Kyiv Is an Artist's City

After awhile, life overseas with a family becomes just as busy (or maybe even more busy) than life at home in the U.S.  There are work obligations, outings with friends, service opportunities, organization events, hellos and goodbyes and networking events with colleagues.  There are birthdays and sleep overs and play dates.  There are dinners and adventures and tragedies.  There are chores and surprises and errands.  In short, life happens.  I hate the idea that this incredibly rich and beautiful and chaotic life is passing in a whirlwind without any documentation , but honestly, there's just not enough time to live it and document it (actually, we've got lots of pictures, they just exist in a digital jumble waiting to be sorted and shared!).  But tonight I find myself with a few spare moments, so I decided to let the dishes sit unwashed (it's Darling Daughter's chore now anyway) and capture a bit of the city we live in and the morning we experienced.

But first I'll back up a little.  Yesterday was a crazy mess of kids' performances at school, work events late after work, a futsal tournament for Young Man, and a scout canoe trip put together by My Man.  I finally got to sleep around midnight after all the logistics were sorted.  Young Man and a friend headed out to intercept and join the scouts early this morning and then Darling Daughter, Funny Guy, and I set out to join a Kyiv City Mural Tour my office at work had arranged.  The day was perfect--sunshiney warm with a soft cool breeze.  This is really Kyiv at its best.

Our guide met us at Golden Gate metro stop and we walked through streets we don't generally see and learned about the beautiful (and fairly recent) tradition of giant street murals in Kyiv.  Before the Maidan revolution, city bureaucracy made it difficult for artists to receive permission to paint.  Now, however, with new construction and a more empathetic government, artists are more likely to be granted an apartment or office building wall to showcase their talents and message to the world.  In just two hours of leisurely rambling, we saw a bunch of murals, varying in artistic merit, only scratching the surface of the amazing street art Kyiv has to offer.

I loved how the kids saw the graffiti as artwork in its own way, how the joy of running around and playing outside with friends was as exciting as any of it.  I loved our tour guide's passion and the stories behind each picture.  I loved spending time walking slowly and seeing the buildings, the flowers, the colors.  It was a beautiful snapshot of our wonderful, chaotic life here in Kyiv.

PS  Check out Funny Guy's awesome geography project he brought home yesterday:

PPS  I wrote this in June.  It's now November.  :D  Just took a few months to put the pictures to the words.

My Big Fat Greek Adventure Part 2: Athens Acropolis, Agora, Temple of Zeus

One of the only unfortunate parts of our Greece vacation was the logistics of getting from one place to the next.  If we were millionaires, we could have saved a lot of time and inconvenience by flying straight to Thessaloniki, driving (or better yet helicoptering!) to Leptokarya, then catching the train down to Athens.  Instead, we ended up doing quite a bit of backtracking.  We flew from Athens to Thessaloniki, rented a car, drove to Leptokarya, then drove back to Thessaloniki (past the bus station) to drop off the rental car by the airport, then had to catch a cab back to the train station and catch the train from Thessaloniki (going back past Leptokarya) to Athens.  All in all, it added several hours to our travel time but saved several hundred dollars.  Worth it.  Barely.

My Man volunteered to do the rental car exchange, dropping the kids and me off at the train station to avoid the extra backtracking.  Inadvertently, he also dropped off all his money, which meant he was stranded at the rental car office with no way back to the train station, even though the bus fare was the equivalent of less than a dollar!  And we had no cell service so he was completely on his own.  Fortunately, he still had his debit card and was able to find an ATM and get back to us in plenty of time to catch our train.

We'd opted to take the train to Athens rather than fly, not only to save the money, but also because the kids had never traveled by train before (unless you count our trip to NYC a few years ago, which for some reason, they don't).  It was a fun trip.  We got a huge discount for being a "large family" (at least three kids) and upgraded to first class for a few extra bucks, which meant that we had a compartment with six seats all to ourselves . . . until an unfortunate sixth person arrived about half-way through the trip.  I'm not sure he thought his upgrade was worth it, being stuck in a compartment with our crazy group.  He put on his headphones and feigned sleep the whole way.  But we will never forget the gum incident of 2017 (I can't bring myself to publish it to the world--you'll have to ask Young Man for the dirty details).

My favorite part of the train ride was standing in the caboose and watching Greece fall away behind us outside the windows.  It was beautiful.  We chugged past ruins and villages, through mountains and along the ocean.  I only wished I'd prepared better food to bring along, since the restaurant car didn't have any gluten free options and six hours is quite a long ride without any real food.  Luckily we did have a few granola bars and apples.  And gum. . .

We arrived in Athens around 3, caught the metro to within a block of our apartment, and walked in.  It was a beautiful apartment just blocks from the Acropolis (almost next door to the Acropolis Museum and metro stop), with a grocery store and bakery downstairs.  It was definitely our best-ever AirBnB experience!  In fact, after a quick shopping trip to stock up on groceries and then making and cleaning up dinner, it was still early enough that we decided to hit the Acropolis that night.  It was a fantastic decision, since (as we saw the next morning), it was much less crowded and cooler than if we'd waited until morning, plus it left more time for exploring the next day.

The Acropolis ruins are really fantastic, but there is restoration work going on that mars the experience just a little.  At first, I thought we'd timed our trip badly, but turns out there has been ongoing restoration work and scaffolding on the Parthenon since 1983!  Even so, the experience was incredible and some strategic angling allowed some good photos.  Even better was just being there, soaking in the views, contemplating the history, the beauty, the experience.

Before we even got up to the Parthenon though, we walked through several ruins of temples and theaters and were wowed by the Theater of Herodes Atticus, built in AD 160.  It's huge!

Then we climbed the stairs to the top of the acropolis to see the Parthenon and other ruins atop the hill.  The views of Athens were stunning.  The beauty of the ancient buildings was powerful (as was the wind!).  The whole experience was surreal.

I couldn't believe I was actually there, in the city of mythology and philosophy and ancient texts, seeing it all with my own eyes, imagining how it might have looked when it was alive, not ruins.

We left just as the Acropolis was closing and headed to a nearby hill for sunset.  The path was lined with wildflowers and we had the place practically to ourselves.

The views were even better than they'd been from the Acropolis (because now we were actually looking at it!).  The only problem was the wind made pictures difficult for those of us with long hair.

The kids had fun goofing of, running around, and posing for pictures.  It was a nice way to end a day that had been mostly travel, and the perfect introduction to Athens.

The next day we headed to the Agora, and I was enchanted.  I love how one website describes the space:

Strolling through the ruins of the Agora one can't escape the unbearable weight of history that hovers about the place, and yet, the form of the landscape reflects none of the splendor of magnificent buildings that once adorned the landscape. The lacy arguments of ancient Greek philosophers who strolled the ground leading their pupils scattered in the winds throughout the globe, and the ruined stones speak of fiery orations only in a silent sort of way. Despite the magnificent rock of the Acropolis that commands the landscape of the Agora from above, and the majestic presence of the Temple of Hephestus that balances the Parthenon across the plateau, the Agora remains a shy, humble and tranquil place.

Of all the historical ruins we visited in Greece, the Agora was one of my favorites.  The Temple of Hephestus (built in 450 BC) still stands impressively on the hill, with several well-preserved friezes along the tops, the museum is wonderful, and the grounds are beautiful.

The quiet sunshine of the morning, the relative emptiness of the place, and the abundance of wildflowers all contributed to its charm.

One of my favorite parts, though, was listening to Funny Guy explain the myths and stories behind each of the characters we encountered (at the Agora and throughout our whole trip).  I would read a brief description about a ruin or statue, and we would all look to Funny Guy who would say, "Want to know more about so-and-so?" and launch into a colorful story about how that particular Greek historical figure made history.

It was even better in the museum where we paused at each statue so that he could regale us with stories, breathing life into the headless, armless relics, each centuries (some even thousands of years) old but still alive in the imagination of our 9-year-old.  Simply amazing.

Funny Guy kept the trip interesting in other ways as well, making it his personal mission to photo bomb as many pictures as possible.  After we'd wandered through the Agora for a couple hours, we headed out to climb Mars Hill, site of Paul's Biblical confrontation with the people of Athens.

The steep climb was rewarded with more incredible views of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis.  And we could see the throngs of people already filling the place, reminding us how wise we'd been to visit the evening before!

Although it was already way past lunchtime, we decided to take the long way home so we could stop by the Temple of Zeus (stopping along the way for some delicious gelato of course).

The Temple of Zeus is (rightly) ginormous and that's with only 15 of the original 104 columns left standing!

It's history is fascinating--construction began and stopped and started again multiple times over hundreds of years as the area was conquered.  It was finally finished by the (reputedly cruel) Emperor Hadrian in 131 AD, who had a giant ivory and gold statue of himself erected next to the similarly giant and ornate statue of Zeus inside.  He also had this arch erected, to remind the people that he, and not the Greek gods of mythology, was now in charge:

But not anymore.  Fully quenched of our historical thirst for a time, Funny Guy declared the sight-seeing over for the day (little did he know what was still in store . . . ).

We relaxed in some ancient arm chairs (surprisingly comfortable, though they could use some cushions!) in the beautiful park nearby until hunger overcame exhaustion and we were able to walk the rest of the way home for lunch.

Although we were out of time for sightseeing in Athens, our trip was still far from over.  In a few hours, we were scheduled to pick up our rental car so that we could head out to the Temple of Poseidon for sunset that evening, then head out for our adventures in the Peloponnese early the next morning.  But that will have to wait for another blog post.

Two Nights and a Day in Paris: Part 1

I've been procrastinating this blog post for a lot of reasons.  First, even though we were only in Paris a day and a half, we took about five billion pictures.  Kind of overwhelming to think about sifting through those.  Plus, I like them all, so how to choose which ones to post?  Second, we are living in Eastern Europe and have had plenty of new adventures to take our time.  And laundry.  And homework.  And Russian study.  And, well, you get the idea.  Still, our time in Paris was magical and I don't want to forget a single part.  And I've caught the flu, so I suddenly find myself with some downtime in bed.  So here goes.

Somehow we squeezed all of us and our stuff and Grandma into Grandma & Grandpa's truck the morning of February 6, 2017.  We have a saying in our house, "How many can you fit in a car?  Always one more!"  And the same seems to hold true for bags, and adults, and cats too.  It was tough saying good-bye after spending so much time with family.  We were so grateful for their generous hospitality in putting up with us so long.  There were lots of hugs and they probably would have lasted a lot longer, except it was cold and we had a flight to catch, so eventually we made ourselves wave a final good-bye and walk away.

Then we had to consider the logistics of navigating through the airport with all of our suitcases (filled with everything we'd need to survive our first few months in Kyiv, including such essentials as Chocolate Chex cereal and gluten free macaroni and cheese--seriously, you can't put a price on such things!).  Somehow we managed and got everything checked in.

The 10-hour flight was long, but nothing compared with the 36-hour traveling ordeal we faced when flying home from Chiang Mai.  Still, Weasley was unimpressed, and even sedated he complained a lot.  And escaped.  More than once.  Seriously, this cat would have impressed Houdini with his skills (the flight attendants, however, were not impressed).  Our seats were split so Funny Guy, My Man, and I were together and Young Man and Darling Daughter were together (with Weasley).  More than once, when I was on the verge of almost nodding off during yet another movie, I'd notice a commotion and see passengers looking down and around.  And I'd sigh and realize he'd gotten out again.  Then I'd have to try to catch Young Man or Darling Daughter's eye so they could go find him.  "Make sure the zipper is tight closed!" we'd hiss across the aisle.  "It is!" they would promise.  Needless to say, that carrier gets one star from us on Amazon!

Funny Guy missed most of the excitement, sleeping almost the whole way.  The best part of that was that when we arrived to our hotel (all 10 large suitcases, 5 rolling carry-ons, 5 backpacks, and the 5 of us somehow smashed into a minivan for the trip from the airport), he was ready to party.  Perfect timing!  The rest of us were ready to sleep.  We compromised.  He gave the rest of us an hour to rest while he read before I caved and took him swimming.  Sidenote: Our apartment from airbnb was wonderful.  An old house just a block from the river and Notre Dame Cathedral with this beautiful pool in the basement, two bedrooms, and a kitchen!  We couldn't have asked for better. But I digress . . .

Funny Guy was dying to go swimming, so we snuck down there while Darling Daughter, Weasley, and My Man slept.  Young Man thought about swimming too but decided he wasn't done dreaming.

And with such medieval surroundings, who could blame him?  I think I caught some winks somewhere in there, but mostly I was too excited to care too much about sleep anyway.  After a couple hours, Funny Guy and I set out to explore the neighborhood and track down some groceries.

My phone was dead, so I didn't get any pictures.*  That's a pity because walking around Paris was enchanting.  We found that we were less than a block from the Cathedral of Notre Dame!  So beautiful.  The winding alleys and cafes were bustling and wonderful.  The little shops we found were fantastic but a little overwhelming.

I had a cheese sales lady take pity on me and recommend a type of cheese that "even Americans can appreciate."  She also set me up with fresh butter and eggs.

The shop next door was overflowing with beautiful vegetables and fruits, of course you couldn't choose anything yourself and since I don't speak any French, there was a lot of pointing and pantomime.

I passed longingly by the bakery with all it's delicious smells and vowed to sneak back later without our little celiac man to grab a fresh croissant.  He caught my longing glance and said, "Mom, if you eat any of that, then you are a traitor."  Well, so be it, I wasn't going to leave Paris without eating a Parisian pastry.  Sorry kid.  I'm not the one with celiac disease!  Still, the blow was softened when we discovered that macaroons are gluten free.  So the next day I used up all our left-over euros on macaroons for My Man and the kids and a beautiful melt-in-your mouth heavenly croissant.  I didn't even try a macaroon, just to make it fair.  I think Funny Guy figured it was an okay trade.

*These shop pictures are not mine but representative of what we saw; still it was all better in real life!  In fact all of Paris was better in real life (and yet we took a million pictures and I can't bear to delete any of them, even the 873rd picture of the Eiffel Tower . . .)!

I'd packed some food as well, so when we returned I fixed a simple dinner to lure everyone awake from their naps, then we set out for the Eiffel Tower.  The walk was enchanting, past bakeries, beautiful old buildings, cafes, chocolate shops, and more.

My favorite part of Paris ended up actually not being anything in Paris at all.  It was the reaction of Young Man and Darling Daughter to the Eiffel Tower.  As we approached, I saw these kids, who are seemingly unfazed by anything--jaded by too many awesome travel opportunities and growing up in Asia--these kids who put up with our trips and respond to my near-constant exclamations of "Isn't this amazing?!?!" with "Sure, mom," I saw these kids literally stunned speechless, jaws hanging open as they stared, drinking it in.

Young Man, who had reminded us that no, actually, visiting Paris was not on his bucket list, but he would go along with it for our sake, stared up at the massive, beautiful structure, and said, "Wow, this is way more impressive than I thought it would be."

Darling Daughter glowed with excitement.  Funny Guy decided it was worth the excruciating walk after all.  I was in love.  With Paris.  With the Eiffel Tower lit at night.  With this moment with my family.  With our lifestyle that makes it possible.

I'd planned to have everyone walk up the stairs to the viewing platform, but unfortunately, my research didn't uncover the fact that the stairs close much earlier than the elevators.  We considered taking the elevators but the lines were long and it was cold.  Darling Daughter was sure that her life would not be complete without a trip up, however, so we vowed to return the next day for a new perspective.  By then, Funny Guy couldn't walk another step, so My Man and Young Man gallantly offered to take him back on the bus.  Darling Daughter was enchanted with the city, so we opted to walk home along the river for some more views of the sites.

We got more pictures that don't do the evening justice, saw so many beautiful sites, and ended up at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, beautifully lit for the evening.  It was perfect.  An evening with my daughter that I will always treasure.

We slept in a little after a jetlaggy (aka restless) sleep, enjoyed breakfast, then set out to see the Cathedral up close.  It was amazing.  Absolutely huge and wonderful and beautiful.  Pictures really don't do it justice, though of course we shot a bunch trying.

The day was cold and we underestimated it a bit.  I was freezing all day (I think everyone was) but amazingly no one really complained--there was too much to see!

After the cathedral, we walked down the island to get onto our hop-on, hop-off bus to see the rest of the city.  It had an audio guide and was a great way to see everything without subjecting Funny Guy to any more cruel and unusual punishment (aka "walking").

We stopped for a few minutes at the Arch de Triumphe, the beautiful memorial that honors all those who fought for France in the French Revoloution and Napoleonic Wars (as well as housing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for World War I).  Although we didn't opt for the trip to the top, it was a powerful monument.

That was not the end of our adventures in Paris, not even close!  By then it wasn't even noon.  But the rest (including climbing the stairs of the Eiffel Tower, exploring the Louvre, and our Cruise along the Seine) will have to wait for another blog post.  Let me just say that up to this point, things had been going even better than we could have hoped, with happy kids, happy parents, and a great itinerary, pretty much everything I could have hoped for.