During the three years of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, there has been an amazing number of new bookstores and art galleries opened.
A new play with an extraordinary take on classics or a modern approach opens in theaters almost monthly. It has been impossible to find a ticket to see a play at a theater – and we have quite a few drama theaters in the city.
People, both natives and visitors, sign up for walking tours of Kyiv to learn more about the city, and they do it even in winter or when it rains. People also attend history and literature lectures, go to art exhibits, and travel on bus tours to picturesque places and historical towns in Ukraine.
They keep on living and enjoying every day of their lives. Because tomorrow may not happen.
Books, theater, art exhibits, tours, lectures – they are all types of distractions, an escape into the beautiful and meaningful. A way of coping with harsh realities of our everyday life.
And I am happy that I, as a guide, can make my small contribution in providing my people that 2-hour escape into the past by telling them fascinating stories of people who lived here before us, by bringing history to life, by entertaining them, and hopefully, improving their mood and yes, giving them a bit of hope.
Some of our tours are quite fun and unique. We do a “double” tour for kids and their parents. While my colleague is doing an engaging and fast paced history quest with the kids, I walk with their parents the same route but with a classic yet fun commentary. During the tour, our two groups move at different speeds, but we see each other now and then. At the end kids and parents are happy to have spent some time from each other and excited to share and compare things they have discovered along the same route yet in different ways. We do these tours for free for refugee families and military families.
So, we do not hide in shelters all the time. Our walking tours, movies, and theater performances get interrupted by air raid sirens, and tourists, guides, spectators and actors wait in shelters till the alarm ends. We quickly and efficiently clean up streets and repair buildings damaged by nightly drone and rocket attacks, and keep on living. It is not a “normal” life, and the fact that we got used to it is frightening and sad. We are all grateful for our lives to our brave defenders, and we hope that soon there will be peace in our beautiful Ukraine.
