Personal Development Blog

Next week I plan a two-week Bulgaria vacation. I usually go there every year, and enjoy its beautiful country full of sun, sea and hospitable people. Even though Crimea is near, and I can reach Yalta or Miskhor in less than 12 hours by car, I prefer to go abroad.

So the first reason is:

1) Hospitable People

Do you know Soviet style type of service? Oh, I experienced it just yesterday. We needed a sanitary technician to fix a small problem in a toilet in one of our rented apartments. We called house management and listened to harsh language. It seems they do not care whether we are satisfied or not, very rough. After a few unsuccessful attempts to reach them we called a professional service, and a man agreed to help for 35 USD. He came and fixed the problem in two minutes. We still paid him, and he was polite for such an easy money. So in Crimea the staff is rarely polite, and the prices are skyscraping.

In Bulgaria I feel many people preserved a natural hospitability. I do not say that Ukrainians are not hospitable but many people who provide services are not motivated not trained to do it well. Bulgarians are more friendly.

I do not hear Russian swearing in Bulgaria. It spoils the feeling of vacation. Russian so-called MAT (rush abusive language) is rarely to be heard in Bulgaria.

These people are so hospitable and I respect them! Thank you, Stoyan, thank you, Polya!

2) Nice Seaside

Sozopol, a little town on the southern part of Bulgarian seacoast, is located on a small peninsula being washed by Black Sea on three sides. Whenever you go, you see nice sand or rocks, and blue water. There are two beaches, Central and Harmany, the first being shallow, and the latter is wider and deeper.

3) Nice Cheap Food

To dine in a restaurant does not usually cost more than 5 EURO. You can see this here:

4) Nice Cheap Accommodation

The room with all necessary equipment, fridge, bathroom, balcony in New Town cost about 15 EURO a night.

5) Architecture and Environment

I love rambling in Old Town seeing all these old houses.

Come here and enjoy!

I received a lot of traffic from Google searches to “Hotel Riviera Kiev“, and my page was #9 on SERP Google for this phrase! So I decided to go on with the overviews of accommodation options in Kiev, and this article will be dedicated to this new hotel with a little more elaborate description, and pictures, too.

The Hotel Riviera is situated in one of historical central discricts of Kiev, Podil, near Andreevsky descent, Mikhailovskaya square, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sofiyivska square, Kreschatik street, Grushevskogo street, Verkhovna Rada, Cabinet of Ministers, President Administration. The rooms windows command panoramic views to Dnipro river and old Podil.

To reach Hotel Riviera from the Boryspil airport it takes about 40 minutes.

Picture 1. The fourth floor. Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 2. Suite interior. Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 3. Suite interior, sofa and armchairs. Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 4. Suite interior, second bathroom. Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 5. Suite interior. Jacuzzi is situated right inside the room, and can host two people :-) Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 6. Suite interior. King-size bed and TV set.  Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 7. Suite interior. The room is divided into two areas, recreation and work places.  Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 8. Suite interior. A livingroom. Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 9. Panoramic place on the roof. Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 10. View to St. Andrew Church. Picture by Alex Radich.

 Picture 11. View to Sahaydachnogo street. Picture by Alex Radich.

Picture 12. View to River-boat station. Picture be Alex Radich.

There are 80 rooms in the hotel (65 standard rooms, 8 junior suites, 6 suites and 1 presidental apartment). Each room provides individual temperature control, wide beds, working place with city number and high-speed Internet access, electronic safe, international TV on most European languages, minibar, marble trimmings in bedrooms, large mirrors, bath tube or bath tube along with bathing cubicle, hairdryer, phone, french parfumes, bathrobe, terry slippers.

You can use fitness center without extra charge, it is included is the room rate.

There are floors for non-smokers, 24-hour reception, business center, currency exchange stall, ATM machine, fitness center, sauna, 24-hour room service, laundry services, dry cleaning, daily cleaning and linen change in the rooms.

There is a modern fully equipped conference hall for 70 people and negotiations room for 10 people.

The hotel also has a restaurant with Ukrainian and international kitchen. 24-hour bar offers a choice of cocktails and coffee. There is a VIP room for banquets of 10 people with panoramic view of Dnipro river.

You can book a room in this hotel with one of the best travel operators of Ukraine, with best discounts - best price in Internet guaranteed!

I hope you like my Russian Jokes project, so the Amazing Bathrooms article will be up to your taste. When you consider your Must-pee list, here are some destinations:

Picture: Sofitel Queenstown, Queenstown, New Zealand

Picture: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Picture: Dolce & Gabbana Gold, Milan, Italy

From the outside, the stalls are clear glass, yet when you go in and lock the door, some wildly misused technical wizardry causes the glass to frost over so people can’t see you inside. Do you really trust science this much? Do you want to be the poor schmuck caught on YouTube peering out anxiously as a crowd gathers?

Picture: Chung Yo department store, Taichung City, Taiwan

Picture: R-Bar, Brighton, United Kingdom

Picture: Swisshorn Gold Palace, Hong Kong, China

Nearly three tons of gold, $50 million, and five years of work by 300 people. Those are the stats for the most lavish throne in our collection. It makes sense that this luxurious loo is a Hang Fung jewelry showroom in Hong Kong. The head of Hang Fung, Lam Sai-wing, and the Swiss watch company Swisshorn collaborated to create a full 7,000-square-foot suite to show off their craftsmanship and promote tourism in Hong Kong. They call it the Swisshorn Gold Palace, and everything is genuine gold. You can book it for yourself for $25,000 a night.

If you travel to Ukraine, you know you can book a hotel via Easton Travel.

Last week I rambled through Podil, historical Kiev downtown, down a hill. There are nice places there, and a 4-star hotel has been opened there in April, Hotel Riviera. I went inside and was mercifully allowed to take a few pictures inside. Irina from Marketing department was my guide in the hotel, many thanks to this hospitable girl. Here are a couple of pictures taken inside:

Picture: A view from the hotel roof, a nice  panoramic platform commanding a view to Podil, Sagaydachnoho street.

Picture: And this is a super suite with rate of about 500 USD per night.

Nice hotel but the rates are not to my level of income to stay there, of course. The occupancy rate is good, it is almost always full, so you can imagine how Kiev lacks quality accommodation.

To reserve a room in this hotel with discount, address Easton Travel tour operator.

I took this picture of myself today. As this is my personal blog, and here I write what I want to, I decided to publish a couple of my pics here.

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This is the village where my great-grandmother and great-grandfather lived. In 40s of the last century this was a place of war against fascists, and my grandfather was hiding in a small cellar in a shed at the courtyard of our house. My mother once found a lot of live cartridges in the soil. My parents build a cozy 2-storey building near the old house. Now we go there from time to time (being lazy I go there no more than 2-4 times a year).

Potato Digging

Formerly this was our family tradition (as was the tradition of many other families as well) to go to village to dig potatoes. Even though it was not financially sound as the gasoline and time spent by highly qualified relatives of mine were by far more expensive than the result of our work - a few dozens of kgs of potatoes, the tradition was kept year after year.

Say Hello to Everybody

That custom I enjoyed today as I rambled on the village streets. All the people, old and young, say “Hello!” to everybody, they greet me. I am not accustomed to this in the city, and it brings a sense of joy and unity with other people.

Having No Cash

I know that some old people who do not have well-to-do relatives in the city hardly see any cash at all. They live a natural life, and exchange goods produced by their household like milk, chicken or grains and vegetables. A few dollars can be a lot of money to them.

Village Millionaires

Those are land moguls. As land prices are booming across-the-board, some village people got really rich. To buy a piece of land near Kiev in 10 km from the border costs up to 10K USD for 1 “sotka” (100 sq m).

My Day in the Village

We came here at 11 am, after about 45 km ride from Kiev. I spent almost all my day reading books on personal growth (FIRST THINGS FIRST by Stephen Covey), studying English and writing. I went on a stroll for an hour in the evening. Though it was very windy from the morning, now the weather calmed and the birds are singing. I made a few shots in the forest that I would like to share with you, along with some village shots. I expected to make pictures of a cow or a horse which are popular here but was not lucky to spot one.