Looking down from the green way behind my building on Velyka Zhytomerska Street, I can see the bright colors of the recently built Vozdvizhenka neighborhood. Here’s a picture:
With less than a week left in Kyiv, I just discovered that I can walk through this district instead of down the steep, cobbled Andriyivs’ky Uzviz, when going to Podil, either to visit an event at Kyiv Mohyla, or eat at Puzata Khata, or just hang out in the cool, trendy neighborhood.
Incidentally, the area is widely rumored to be vacant, and it certainly seems that way with many for rent signs. One story I heard, was that it was a cemetery — not immediately before this latest development project, but long ago. And Ukrainians, who seem to me rather superstitious, are avoiding the place. I’ve found no verification of this in the internet. There’s some information about the area here, here and here.
So, anyway, my first time through there, I was like, “this place has a lot of manholes.”
And then I was like, “wow, it’s just manhole after manhole.”
And finally, I was like, “holy crap. I’ve never seen so many manholes.”
This has got to be the highest manhole-per capita area in the world. Check it out:
If anybody has an explanation, theory, or observation, I’d love to hear it.
