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!