Stig Christensen, a 28-year-old chemistry student from Copenhagen, Denmark, found Kyiv to be above his expectations.
“Kyiv is fine, it is above expectations,” says Christensen, who arrived on June 6. “I know that it’s a bit lower standard than Denmark but it’s fine.”
That may be due to the fact that his expectations could not have been very high. “The talks of Ukraine and Kyiv in Denmark are about local hooligans and violence and stuff like that. But we haven’t experienced anything of it here,” he adds.
Christensen spent two days strolling the city streets and visited Chornobyl museum. On June 9, he was going to depart to Kharkiv to watch the Denmark-Netherlands game scheduled for 7 p.m. He’s going to stay in Ukraine for the whole championship.
“I didn’t have to book train tickets myself, because someone else from our group did that. The price is fine, considering the distance,” Christensen says. “In Kyiv we’re staying in a hostel for about Hr 100 per day. But I know that these days, before the championship, accommodation is three times more expensive if you didn’t book a room in advance.”
Christensen says he doesn’t have any special plans on how to entertain himself while in Ukraine and plans to spend most of his time watching football.
“People are welcoming here, but not smiling much. Especially in restaurants. They don’t smile there. It is not a problem, though. Among Ukrainian dishes I’ve tried borsch and honey vodka [medovukha] and both were good,” he says.
Stig Christensen in the fan zone on Khreshchatyk, Kyiv’s main street. (Ganna Bernyk)
