Ukraine Intro at Last

I am now in Ukraine. In fact, I have been here now for a while, but as promised, I am slow to work on things of this nature. Getting into the country was no big deal, much easier than Russia. A very nice Ukrainian lady that I met on the plane in Venice helped me get through passport control (lines here are sometimes tricky), and then customs was kind of a joke. So my stories and other blog info will be in major hindsight, but hey, they say that's always better anyways :)

What I have come to see by now (as in I have been here nearly 5 weeks, I leave this Thursday, July 30)is that Ukraine is a beautiful country, and the people are equally as beautiful. Of course, there are plenty of Eastern European idiosyncrasies that are at times very frustrating, but for the most part I just find them simply hilarious. Although where I live is still technically Kyiv, I have not spent a great deal in the city center. I spend the majority of my time here at the Ark working with the kids and doing various other projects on the property.


My First Day at the Ark

I arrived at the Ark in Kyiv on Thursday, June 25th. The Ark, or Ковчек, is a rehabilitation center for Kyiv street kids. Many of them have been neglected by their families as result of drug/alcohol abuse or in some cases they do not have families at all. I have developed relationships with pretty much all of the kids here, and they are such extraordinary individuals. Each has a tremendous amount of potential, and I know they will all do great things in the future. I find myself constantly praying for and thinking about these children, because I know God is one day going to use them to help build and shape a better Ukraine.

Venice

We took the train from Milan to Venice. I'm not sure what some Europeans have against deodorant and air conditioning, but is a rather unpleasant combination for a two-hour train ride. It was raining when we arrived in Venice, but it really didn't matter. Still extraordinarily beautiful!

Venezia! Wow, incredible! NO words! I have wanted to see Venice ever since I was little and heard that there was a city in Italy with streets of water and had no cars (except for Mini Coopers of course). We took a ferry to our hotel, the Danieli. This is one of the most famous hotels in Italy, and one of the oldest in Europe. Not only was the hotel itself beautiful, but it was only a 2-minute walk from St. Mark's Square!

Pictures of the hotel.....

The first night in Venice, we went to an awesome restaurant recommended by the Danieli. I haven’t really talked much about the food in Italy, because I assume everyone knows, even if never having been to Italy, that it is phenomenal. Well this restaurant took Italian food to the next level. Michelle and I split a rigatoni dish and a veal chop, topped off with some Tuscan Chianti…Bon Appetito! After two hours of delicious food and great conversation, we headed back to the hotel, stopping first at St. Mark's Square. There is something so captivating about this place, especially at night. Well for one thing, way fewer pigeons than during the rest of the day, so that's always nice. It is such an experience just to stand and listen to the various orchestras competing for spectators while the local artisans display their works, simply tremendous.

Dinner at the super amazing restaurant

St. Mark's Square

Up an' at 'em the next morning, we took a water taxi to the island of Murano. We stepped right off the boat onto the deck of a world class glass factory. After watching a very d

etailed demonstration about various glass manufacturing techniques, we headed into the gallery/shop. The thousands of pieces in the gallery were all uniquely individual and specific to their respective artists' style and technique. Although the demonstration did give me a new appreciation for the amount of work and artistic ability that goes into just one piece of glass, I was just not ready to pay $300 for a glass penguin the size of my pinky finger. So I simply strolled through the gallery :) Oh, and we saw the guy from CSI at the factory.

After leaving Murano, we took the water taxi back to Venice to do some shopping. Shops full of masquerade masques, glass jewelry, paintings/sketches and nautical clothing line the streets, and THOUSANDS of people are constantly walking in and out and on to the next. After shopping, we went to an excellent hole-in-the-wall pizzeria. Tasty! Following dinner, we went on a gondola. So I know people say this is corny and touristy, but if you ever go to Venice, do it. There simply is no better way to see the city. We saw an apartment of Mozart's, the home of Casanova, and so many other little nooks and crannies that are not visible from the narrow alleys that compose Venetian streets.

One last time, we headed to St. Mark's Square. I wish I could describe the feeling of being in this place at night. People everywhere sipping on wine or cappuccino, and the orchestras playing everyone's favorites. I even heard Moscow Nights! We just sat at a table and enjoyed the familiar company. A show of fireworks started around 10:30, and I thought this was definitely the best farewell.

I left Venice early in the morning of June 25th. If you go to Venice, make an effort to get up early one morning and walk around for a little while. This is when you get to see the Venetians instead of the tourists, and they are just going about their daily lives. After a few pictures, I hopped on the ferry to the airport.

We left Florence around 3 p.m. and quite the incident at the train station. We seemed to have lost our tickets! After talking to maybe 17 people, we were finally able to board. The train ride to Milan was pretty awesome, very beautiful! When we got to Milan, it immediately started raining as we left the train station to walk to our hotel, great timing. Our first night in Milan, we went to see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper at the Cenacolo Vinciano. This fresco (well it's debated over whether it's actually a fresco or a painting) is famous for not only it's awe-inspiring beauty, but also for the provoking nature of the work. This depiction of the interaction between Christ and his disciples at the Last Supper shows the moment when Christ tells shares that one of them will betray him. You can identify feelings and expressions of confusion, angst, sadness and anger among the disciples and sense Christ's somber recognition of what is soon to come. This is also the source of Dan Brown's oh so wonderful Da Vinci Code….sorry, not a fan.

Our second day in Milan, we took the train to Lake Como. Como is at the foothills of the Alps, and it was absolutely gorgeous. A quaint sort of small town, Como was essentially exactly how I have always imagined Italian cities/towns. They had their Duomo, and being right on the water, I could see all of the little villas spotting the hills. We took a hydrofoil boat from Como to Bellagio.

By the water in Como

Street in Como, too cute

Now scratch what I said earlier, this was the ideal Italian city. I wish I had words to describe the beauty. We walked through the town a little bit and then proceeded to walk through some beautiful botanical gardens for about an hour. Everything was so green! And there were signs in like 12 languages saying not to step on the grass, so of course I had to for just a second. After the gardens, we went back through the town and did a little bit of shopping. And of course, more gelato. Fat. After taking the train back to Milan, we had dinner with a friend of mine who had been studying in Milan for a semester.

Bellagio

FASHION CENTRAL! So our last morning in Milan, we headed to the fashion district where I very happily admired window displays and purchased nothing :) It was really cool to see all of the designer stores, but I honestly think seeing the cars in this area was the coolest part. Yes, I will take a Carolina blue Ferrari with my $8,000 Ferragamo scarf, thank you. When we finished our putzing around the fashion district, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to leave for Venice.