Don't forget to visit Podil, a district you have to see to make your stay in Kyiv complete. Podil is the city's lowest part with undulating terrain. It was the home to merchants and dealers. In 1811, a giant fire incinerated countless houses and churches. Although rebuilt, you're not likely to even notice as you wander its streets.

Everything seems time-worn, tinted by the patina of time and intangible bohemian charm. It's also one of the busiest Kyiv districts, housing some of the best and most original art galleries in the city.

Podil is also home to one of Kiev's oldest streets, Pokrovskaya, built as early as in the middle of 1400. Its original name was hardly inspiring: Gnilaya (Rotten) street. During the Soviet era its name changed after Zelinsky.

He invented the gas mask. It was also one of the few streets spared by the great fire. It looks almost the same today as it did hundreds of years ago. Almost very building here has a story of its own. One of the main landmarks of the street is the Belfry (number 6).

Bulgakov's wedding church

There was an adjacent church where the great writer Mikhail Bulgakov married his first wife Tatyana. In 1935 a school building came in its place. The belfry itself has survived since the 1700's. The street owes its current name to the opposite mid 1500 Pokrova Church.

The number 5 building is an 1808 Empire style building. It was once owned by the well-known jeweler Samson Strelbitsky. He was responsible for many of the countless treasures in the Kyiv churches. At number 1 you will find the House of the Weeping Widow designed by the architect Nikolaev. He was a well-known merchant dedicated to single mothers.

Tsekh Gallery Kiev

An industrial yard in Podil, a place you wouldn't look twice at, is the surprise scene of the Tsekh (Workshop). It's one of the leading Ukrainian contemporary art galleries. Getting there is an adventure by itself. First you have to push open the time and weather worn iron gate, then walk past the guard's booth.

Don't let the sight confuse you. Walk on to find the right door in a corner at the back of the yard. The former factory's premises escape looking too squalid by the skin of their teeth. And yet the place suits the concept of the venue: retaining its style and not following the stream.

Tsekh is very much its own art gallery, focusing on Ukrainian art and steering clear of excessive obsessing with world-renowned names and mainstream stars; the gallery has spunk enough to look for its own new stars. In a way it is experimenting with the aim of recording the current state of Ukrainian art here and now, the way it is today. It is also definitely the place to go if you care to see an altogether different, alternative Kyiv.