Things that are different in Kiev...

The most exciting and compelling thing about being in a new place is discovering all the little practices and normalities that differ from those we are familiar with. Here's a list of a few things I've noticed about Kiev.

1. People don't drink in pubs.

On-trade alcohol is so expensive here that there is almost no pub culture. This is a big change from Prague, a city where people travel home from the pub and back, rather than the other way round. The way they do it here is, get dressed up, buy some booze from one of the many kiosks in the centre and sit around on a park bench or street and socialize in public. Drinking in public in most places is frowned upon, but here it seems to be the backbone of the nightlife. Whole streets are closed down on the weekend evenings and become huge street parties teeming with young socialites.

2. Cars are a man's home.

The cars in Kiev are huge. Really huge. When you see a Merc, it's an S600L, when you see a Lexus, it's a GS600h, when you see a BMW - you see a 760iL. All the cars, bar a few, have massive alloys, and a great deal of them are tuned to hell. Porsche Cayennes with carbon fibre hoods, lowered Range Rovers, AMG Mercs, Hartge BMWs, TechArt Porsches. As if these cars weren't fast and expensive enough. But the funniest thing about it all is that when they park up, usually after having run over several kids and broken the window of an expensive boutique, out steps a bloke who doesn't even look fit to clean the bloody thing. How did you come to afford that mate?

3. There are no corner shops.

None. None at all. If you want to pick up a few things on the way home, the only option is a whacking great hypermarket. And it's not as if there's a lot of them either. The nearest one to me is a kilometer away and I live slap bang in the centre. By contrast, if you want to nip out quickly to buy an gaudy, overpriced Louis Vuitton handbag, a new washing machine or a Porsche Cayenne, fear not my son, they're everywhere. How strange!

That's it for now, as I discover new strangeitudes I shall inform.

Peas.