After arriving in Kyiv on March 12, Dutchman Jelle Kyoso is planning to enjoy his favorite dilemma — what party to go to.
The last time he let his hair down was in August, when he danced for an hour at an illegal rave in Amsterdam until it was shut down by the police. The one before that was on March 19, 2020, a date he still remembers.
“I’m very excited,” Kyoso told the Kyiv Post. “But it will take a minute to enjoy that freedom again.”
Kyoso is no exception. Kyiv has been gaining a reputation abroad as a “quarantine-free” zone. Many foreigners, mostly Europeans, flock to the Ukrainian capital to escape strict lockdowns in their countries. Some come for a short fun weekend. Others stay for months, enjoying the normality they missed.
Ukraine has only had a real nationwide lockdown for two months in spring 2020 and less than a month in January. The country shut down public transport, banned mass events, closed schools and non-essential businesses. Still, those restrictions can’t compare to some of the harshest measures in Europe, like curfews and limitations on how many people can visit your home.
Today, Ukraine is divided into quarantine zones that have different restrictions, but Kyiv offers a pretty much pre-pandemic experience with open restaurants, bars and cinemas, and regular concerts and parties. The only difference that reminds people of the new reality is the omnipresence of face masks.
Though struggling with the moral dilemma of traveling in the time of the pandemic, some Europeans choose to get away after reaching a critical level of quarantine fatigue, which only intensified after the second wave of the disease made the governments reintroduce lockdowns in late 2020.
Ukraine had 3.3 million foreigners crossing its borders in 2020. While it’s considerably lower than the 13.7 million that arrived in 2019, it’s still a lot for a pandemic year.
With almost no restrictions, quick flights and low prices, Kyiv may become Europe’s main getaway destination for the time of the pandemic.
No obstacle
Despite the global travel limitations, there are few, if any obstacles Europeans face in reaching Ukraine.
It welcomes the residents of most European countries, which have a better epidemiological situation than Ukraine, under one condition: having medical insurance that covers COVID-19 treatment.
Those coming from countries where the situation is worse than in Ukraine have to self-isolate for 14 days or take a test — if it’s negative, they’re free. Tests in private laboratories cost around $30, while results usually take a day or two, not confining visitors to hotels for too long.
Kyiv is just a few hours away from most of the European capitals by plane. Flights are now scheduled at least several times a week for the regular connections. Low-cost airlines like Wizz Air and Ryanair offer one-way tickets for $50 from London and Amsterdam, $30 from Berlin and Vienna and as little as $12 from Milan.
Some countries require travelers to have credible grounds to travel.
France, for instance, started limiting the reasons for travel outside the European Union to health emergencies, urgent personal or family matters or work trips starting February.
United Kingdom residents, meanwhile, are permitted to leave the country for work, volunteering, education, medical or compassionate grounds, weddings, funerals or similar events. But many U.K. travelers say that getting around these restrictions is no bother.
Many other states, like the Netherlands, don’t recommend leaving the country unless it’s urgent and can’t be postponed but still don’t regulate travel.
And what is not regulated, turned out to be easily disregarded.
Bars and techno scene
Kyiv has been gaining momentum on the world map before the pandemic.
Located in the historical center on the buzzing with creative businesses Reitarska Street, cafe and bar ZigZag sees about a third of its visitors come from abroad, according to bartender Serhii Tymchuk.
While the pandemic first left ZigZag with a mostly local audience, starting in November it has experienced a revival with foreigners flooding its halls. The trend has persisted.
When Europe eased restrictions in summer, pubs and restaurants were packed with customers, happy to be able to socialize again. After a glimpse of normality, the news about reintroducing lockdowns amid the surge in the number of cases in the fall was all the more crushing. So many decided to get away.
Tymchuk says he mostly meets customers from Germany, Austria and the U.K.
Though bars and restaurants in Kyiv are now required to close by midnight, many continue to welcome clients past the allowed time.
“You don’t need to get out of your way to bend the rules here,” Tymchuk told the Kyiv Post, clarifying that ZigZag abides by official measures.
French Nicolas Blanchet (L) and Welsh Casimir Kiendl spent more than six months in Kyiv during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring the Ukrainian capital and enjoying the benefits of eased quarantine restrictions. Kyiv has become a popular tourist destination among Europeans escaping strict lockdowns in their home countries starting in late 2020. (Courtesy)
The capital’s now-famous techno scene, especially the capital’s best club on Kyrylivska Street, is another big attraction for foreigners.
That’s how Kyoso found out about people traveling to Kyiv. A DJ and techno fan, he was told by six Berlin friends that they celebrated New Year’s in the Ukrainian capital.
“I was shocked so many of my friends went to Kyiv,” Kyoso says.
Like most of Europe, his home, the Netherlands, hasn’t had legal parties for nearly a year now. And house parties are often raided by the police amid noise complaints.
Kyoso says that not being able to go to a club alone is not big of a deal. But combined with losing a job, not being able to hit a gym or meet with a friend for coffee, the lack of nightlife had a huge toll on him and his circle.
“People get depressed,” he says.
Kyoso is responsibly planning to take a test upon arrival to make sure he’s not spreading the disease. Soon after that, however, he will head to the obscure club on Kyrylivska Street.
“It’s a unique moment where it’s probably the only techno club open in Europe,” he says.
Making use of pandemic
The pandemic’s effect is more far-reaching than simply limiting public leisure.
Many people shifted to working or studying remotely. Others lost jobs or had their business put on hold.
In the EU, the labor market suffered a record loss in the second quarter of 2020 and unemployment climbed to 7.4% by August, leaving millions of residents without a job.
While many European governments introduced relief programs, many people found themselves facing looming uncertainty.
French citizen Nicolas Blanchet, 28, is one of them. He normally works as a private chef in Switzerland and provides catering on boats in France during summer. The pandemic cost him dozens of bookings.
Blanchet spent a total of six months in Ukraine last year. Having initially come here to stay with his Ukrainian girlfriend, he found many other benefits including socializing and eating out. Another bonus came on the financial side: Staying in France or Switzerland would have cost him twice as much, if not more, he says.
“You can afford way more stuff for way less money,” he told the Kyiv Post.
Welshman Casimir Kiendl, 29, wasn’t trying to escape the lockdown when he moved to Kyiv in July.
As an international sales manager for a perfume company based in France, Kiendl has been roaming the world for the past six years. When the pandemic put his company on pause, he decided to use the opportunity to learn Russian, which he has wanted to do for a while.
Diving deep into studying with three hours of classes a day, five days a week, Kiendl planned to go back to France by October. As his company’s estimates of when it would resume operations proved wrong, he stayed. But that wasn’t big of a blow.
By that time, Kiendl had grown quite an affection for Ukraine — its welcoming and sincere people, the restaurant scene he considers to be the “best in Europe” and what he calls the culture of excellence that shows up in little things like hairdressing service.
“We have a stereotype of Slavic people in Europe that they are cold and reserved, but really I have never found that here,” Kiendl told the Kyiv Post. “I found it very easy to make friends here, much more than in Paris.”
More than half a year later since stepping off a plane, Kiendl is still in Kyiv, now with advanced Russian, and he is seriously considering staying for good.
As he looks for a job in the civil sector, his future is still uncertain. But in the middle of an overarching crisis, he may have found a new home.
