The ups and downs of Kyiv

Hitting the bottom doesn’t always mean a bad thing

Anton Kutselyk
4 min readNov 14, 2022

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I hop on a green scooter, take a turn from the yard to the main road and scoot all the way down Klovsky Uzviz. My jacket is unzipped, out of habit. The cold wind is resisting my descent with a friendly hostility — my eyes meet that resistance with drops of joyful tears. I get to the bottom of the hill. I stop by a traffic light. Chilly. I zip my jacket all the way up.

It’s the 14th of November, and I realize that warm days are gone — winter is coming. The winds are getting cold. The airs are getting heavy. The clothes are getting layered.

Tony, it’s time to wrap your neck in an enormously-sized scarf with an intriguing pattern.

Are you excited?

Yes, I am.

I’m a hot-weather guy — summer’s scorching heat is my ideal habitat. This time, I feel strangely prepared for the coming of cold days. Why not when hey start off so beautifully? Bath me in this crisp coldness, please.

I continue my scooting adventure. My destination is Urban Space 500— a community coffee shop that hides in a cosy corner of Kyiv’s old town, on Borysa Hrinchenka street. The scooter’s tiny black wheels carry me over to Khreshchatyk. Its wide pavements welcome me with an early morning’s emptiness.

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Anton Kutselyk

I'm a law graduate living in Kyiv and writing about local culture, life, war and signs of inevitable peace.