Some cities, like Paris, are love at first sight. Others take you slowly. Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, is like that. Living in Kiev, I've walked the streets of this Eastern European capital almost every day for a year. I've passed markers commemorating millions of murders. I've negotiated for a baggie of turmeric with a spice-seller from Samarkand. I've lost my bearings in candlelit catacombs, felt the sting of the winter wind on the city's high bluffs, watched twilight envelop golden-domed churches. I've discovered wooden windmills, taxi-driver poets, gilded icons, robed monks, blues...
photo: WN / Aruna Mirasdar
