Eastern European Tour, Part 1

So, this blog post has been a bit daunting, and for that, it is long overdue. Sorry about that. But for the sake of the fact that I still have to write about Sweden, and Easter is coming up, plus another trip to a different city... yeah, I'd better attempt to get caught up. Here we go--Easter Europe, part one: Budapest and Vienna :)

The night before I left, I came home from teaching to find all of this on the counter waiting for me:

My host mom was so worried about me "starving to death" on the bus, that she went out and bought ALL this food for me! I tried to fit it all in one backpack but could barely do so. It was so cute! (and delicious)

Needless to say, I felt very loved. This trip was off to a great start!

The "Castle" that we found whilst exploring 

The next morning it was off to the Vokzal to find our tour bus and begin our adventures. After a VERY long day and night of a 25 hour bus-ride, we finally made it to Budapest. They dropped us off in a parking lot and turned us loose to the city for a few hours. We just walked around and explored. It was a little cold and overcast, but we didn't care, heck, we'd just survived a Ukrainian winter! This was child's play. :)
After our exploring we met back at the bus for a walking-tour, and the Ukrainian leader of our bus surprised us by finding us an English tour guide! We were ecstatic. On the bus, there were many times when a Russian tour guide would come on and babble words we could not understand for sometimes 2 hours at a time. We thought that this would be the case for the entire tour, but luckily, we were wrong.

Rollerblading right on the town square
is a perfectly acceptable thing
 to do in Budapest, apparently. 

It didn't take me long to realize that I completely LOVE BUDAPEST. It is such a friendly city. It is all about recreation and getting out and enjoying yourself. There are parks everywhere, and walking/running trails too. There is even an entire island on the river dedicated to solely recreation, ie running trails, and no cars are allowed on it.
There were so many people out walking their dogs, rollerblading, riding bikes, etc. I loved it!



Budapest is divided by the river into two cities: Buda, and Pesh.  One side is all flat, and the other side is set on a hill, and this was my favorite part. We hiked to the top of this hill and the view was marvelous. Pictures can't really do it justice, but I tried:

The view was worth the hike!

After a while the sun decided to come out, and we enjoyed the evening just exploring the other side of the city with our ENGLISH tour guide. That was my favorite part, just walking around the little cobblestone streets and watching our tour guide greet all of her friends in the shops and on the streets. Everyone was so friendly, or maybe it was just because it was our first time outside of Ukraine for so long? We were a little bit in culture-shock, and I had to keep reminding myself that I could take off my "Ukrainian stone face" and be a little bit more myself in this city.

We met up at the bus and were taken to our hotel, where Anna and I made a tasty backpacker's dinner (soup and mashed potatoes) and collapsed in bed. What a day!

The next day I woke up feeling a little bit like a kid on Christmas morning. I was practically jumping up and down-- this was it, the day I would finally get to go to VIENNA!

We hopped on the bus and were on our way, only a few hours away.

We spent exactly 4 hours in Vienna.

Was I content? Was it everything I hoped it would be?

Absolutely.

Let's be honest, I would have been fine just staring at a brick wall, as long as I knew it was in Vienna. I was just glad to have made it there after dreaming about it so long. I knew nothing remarkable would happen, there would be no huge parade or fireworks, and there would be no "Shvenn"...(ask me about that one later). But, I was content just being there, because it is such an amazing feeling to know you worked your tail off and now something you have anticipated and hoped for has finally happened. 

It was a gorgeous day. We didn't get an english tour guide this time, so we just explored, and had a blast in the process.

Janelle and I

I don't think we ever quite figured out which church this was, but it was beautiful.

On the Metro trying to find Marie Antoinette's palace

After getting a little lost...we found it!

The gardens behind the palace were HUGE

Our group in the *FREE* bathroom that we found...ha

After 4 hours of exploring my lovely city we were back on the bus and headed for Prague. I don't have time to write about it now, as I have to go get ready and teach the little munchkins, but...I am pretty proud of myself for blogging this far, so I'm just going to post this. 

To be continued................

To be Like Him

Yesterday, we had the unique opportunity to do a service project, through the church, at Babin Yar. I am ashamed to say I had never even heard of Babin Yar before. After doing a little research, I was a little apprehensive-- I wanted to serve but I was not sure if I would be able to handle being there-- standing on the very ground where 100,000-150,000 men, women, and children were brutally murdered over the space of a few short years. Upon arriving, it was difficult to imagine that such horrors actually happened there-- it is such a beautiful park, and spring is starting to creep in slowly in Ukraine, so everything is beginning the transition from dull brown to this vivid, glorious green. It was a gorgeous day, despite being overcast-- birds were singing, and the air was fresh despite being in the middle of a city. Apparently, the leaders of the project did not expect so many volunteers to show up-- they didn't have enough supplies! So we took turns with what we had, raking and raking the layers of leaves and garbage that had collected on the ground and then been packed down under an entire winter of snow. It was truly humbling, to say the least, just being there, and seeing the ravine where everything happened, and being able to honor those people by doing something as simple as raking leaves.

As I raked I tried to wrap my brain around the situation. It just brought my mind over to how lucky I am to live-- I almost felt guilty because of it. All those lives taken so unfairly-- and here I was with such joy and happiness and blessings, and a whole future ahead of me. Why did they have to die, why not I? Here am I so lucky to experience living when so many of their lives were taken. I tried to imagine what they would have to say to me, if they could-- I kept thinking about that. I think they'd say something like......Yes, we are gone... our lives were taken, even stolen, from us. But you have yours-- so live. Remember the past, but do not dwell on the sorrows of it--only learn from them. Take your life-- that beautiful gift you have been given-- and live it. Be grateful for every breath. For every opportunity. Do not squander it away.

It was definitely a jumble of thoughts, but it inspired me so much. It made me want to be stalwart, to amplify my life and do good, to seize every moment and never take anything for granted. I think that's what they would want. For us to honor their lives-- honor them by doing all the good that we possibly can with ours.

[This is one of my favorite works in the entire world. It seemed fitting...

From The Redeemer by Robert Cundick]