Kiev, Amsterdam and Roesale

Thailand to London, London to Vienna, Vienna to Kiev Phew what a marathon. If you are looking to save a few bucks on flights do not do it at the expense of comfort. Marc and I ended up paying for a hotel in Vienna in Euros just to sleep for the night because we were so tired from travelling. If we got a direct flight we would have saved time and money. Live and Learn.

Kiev.... We were picked up from the airport by my Uncle Naum and his daughter Lena who I havent seen since I was 8 years old and Marc has never met. They were so nice and welcoming and they ended up giving us one of their apartments. We had our own place in the center of Kiev. They also left us a lot of food in the fridge and made dinner for us, took us out and were very wonderful. In Kiev we spend a lot of time walking through the beautiful city. It is soo green with chestnut trees blooming all over the place. We saw many museums and art centres that my parents have carefully selected. We took pictures in front of the last standing monument of Lenin. We were so happy to meet up with Helen and Andrei who were staying with their cousin and went to a Ukranina rock bar which was a lot of fun. The best thing in Kiev were definately the caves of the 900 year old monestary called Lavra. We got an English speaking guide and spend a lot of time visiting the churches, groudns and caves that were used as Monk living quarters and burial grounds.

My moms friend Lena took Marc and I to a beautiful outdoors museum that had a collection of windmills and old Ukranian houses. It was beautiful to walk around in this open park with blue skies and green trees. It was like we were transformed to the 18th century. The same couple took us to the Kiev botanical garden and dressed us up in Ukranina national costumes put us on a carriage and had us pose for pictures. We later visited my old house and saw all the neighbours who remember my parents and grandparents very well and they all said I look exactly the same 19 years later. We also broke into my old school which is now a private school and Marc and I roamed the hallways. Kiev is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and I am proud that I was born there.


Following Kiev we went to Amsterdam where we met Olga, Timmy and Alana who have already been in the city for a few days. We were very happy to see them to say the least. The first two nights we shared a room with Helen and Andrei who were nice enough to put us up in their 5 star hotel room. We forgot what luxury meant. We then decided to splurge and got a nice 4 star hotel room and really enjoyed the showers and the sleep which was long overdue. It was shocking after leaving Asia how expensive everything is in Europe. We were used to paying $20 per night and here it is $100 for a 3 star hotel room, big difference.

Red Light District: it is definately a very interesting part of town. There are little streets that have women selling themselves in the windonws. A customer will choose his girl and then she opens the door and closes the curtain. When the customer leaves, she opens the curtain and is ready for business. I didnt know the rules and as walking down one of these streets I snapped a picture. To my surprise the girls behind the window freaked out they ran out and started screaming at me to erase the pictures. One of the girls went as far as saying "I dont take pictures Im not a model." I was in such schock that I just dint even reply. I was scared that some kind of pimp will come out and confescate my camera so I erased the picture, she apoligized and we parted. There are also coffeeshops on every corner where you can buy and smoke marijuana. To my surprise there was no police anywhere in sight everyone was conducting themselves very professionally and no one was fighting or acting crazy. I think that they are on to something in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is a beutiful old city. It has three sets of canals around the old part of town right by the central train station where we were staying. A lot of old buildings with beautiful archetecture and churches everywhere. Timmy told me some statistics about Amsterdam that they have the highest bicycle per capita percentage in the world. Everyone in Amsterdam rides a bicycle; women in high heels, men in suits, people with kids, people on date, everyone. They even have special bicycle lanes all over the city where cars and pedestrians are not allowed. They have significantly less cars on the roads and they dont have that reliance that we do in North America to use our car everywhere we go. Walking 7 to 10km per day is normal and highly encouraged. Think about the last time you walked for 7 km? The lifestyle in Europe is very different. People are relaxed less stressed less in a hurry, they take their time and enjoy their coffee and newspaper.

We visited the Heineken brewry and saw how they brew their beer, at the end we got three pints and were let out to the streeet. Great experience. My favourite museum so far was the Van Gogh exhibit in Amsterdam. We first learned about his style and where it was evolved by looking at artists he learned from. We also saw paintings that he replicated in his own style by comparing the original to his. I learned that Van Gogh only painted for ten years and he started with absolutely no talent. In ten years he did some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings. Which means that he finished a painting every 3rd day. Pretty impressive. We also visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam which was ok as an experience but im very glad that it is still there and people are visiting it. Marc reread the book and I didnt finish it but it was really touching to be at her home and going through her life in captivity with seven other people in a tiny home.

Saying bye to our friends was very hard!!! I was so happy to see everyone and now we are back to two. We left everyone at the train station and for the first time used our Eurail pass to get to Belgium. Everything was easy the train was very clean and spacious (were in 1st class) nothing like Vietnam dirty train. We got to Bruge at around 9pm and it was still light outside. We had a reservation to Park Hotel. At first we didnt realize something was wrong but later when everyone was pointing us in a different direction we started getting worried. It took us many little alleys and over an house to reach out hotel (with our bags on our backs). Exhausted and happy to find the hotel I handed the hotel manager our reservation that was done earlier in the day from a coffee shop. He looked very confused and at this point I knew in my heart that something was awfully wrong. He said well thank you for making a reservation at the Park Hotel but youre in Brugge and the Park Hotel you reserved in is Roesale (a city 30km away)......


Not only did this news schock us to disbelief the hotel manager thought it would be funny to share these news with people that were walking by (who had a room) in French. I was soo sad and felt very guilty that I didnt realize what I did. We had to go all the way back to the train station find the next train to Roesale. We ended up getting to our room at 11pm, 2 hours later. We went out for dinner to the only place in town that was open. An egyptian pita place. I was charged 3 euros for two glasses of water. Welcome to Europe.

Right now we are on the way to Brugge (again) from Roesale where we are planning to spend a few days. From what we have seen it was a beautiful town with old buildings and snug alleyways.

I promise to start posting pictures and Marc promises to do a blog in the next few days (he needs to make sure he has enough material)!

I Hope everyone is doing well, we miss you.

Irene I saw your post on my wall and realized I had to do the blog now, say hello to Charlie and Yury kissess.

Marc and Veronika