

That said, the city is worth it. The architecture is unique and now being renovated with big bank and insurance money. Block after block is beautiful, with tree-lined streets, a kind of unusual Viennese/Moorish (with covered balconies) combination. There are hills and so many parks, all in beautiful condition. The Stalinesque buildings—and there are some biggies—are so silly that one has to laugh. Independence Square, just three years ago during the Orange Revolution, held 500 000 demonstrators for weeks, many sleeping there. The wide Dnieper River divides the old from the new. Driving in from the airport, the new city’s towering apartments looked very fancy with some almost interesting architecture. Just no trees.

That one lunch when
One of the best things about Kiev was the food: pelmeni, cheese blintzes, kasha and borscht galore. All the things we saw on Russian menus in the 1980s and even into the early 1990s. We discovered a kind of giant two-storey cafeteria, actually a chain, decorated to look like a Ukrainian inn with whitewashed walls, rough-hewn wood floors and rafters, and with folk painting and traditional tapestries everywhere. From 8am until 11pm, there was a steady stream of young people… and us. Among the nightly offerings were chicken Kiev and chicken tabak, the two foods that had appeared on every Soviet menu but never existed. Here there were pans of them. Everything was abundant and even the vegetables were fresh with about the same choice as in Sofia.

Kiev versus Sofia
To understand a place, sometimes it helps to compare it to something known. So I took to comparing Sofia with Kiev. Sometimes I suffered heartache, an extreme form of envy... Both are capital cities that were in the Soviet Bloc. Both have continued to have struggles between the old communists and the new capitalists. Both are still without secure and mature governments.

Kiev is probably unofficially three times larger than Sofia. Ukraine is about seven times larger than Bulgaria in population.

Both cities were heavily bombed during WW2, Kiev by the Germans and Sofia by the Americans. Kiev’s history is tragic, a huge loss of life in WW2. (Babi Yar, the ravine where Nazis murdered 33 771 Jews in 1941, is there.)

Both cities had large Jewish populations, although it appears that the Ukrainians want to forget theirs. That is another topic, and one with many conflicting stories, although we did see a group of Orthodox Jews entering at the airport, and Israelis at the Babi Yar memorial.

The parks in Kiev are well maintained; Sofia’s give me heartache. A shock was coming back to Sofia and finding that our mayor here has put new play equipment into numerous little spaces, many of them weed-filled areas, but finally something. Kiev is dotted with wonderful imaginative equipment apparently made by a Ukrainian company.

Kiev’s apartment buildings are normal, with plaster and paint. Sofia’s older housing is a disaster, giving the city a pathetic rundown look. We were told some of the bad Soviet-style places in Kiev’s old city had been torn down, as the land is now so valuable. However, anything with any historical value must keep its facade. Huge amounts of new building have gone up on the new left bank of the city. Sofia’s new buildings are limited as the buyers are limited.

Fewer Ukrainians speak English, even in the capital. Russian is definitely the second language. There is much less English signage; in fact, reading Cyrillic is a must to survive in Kiev without a Ukrainian “partner”.

The food and clothing prices are, on most items, about equivalent to the US.

People of both nations are very unhappy with the politics of their country. I kept reading descriptions of how the Ukrainians are cynical about their government. The Bulgarians were cynical, but now they are depressed.

Sofia’s streets, ratty and trap filled and broken, are, nonetheless, filled with tables and chairs and people having coffees wherever and whenever they can. They sprout like mushrooms in a damp place. I saw none of that in Kiev. Cafes, yes, but formal affairs. And the coffee was often more expensive than in a Starbucks. Starbucks is in Kiev… but not yet in Sofia.

Kiev is known for its gorgeous many golden-domed churches that dot the hills. They are beautiful, and give a look of magic to the city.

Many of the churches and church complexes have recently been renovated and even rebuilt. Sofia has one giant and magnificent golden-domed Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral, and a very small but charming Russian church. But for interior icons, nothing bests Sofia’s Icon Museum in the crypt under the huge cathedral Alexander Nevski.

The lack of good fine art on display in Kiev surprised me. It’s even hard to find good craft art beyond the traditional embroidery and some weaving. Sofia is filled with talented artists, world-class artists, and you can find some wonderful and very creative hand-made, inexpensive modern crafts in the many little shops around town.

And then there is the summer weather, another plus for Sofia, one of Europe’s highest capitals. Access to Sofia is not terribly easy, best by plane; one can actually take a boat to Kiev via St Petersburg and Moscow on the Dnieper. But with a wide river, one gets high humidity, mosquitoes and a less comfortable climate. Sofia sits against a high, cool mountain and the low humidity generally gives it a comfortable summer climate.

What really counts
Last, the people. They are, at least on the surface, very different. Bulgarians are animated and noisy and open to each other. They hug and kiss a lot, and laugh, smile, talk, fight and argue loudly. Kind of like Italians. Ukrainians are much more contained. They don’t touch you when talking, like Bulgarians do. They don’t yell at each other, nor do they keep doors open for one another. They aren’t, well, Balkan. It’s actually most what draws me most to Bulgaria, the people. (And yet almost every Bulgarian will tell you it’s “the people” that’s Bulgaria’s biggest problem.)

By the way, our first apartment, number 127, was never removed from the internet site. You too can make the mistake of renting it for 79 euro a night. It’s still advertised as “semi-lux”.