Ukraine?

I've just visited last summer. Absolutely loved Ukraine! Don't miss Chernobyl. So worth it

Went with these guys for Chernobyl: https://chernobyl-tour.com/
They were really friendly and relaxed. Even let us go in to the buildings, even though it's forbidden these days due to the fact that they are falling apart. We went with the one day tour, it had everything you'd want to see. Even a nice proper communist lunch in the Chernobyl canteen 

I really liked the giant stalinist memorial park east of the city centre, with the Motherland monument. Worth a stroll there if the weather is nice. Seeing the Maidan square and reading about the revolution that happened there just a few years ago really made an impression too. There was a pretty decent art museum called Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum. Huge place. They showed a lot of contemporary Ukrainian and Polish art, some of which was really fantastic.

Have some pelmeni and okroshka soup! I enjoy eastern European food, and was only disappointed once - in the most expensive place we ate at, called Kanapa. Not worth the money. Also, several people told me that the best food there is actually Georgian, but we actually never made it to any of the Georgian restaurants.

In total I was just in Kiev two days or so, then on to Chernobyl, Odessa and Lviv. But I definitely want to go back! Never made it out to any clubs, so I don't have any recommendations in that area, but I hear the nightlife is great with a lot of techno parties.

Kiev is bilingual, so they speak both Russian and Ukrainan there. I think you'll make your way if you know some Russian, no problem, but as you know there is a war going on the Russian border right now, so be careful what you say to people.

No souvenirs from Chernobyl, it's strictly forbidden to bring anything out of the zone, and you get screened twice on your way out. About the dangers of radiation there it's really not bad. It's twice the background radiation of Kiev. You actually get more irradiated just flying there from the cosmic background radiation!

umm it is so cold I can't even go outside, I am going to have to wait a month before I do this Chernobyl tour I think.. I have been trying to find minimal wave or goth parties so far, and found one venue called Art Club and another called Killer Kiev that seems to have regular goth stuff, a little on the metal side for me but I am going to check it out and report back..