{"id":5311,"date":"2012-04-09T05:13:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T05:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stadiumguide.com\/?p=5311"},"modified":"2020-10-03T07:13:38","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T07:13:38","slug":"kiev-2012-venue-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stadiumguide.com\/kiev-2012-venue-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiev 2012 Venue Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Orientation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Kiev feels like a proper metropolis, a kind of small Moscow. It is also a city of contrasts: it has its beautiful gold-domed churches and monasteries, its pompous Soviet-era monuments, and its tall glass capitalist buildings. It has large chaotic avenues and small cobblestone alleyways. It has posh upscale restaurants and nightclubs and traditional modest Ukrainian caf\u00e9s. This contrast makes it a very interesting city where you can easily spend a week or more.<\/p>\n

The Dnipro river divides the city into a west and east bank. You are likely to spend most of your time on the west bank as that\u2019s where the city centre and most of the transport connections are.<\/p>\n

Your main reference point in the city centre is Khreshchatyk Street, which starts on top of the banks of the Dnipro and runs south through Kiev\u2019s main square, Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti), and further south until it intersects with one of Kiev\u2019s other major avenues, Shevchenko Boulevard, which is where Bessarabska Square lies.<\/p>\n

Of course, Kiev\u2019s Fan Zone will be located right in the centre on Independence Square and Khreshchatyk Street.<\/p>\n

The city centre basically stretches out on both sides of Khreshchatyk Street. Most monuments are located in the northern part of the centre, whereas most caf\u00e9s and restaurants tends to be a bit more toward the south.<\/p>\n

As in most Eastern-European cities there is no lack of green, with especially the banks of the river Dnipro providing for good options to escape the sometimes hectic city.<\/p>\n

The stadium<\/strong><\/h3>\n

National Sports Complex Olimpiyskiy<\/a> \u2013 70,050 seats.<\/p>\n

NSC Olimpiyskiy is one of the better known stadiums of the Euro 2012 tournament, having hosted most of the past European adventures of FC Dynamo Kiev.<\/p>\n

It is, however, not the same stadium as it was before, as it got extensively renovated for the Championships. The complete bottom tier and West Stand got rebuilt, and the stadium received a new exterior and roof.<\/p>\n

It has kept is running tracks though, which is probably the only drawback of the stadium as it increases the distance from the stands to the pitch.<\/p>\n

But the biggest advantage of the stadium is probably its location. No worries about a tiring public transport trip to a far-away suburb as the stadium lies right in the city centre. The stadium is just a 10-minute walk south from Bessarabska Square, and what\u2019s more, there is plenty of entertainment in the area in the form of bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t