Day 27,28&29 - In Almaty, the end of our Vision Trip

Well here we are, the last entry cataloging our incredible journey! (Jules Verne would be proud)

Wednesday morning, we met Eldos at the East-West office at a little before 10AM. Since we couldn't use the internet at Nurzhan's flat, they let us log on to a computer there so we could check e-mail and facebook :D At 10, he drove us to the old CALTC (seminary) office building to meet with an American who was about to move his family back to East Asia. They had been living in Kazakhstan for a little over a decade doing ministry, but were looking forward to returning to their previous field. He is with an agency we had heard of but hadn't encountered yet in our travels, so we had the unique opportunity to get his perspective on the organization. We felt that although they do great works all over the world, their style wasn't a good fit for our giftings or comfort levels. It was great getting to talk with a native English speaker, though, since the ex-pat we met in Ust had been our only other source in a week and a half.

After meeting with him, Eldos picked us up and we headed OUT into the country towards his village for lunch. They live over an hour outside Almaty and there we got to experience yet again, the "real" Kazakhstan. His brother had built the house for him a little over 3 years ago, but the electricity just got wired about 2 years ago and the plumbing still isn't connected. His wife (pregnant with #4) and their niece had prepared an excellent lunch for us and we enjoyed just interacting in their family life. We were driven back to Almaty late that afternoon and were planning on an evening to ourselves since Nurzhan & family were away. Then, I made the phone call.

One of the plans that had been laid down for us was to meet with another American named Andy, who helped run a ministry for recovering alcoholics. Nurzhan told us, "He is not normal", but coming from a shy Kazakh, we didn't really know what that meant. OH, we found out :D I called the phone number I had for him, a man answered and I asked, "May I speak with Andy, please?" The man replied, "Nope, sorry. He's gone back to Colorado." "Oh", I said. "Do you know..." then the man interrupted, "Nah, I'm just kidding. This is Andy." It was on. He and I immediately fell into a comfortable male verbal-abuse style phone conversation. Sound hostile and unloving? It really wasn't, because he is the living definition of ornery and brought out the best (or worst) of my streak. It was great! We met him at a brand new shopping mall a couple miles from our flat and just enjoyed hanging out with him. He is a recovering addict himself, so he can really speak intimately into the lives of the men he ministers to. We agreed to get together for lunch again on Friday before we left the country.

Thursday, Eldos and his eldest daughter, Malika, met us at the East-West office from where we planned to drive up into the Tien Shan mountains. Almaty sits at the base of that range and you can see their snow-capped peaks from everywhere in the city. One of the things Kazakhs have to boast about is the world's highest ice-skating rink, called the Medeu. The city is hosting the 2011 Asian games, so all along the drive we saw road construction and other physical improvements being done in preparation. The Medeu itself was shut down for the renovation it was undergoing. Behind it, you can see a looooong stairway that leads up to a scenic view. Eldos said, "We can climb that if you want." Like an idiot I said, "Sure!" I've never climbed so many stairs in my life, it was like the scene in Kill Bill where Pai Mei made Beatrix run up and down all those stairs with the water buckets suspended from a pole on her back. I didn't have the water buckets, but I think we climbed more stairs. Halfway to the top, I almost quit, but the fact that I was the only one struggling made me not want to be left behind. I told the others to not worry about me, that I would make it but at a much slower pace. I did :D At the top we saw a guy pull up in his car and pull a golden eagle out of his trunk for photo opps. Oh yeah, he kept a LIVE golden eagle in the back of his hatchback. Crazy. Going down was a lot easier than going up, even though our legs started to feel like jelly and the odds of falling were greatly increasing.

Our last day in Kazakhstan was mostly uneventful. We finished up the laundry we started the night before and Andy came over to help us eat the rest of the food we had purchased earlier in the week. He has been in the country now for almost two years and is looking forward to his first furlough this fall sometime. Nurzhan wasn't able to take us to the airport, but his brother-in-law had agreed to do so. He spoke no English, but with the typical hand-gestures and repeat the same phrases the other person doesn't understand 10 times, we were able to communicate, more or less. We made our flight without any trouble (though leaving the country isn't something they make easy-peasy) and landed safely in Seoul the next morning.

Kinda an abrupt way to end this long post, but that was how it was completed for us. God was beyond incredible to us the whole trip, and I do plan on one more post to synthesize our whole journey and where we think He is taking us next on this grand adventure of a lifetime.

P.S. You may be asking yourself, "Wait a minute, their blog is called 'Around the World in 39 Days' and this is only through 29 days. Is Ben's math THAT bad?" My math is pretty bad, but while our Vision Trip was only 29 days long, it took us another 10 to get back to Dallas. My parents took us to their "timeshare" on Kauai for about a week :D

Day 24,25&26 - From Ustkamen back to Almaty

Sadly, our time in Ustkamen had to come to an end. We woke up semi-early Sunday morning to be driven to the train station by our new friend, the pastor. We had purchased some sweets the previous night at Kazakhstan's version of Sam's Club to give to him and his family as a thank-you for all their driving and planning efforts on our behalf. They are an incredibly sweet and funny family, we look forward to seeing them again someday and hearing all about how they served our Lord.

The train ride back to Almaty was an improvement over the previous for several reasons. A temperature drop of about 25 degrees F, windows that lowered and our guide was able to get a berth in the same room as us to help translate for us. The ride was uneventful except for perhaps the most stunning sunset we have ever seen, and we're casting this in context of both Hawaii and the Carribean. We only put up four pictures because there were way too many to upload them all, so here's a taste. :D

The train commute lasted until 9AM Monday morning so when

we arrived, we were on the tired side. Our host picked us up and gave us a ride back to his flat. Due to the temporary weirdness of their family life, Megan and I decided that it would be best if we did all we could to remove ourselves from even the possibility of being a burden on them. We walked to a local grocery store and bought food to last us until Friday night when we were to depart the country. Guests never cook for themselves in Kazakhstan, but such was the need of the family that they uncomfortably understood the benefit of not having to worry about us. This added to our gratitude that they still let us stay in one of the rooms. It also gave us an excellent opportunity to pray for them and for them to be able to know that they had at least that support. It forced them to be a lot more transparent than they probably would have been otherwise and let us, their foreign brother and sister, love and help them in the small ways we could.

Tuesday gave us the opportunity to spend most of the day with

Eldos and his middle daughter by visiting a couple of the big bazaars in Almaty. He originally hadn't planned on bringing her, but after having been gone from home with us in Ustkamen for almost 4 days, she started to cry that morning when he was going to be gone again for even part of a day. She was really sweet but really intimidated by us. Hard as we tried, we couldn't coax a smile out of her until we paid a small sum for her to have 10 minutes in a bounce house. Watching her face light up as she played with another little girl was probably the highlight of the day. The bazaars were busy and chaotic, just what you might imagine. We bought some sweet pointy-toed house shoes for ourselves as well as some little souvenirs for co-workers and family. In between the two bazaars, about a 10 minutes walk, we felt like we had been transported back to the 1970s because there were real live Hare Krishna handing out copies of their book and talking to people. Apparently my (Ben) accent is so terrible that when I said "No, thank you" to one of them in Russian he immediately asked me "Where are you from?" (in English). I kept walking but then kinda regretted the opportunity to talk with the guy since he spoke my language.

Next up, a trip to Eldos' village, hiking in the Tien Shan mountains and meeting with a couple of Americans (one sane and one maybe not so much :D)

Day 19-23 - From Budapest to Frankfurt to Almaty to Ustkamen

So we haven't blogged in a long time, hope you don't hate us :D Kazakhstan blocks blogger for political reasons (the president's exiled son-in-law uses it to voice his opinions) so we had to wait until we left to tell y'all about our time there. We could have posted sooner since we left last Friday, but we've been in Hawaii and taking a break :D To prevent the longest blog post ever, we'll just do two days at a time until we get all caught up with what happened in Kazakhstan. So let's time travel back to July 6th & 7th, shall we?

We got up pretty early Tuesday morning to catch the airport shuttle from Diosd. We made it to Frankfurt without a hitch where we had a fairly long layover. The flight to Almaty was also no problem and we landed just after midnight. Our host, Nurzhan, picked us up and gave us a ride back to his flat where we would be staying with him and his family while in Almaty. Our first day in the country was uneventful, everyone seemed to think that we would be utterly exhausted by our travels and would want the day to rest. We weren’t so tired, but a day of rest was nice. We met our guide, Eldos (yell-dos), that afternoon and roughed out our schedule for the next 8 days in Kazakhstan.

On Thursday our host, Nurzhan, took us around Almaty a little to see some sights. The Hotel Kazakhstan and the National Theater are big landmarks in the city.

The hotel was the first major hotel built in Almaty back during the Soviet days, and the theater was built after Kazakhstan gained its independence. Our train ride the next day was 25 hours one way, and to put it nicely, God taught us a lot and saw us through it. He blessed us immensely with our day in Ust, though. We met with an ex-pat who has been in various Muslim speaking countries for several years who shared what their work was like in Ust. She toured us around the city a little then through a popular park that had a small Russian Orthodox chapel in the middle of it. Mainly, we spent a lot of time with a national pastor, his wife and their youngest son. They made lunch for us, took us to see some sights in Ust like where the Ulba joins the Irtysh river.

That evening, they accompanied us to the home of an elderly woman in their church who had prepared a LAVISH supper for us and one other member of their church. (we can now say that we have eaten horsemeat) The evening we spent in her tiny little flat was perhaps one of the most intimate moments of our entire trip, as we and all the guests shared how our relationships with Jesus had begun and what He had done for us since then. It was amazing to hear how the truth about what He did for mankind on the cross almost 2,000 years ago had reached them in their remote parts of the world. One of them had eventually led her entire family to place their faith in Him for salvation. Another has become a healer that ministers to many by showing them a tangible taste of how powerful God is. After that, the 4 church members and our guide prayed for us. We have to say, that experience is something Megan and I will treasure the rest of our lives. We have never felt the power of prayer like we did from those 5 brothers and sisters and it left both of us in tears. God is working in that town through those people and we are so thankful to have met them and spent time with them.

Next up, the 25 hour train ride back and the beginning of our time in Almaty!

Day 18 - In Diosd

HOWDY :D

We wanted to throw up a quick post because it's going to be at least 2 days before we'll be able to blog again. Tomorrow morning we fly to Kazakhstan and won't be getting in until after midnight tomorrow night (technically Wednesday morning) Kazakh time. They're 11 hours ahead of Dallas, so it'll only be 1:15PM there, and will feel like 8:15PM to us coming from Hungary.

Today was a wonderfully chill day. Not so much temperature wise (though we did crank down the A/C a lot) but definitely activity wise. We slept in, had a leisurely morning, started watching Disney's Sword in the Stone and hung out with John, Allison & Heidi when they got back from the morning English Camp classes. We went to IKEA (ee kay uh) for lunch and to get supplies they wanted for their classes. After that we had to go back into Budapest to their respective flats so they could pick up things they had left behind. After they left for the evening classes we finished the movie and started watching Pete's Dragon before going downstairs to start supper. Once they got home we feasted them with bruschetta on olive bread, salad and spaghetti with meat & veggie sauce. It was quite tasty and was Allison's first real pasta in 5 years. (She technically has celiac disease but has been reintroducing gluten into her body with GREAT success. God has really been blessing that process for her.) Now we're getting ready for bed and making sure everything is packed up for our EARLY rise. Y'all have a wonderful Monday & Tuesday, maybe we'll be able to blog again Wednesday!

Day 16&17 - From Budapest to Diosd

Happy 4th of July!!!

I can keep a promise :D The last two days have really flown by for us. We don't have any pictures to post (please don't hate us) but we can give you the rundown. Yesterday we spent more time with Melissa (the one Megan taught with at Poteet). We met her at the Vasar Csarnok (the huge indoor market in the 9th District) for breakfast and some shopping. Around noon we headed to the Buda side for lunch at everyone's favorite Italian restaurant, Marcelo's. There's a reason it's everyone's favorite, best pizza I've had in a long time. After lunch we went to a brand-new mall that opened up last winter to wander around and enjoy some ice cream. We have eaten a RIDICULOUS amount of ice cream this trip, kinda embarrassing actually. In fact, on our itemized expense report we'll be turning in to East West Ministries at the end of the trip, we have a running joke that if we can't remember what a certain receipt is from, default it to ice cream. (Megan's favorites are pineapple and Ferrero Rocher) After the mall we went back to John & Allison's to collapse for a couple hours before going to a Tex Mex restaurant called Arriba Taqueria. It was a lot like Freebird's and the girl who took us down the line actually spoke Spanish! Their horchata left something to be desired, though.

Today we got up and went to John & Allison's church, Calvary Chapel. Everything was in Hungarian but with English translation. It meets in an old movie theater and has a regular attendance of about 1,500. We grabbed lunch with their (and now our) friend Hannah who is studying politics this summer at the Central European University from Princeton. We had to pack everything up again as did the Jordans as they've moved out here to Diosd, a suburb of Budapest, for the next 2 weeks to house-sit while they're out here doing an English camp that starts tomorrow. This evening, we went to the home of a couple who hosted a LOT of American missionaries and their families for a big 4th of July barbeque. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, watermelon and two kinds of homemade ice cream with lots of other dessert options. Awesomeness. We left before it got dark so we don't know if they had fireworks too, but I doubt it. They might not want to freak out their Hungarian neighbors.

The USA is 234 today, kinda cool. Hungary is 1,009 years old. Dang.

Day 13,14&15 - From Keszthely back to Budapest

Lo sentimos,

It's been three days and we haven't blogged. I (Ben) take the blame because we've been getting in late the last two nights and I've been lazy. As it is, it doesn't feel like we have a lot to share but I'm sure that won't be true by the time I'm done typing :D

Wednesday we spent pretty much the whole day in sessions with the rest of the Speak Out staff until late afternoon when we went to start packing up. Supper was very different as we participated in what they called an "International Dinner". I'm not sure I want to divulge any details in the blog in case any of you ever get to go through one with Campus Crusade, but if you've ever been through the International Dinner with the Perspectives class, that's like quarter notes compared to a Buddy Rich solo. (youtube him)

Yesterday we got up a little early, finished packing and headed down to our last breakfast in Keszthely. We weren't totally sad to say farewell to the Hungarian school cafeteria food we had been eating the last 6 days, but there were several people to hug and shakes hands with. We're grateful for facebook as a tool to stay in touch. Our train left PRECISELY on time which was nice, but we experienced a strange phenomenon. Even though all the windows in our second class car were open, the only time we felt any kind of breeze was when the train was stopped. After an hour and a half of that, we upgraded ourselves to the InterCity car. InterCity = air conditioned and for only $7 more. Total. We felt it was worth it :D

After a restful afternoon of laundry and some internet surfing we headed out with John & Allison to supper and a concert. Some friends of theirs are in a band called Wednesday Night Special and were playing at a new venue, an anchored boat with a stage on the top deck. http://www.myspace.com/wnsmusic John describes them as "jazz fusion" and that's not a bad classification. I said they're sort of like Jamiroquai without any electronics and a good shot of rock. (is there such thing as a BAD shot of rock, though?) We really enjoyed their music and the show, though Megan felt it would have been more enjoyable at a quieter volume.

Today we slept in a little and had breakfast alone (Team Jordan had a language lesson). One of the ladies Megan taught with at Poteet last year used to teach at the International Christian School of Budapest and has been in the Czech Republic this summer. She came in to town to show us around a few places today and tomorrow so at noon we headed out to meet her train. Turned out she accidentally took the train FROM Budapest instead of TO Budapest, so her arrival was delayed an hour and a half. We still got our scheduled tour of the school and one of their principals told us about all the opportunities we had open to us there. Staff is hard to come by sometimes and our backgrounds made us quite appealing to her. Teaching is something we're not totally opposed to, but probably not our first year overseas while we're still getting our feet on the ground.

We made it back to John & Allison's apartment in time to cool down a bit (it's been really warm in a non-air conditioned city lately) before heading out to supper with their Area Director and his wife. It was a good opportunity for them to learn a little about us and for us to ask them a lot of direct questions about United World Mission. God has really blessed us with some great conversations with people who can really give us a snapshot of their ministry and what it would be like to serve with them overseas. We got to do the same with Doug & Patti Meyerdirk about Campus Crusade before we left Keszthely. A lot more processing and debriefing will need to be done as we continue on our trip, but it has been amazing to see God clarifying some things and presenting new things to consider at the same time. We know that we can trust Him to make sense of it all in His timing, so we are prayerfully patient while we experience and learn more each day.

After supper (which was at an amazing cafe on Castle Hill) we followed my shutterbug around while she took some incredible night shots of Budapest. I promise we won't wait three days again before our next blog!

Day 10,11&12 - In Keszthely

Buenos tardes :D

No, we haven't forgotten how to speak Spanish even though we've been dabbling in Russian and Hungarian. We realized that we left out a lot of what we did Sunday afternoon! Everybody from Speak Out headed out to see some sights here in town. One of the most famous is the Festetics castle. The camp covered our entrance fee, so all we had to do was walk in, slip these goofy shoe covers on and enjoy the ELABORATE decor.

Next we all went to supper at a restaurant a few blocks away that specialized in Hungarian food, we sat at mixed American/Hungarian tables and enjoyed comparing cultures and learning about the types of food we were eating. The Hungarians especially enjoyed hearing about the types of pastries Ben works with at Central Market. After supper, we walked down to Lake Balaton for a one hour cruise. (not a three hour tour) Megan took a sweet photo of Ben eating

the sun. On board we had a chance to meet and talk with Victor and Gaby, a young married couple from Slovakia who are on staff with Campus Crusade. They wanted to know why we were at Speak Out and we wanted to know about ministry in Slovakia. At one point, Ben asked jokingly, "So why is Slovakia better than Hungary?" Megan and Victor laughed but Gaby had something much more profound to say, "It isn't better, that's why you should come."

Megan promised pictures of our little room, so here they are. You're probably not impressed, but we're enjoying being able to claim a little space for ourselves since we most likely won't be able to again until we get back to Dallas 26 July.

Yesterday we spent most of the day in various break out sessions with the counselors learning what the camp is all about and some culture training. It was very informative and the staff was doing an excellent job. At the end of the day, however, we decided that we needed a day off. We have been going pretty hard since we started our trip and hadn't really had a day of rest in 10 days, so that's what we did today. We went to breakfast, stayed for the first morning session on the importance of your personal relationship with the Lord (VERY good) then broke off for the

remainder of the day. We took a nap, went to lunch then walked down to Lake Balaton and enjoyed the wonderful weather for a while. Of course, we stopped on the way to get double scoops of the most excellent Hungarian ice cream! We then walked up to this nice little coffee shop we had been shown Sunday night on the way to the castle where we enjoyed some cold fizzy drinks and what was basically a french bread pizza. The coffee shop sits next door to a 14th century Catholic church which we wandered around until we found a small playground with swings and a see-saw. Guess who was up in the air more often. :D We wandered around some shops half looking for some new sunglasses for Ben but ended up leaving empty handed. Supper was pizza at a place called Donatello's and yes, their logo was the Ninja Turtle. We're just planning on getting cleaned up tonight and enjoying some relaxing time together. Tomorrow is a full day of break out sessions we plan to attend and Thursday morning we head back to Budapest. Have a GREAT Tuesday!

Day 9- Budapest to Keszthely

Howdy folks!

Today was a traveling day. We woke up at 10 this morning in Budapest and brunched with the Jordans before heading to catch our train. Our breakfast was AMAZING! Hats off to Allie, who made a smoked gouda, spinach, and bacon quiche (drool and swoon). We caught the the 13:05 (1:05- I have to give my husband the opportunity to WHOOP!) train to Keszthely (pronounced "kes-thay").

It was an interesting journey, since at first, we were not sure we were on the right train. In trying to figure out if we were, I asked a gentleman if he spoke English; he said, "actually, I am English." Ben told me I should have said, "yes, but do you SPEAK English?" He was kind enough to inform us that we were indeed on train 8 and apparently headed the right direction.

We got on and found a comfy place to sit, surprised at the nice accommodations on the train. We discovered when the ticket taker came around that they were so nice because we were in the first class cabin, not the 2nd class one we our tickets said we should have been in. Oh well! It was nice while it lasted!

We made our way to the correct cabin and proceeded to watch the scenery roll by. There were field of wildflowers- yellows, blues, purples, reds, whiles, magentas, pinks. Every color imaginable. It was breathtaking! We enjoyed seeing all the different towns. At once point, we saw a man clearing a lawn with a weed-whacker. Then we noticed a little boy in identical garb with a kid-sized weed-whacker helping out. It was precious. Especially when we waved and his face lit up with a huge grin as he waved back.

We finally found the right stop and Doug Meyerdirk was there to pick us up and bring us back to the dorm where we would be staying and helping set up for the English camp. We had just enough time for a catnap before dinner. After that we made a run to Tesco (think Wal-Mart) with Doug & Patti (his wife) and their two daughters. We got some breakfast food, snacks, towels (didn't think about needing them), and bug repellant. Apparently, Keszthely is the mosquito capital of the world- really, I've never seen them this bad and I lived in South Louisiana!

After getting back, we unloaded our purchases and used the evening to rearrange our room into a more homey set-up. I'll take pictures tomorrow and we'll give you a tour.

No pictures. Didn't take any today (I know: "who are you and what have you done with Megan?"). Wasn't much to shoot. Just kind of enjoyed the day!

Tonight, it's off to bed! Sleep tight. Don't let the mosquitos bite ;)

-Naylors Out

Day 7&8 - In Budapest

Szia! Jó napot!

(Hello, good afternoon)

Man oh MAN yesterday was so full we were too tired to blog again, but I look at that as a good thing :D The weather in Budapest has been amazing, no hotter than 26 (78F) even in the sun and there has been a delicious breeze that makes even the warmest parts of the day very comfortable.

Yesterday we started off at a rush to get to John and Allison's language lesson on time. We

made it just fine and Megan and I settled in to observe their learning. Their teacher had a different idea and turned the next hour and a half into an introductory lesson for me and Megan (hence the greeting of this post). It was good review for Team Jordan and quite challenging for Team Naylor. Still, we enjoyed it a lot and she gave us the papers she wrote on while teaching us as a souvenir/review. This is John & Allie with her.

After the lesson, with what little brain energy the four of us had remaining, we stumbled into a Hungarian pizza place and enjoyed our pizzas quite a bit. (Megan's had baby octopi. . .) Castle Hill was our next destination and we spent about an hour walking around the ruins that ranged from several centuries old to Hapsburg-era palaces now converted into museums.

We found some park benches to rest for a time because we didn't have to arrive at our next destination for a while. Megan and I had a chance to pool our thoughts and observations about Hungary thus far and talk about what God had been revealing to us. We met up with Heidi, another member of United World Mission for which John & Allison also work and headed out to one of the suburbs. There are several national Hungarians in this suburb who are hosting an English camp as an outreach to their community and John, Allison & Heidi are all teaching. Megan and I helped one of them, Zoli, pass out fliers while the other three helped a man named Tibor. We prayed with them over the camp and all met up at the building where Zoli, Tibor, their families and a few other Hungarians meet for weekly Bible Study. There were some missionaries from Campus Crusade for Christ there as well as other volunteers who would all be helping with the camp. We prayed, planned and ate together. As we were leaving, knowing that we had just come from Ukraine, Zoli decided that Ben needed to learn how to dance like a Russian. Ben failed. Zoli did not.

Today we relaxed a bit more. John and Allison went for another language lesson but we stayed back. We met them for lunch, then came back to their flat to do some laundry and rest. John and Ben headed out to meet with several of the Jordans' friends because one of them was returning to his home country for the summer. Megan stayed at the flat with Allison to hang out with her friend, Sofia. They watched Twilight with Hungarian subtitles and made pancakes, eggs and hash browns. After supper, Megan and Allison scoured the 9th District for ice cream, FINALLY succeeding at their fourth stop buying Allison's favorite called Bird's Milk. The girls had a night and the guys had a night. Ben got to meet lots of young believers from all over the world tonight. Please be praying for the guy returning to his home country, we'll call him Cymbal. Cymbal comes from a place that is very hostile towards Christianity and there is the possibility that someone could report his recent conversion and he could be either jailed or even executed for his faith.

We didn't go to Keszthely today, as you may have guessed. We're taking the 13:05 train down tomorrow and should arrive around 16:30. We think we'll have internet at the Speak Out! Conference we'll be attending with Doug & Patti Meyerdirk, but if not, we'll be back with John & Allison next Thursday the 1st. Have a wonderful weekend!

Day 5&6 - From Kyiv to Budapest

Howdy y'all,

Sorry we didn't blog last night, we were tired, packing for our flight to Budapest and trying to go to bed early as our day started at 4AM. However, before we go into what we did today, we wanted to catch you up on what we did yesterday. The majority of the day was spent at the Botanical Gardens in Ukraine. The gardens were vast and there was lots of walking up and down hills. One hill was actually more off the beaten path, but led to an excellent panorama of the city. Part of it was almost a vertical climb, but all three of us managed to make it to the top. I (Megan) was uncertain about attaining the summit, but was encouraged by the swarms of ants that took over if one paused too long. Thankfully, they were not the kind of ants that bite. Still, having them crawling all over your legs is good motivation to keep moving! The gardens were a beautiful variety of the familiar and the unfamiliar. There was some color is certain spots, but a vast majority was green: green vines, evergreens, green grass. My favorites were the silver birches that resembled weeping willows. I wish they grew in Texas!

We grabbed a late lunch on our way back at a cafeteria in the local mall. It looked very similar to what you would expect in a mall in the states. There was clothing, electronics, toys, and even fur coats! Our only purchase for the day, however, was an adaptor for our laptop. Even with the exchange rate favoring the dollar, clothing is much more expensive here; due in part to the 20% sales tax levied.

We finally headed to the apartment and spent a quiet evening packing and watching a little bit of the new Star Trek movie. We wanted to again say how thankful we are for Doug Britton for opening up his home to us and showing us around Kyiv. He was pretty pooped yesterday afternoon from running us around, we hope he took today off to rest :D

We were up at 4 this morning (8 pm CST) to head to the airport for our 7:00 flight. We made it just fine and had time to grab a bottled water and an americano at the "Irish Pub" there. Our flight flew by (;D) and before we knew it we were through customs, had our bag and were hugging our good friends John and Allison Jordan. SUCH a better transition than the series of unfortunate events surrounding our entrance into Kyiv.

After a bus, then the subway, then a 10 minute walk we were in JJ & Allie's sweet flat. They made us bacon, scrambled eggs with tomatoes, peppers and parmesan and brewed me (Ben) some coffee. Bacon, eggs and coffee... if you know me, then you know I was a happy man! We mostly relaxed at their flat for the morning while working on some laundry, though Allie took Megan and me to a big indoor market a few blocks away. It reminded me of Central Market in that they had lots of fresh local produce, scratch breads and pastries and lots of meats and cheeses. The upstairs part was mostly all souvenirs. After a lunch of chicken salad sandwiches and fruit, we began a tour of Budapest. They took us to see:

St Istva'n Basilica,

Parliment,

and out to supper at a restaurant that specializes in Hungarian food.

The plan for tomorrow is for us to go to language class with them in the morning, then on to the castle district in the afternoon. Friday we leave Budapest for a week to head down to Keszthely for a week before coming back to Budapest. Have a blessed rest of your Wednesday!

Day 4 - In and around Kyiv

Howdy there ladies and gents!

Today was another full day but we'll get to that in a minute. We wanted to finish posting a few pictures of places Doug took us yesterday around downtown Kiev. First up is a statue you might recognize if you remember the Orange Revolution that took place here in 2004. It was festooned with banners and flags in press photos that circulated back then. Second is a shot of the cathedral at St. Michael's Monastery which is down the street and facing the famous St. Sofia Cathedral. The communists destroyed it and it was only rebuilt about 10 years ago; the spires are overlaid with pure gold. Finally, in the plaza of St. Michael's there is a statue honoring the monks Cyril & Methodius who created the cyrillic alphabet for the Slavic tribes centuries ago.

Today we visited an outdoor architectural museum that pays homage to all the different types of architecture in Ukraine throughout its history. We saw windmills, homes from the 19th century, barns, outdoor kitchens, cottage gardens and the building in the pictures below. First is a church from the 18th century, inside was the original wall of icons that stretched up about 30 feet. It was still a functional church as there were several prayer candles burning in front of the icons when we entered. We can't take pictures inside any churches (understandable) but if you've never seen an icon wall, they are absolutely breathtaking. We don't believe in praying to icons because of what the Bible says in Hebrews 4:14-16:

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the

heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

15For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.16Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The second picture is a house from the western part of Ukraine where they build really solid little houses almost all from timber. It was interesting to see that in different parts of the country their homes are constructed using different means. In the eastern part of Ukraine, homes are mostly made of stone and brick, for example.
After we left the museum we drove further south on the road to Odessa to see some of the countryside and what rural Ukraine looked like. There is a lot of farmland, Doug has been told that in some parts of the country the topsoil is 4 to 5 meters deep!! (that's a LOT) One big difference I noticed is that like in America, farmers plant trees at the edges of their fields to serve as windbreaks and erosion control. The difference is that those planted trees in Ukraine were at least twice as big as trees in the States, pointing to just how much longer people have been involved in agriculture here.
Sorry to all but three of you who found that incredibly boring :D I have to be a geography nerd once in awhile. Tomorrow is supposed to rain a good bit in the morning but as soon as it clears up we're going to a botanical garden. My shutterbug should have lots to upload and post tomorrow night. In closing, tomorrow is our last day in Ukraine as we have an EARLY flight to catch to Hungary Wednesday morning. He has been an incredibly generous host and we pray that we haven't been too much of an inconvenience. I'm sure he looks forward to sleeping in his bed again Wednesday night once we're gone. We pray that y'all are having a good (though probably hot) Monday and we'll do our best to blog again tomorrow!