Kyiv, Ukraine for the holiday

There was no Thanksgiving in Europe, but there were enough Americans around to celebrate with turkey and trimmings for dinner. There was a charity function, put on for The Children of Chernobyl, at the hotel we stayed at on Thursday night. We had dinner with some friends, Laura and Salus. Chernobyl is a little more than 100 miles north of Kyiv on the border with Belarus.





St. Michael's Golden Domed Monastery

In the square in front of the monastery.

Funicular

Looking toward the Pechersk Lavra/Kiev Monastery of the Caves.

Rememberence day for Holodomor, 27 November 2010. There is a Metro stop at this location that is the deepest in Europe. Arsenalna Station 105.5 meter down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenalna_(Kiev_Metro)

We rode the subway to Dnipro, the wrong direction, switched trains and went to Khreshchatyk station back toward our hotel.



Monument to Victims Holodomor, Kiev

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor

Orthodox church at Pechersk Lavra

Everybody likes a happy elf with a barrel of beer!

VW Touareg, chrome on black wheels on Khreshchatyk Avenue. This large central avenue is closed on Sundays for citizens to walk and shop.

Near European Square on Khreshchatyk Avenue.

Take your pick of exotic flavors of Lays chips: salami, crab, green onion, sour cream and onion and pepper I think.

Getting ready to board the plane back to Bratislava, SK we stopped and took a picture with Kris. Boryspil International Airport.

Budapest Hungary

I'm not a doctor and I don't play one on TV. That being stated I'll say this, you can take me out of Montana but you can't take Montana out of me. I'm following Hungarian tradition of holding this horse's bullock in order to have good luck on my next exams for school. Given that I'm not in school currently, I'll take good luck and vitality. This statue is located on the Buda side of the city in the castle area.

Riding the train from Bratislava, SK to Budapest, HU. This was outside of Bratislava before the train started to follow the Danube River to Budapest.

On the train Saturday morning. We lucked out again with one day of really warm weather for November, lots of sun.

Along the Danube River, crossing into Hungary from Slovakia.

After 2 1/2 hours on the train with a few stops we're in Budapest! Behind Alexandra are the Buda Hills and Buda. We were standing in Pest along the river.

On the Chain Bridge looking back toward Pest and the Parliment building to the north.

Looking back across the Chain Bridge into Pest, we're standing right above the track for the funicular.



Night time!

On the way to the market place.

Green Bridge


White Bridge from our hotel room.

The South Train station on Monday night.

Budapest is a city divided by the Danube River and made up of three parts: Obuda, Buda and Pest. It has a population of 1.7 million pepople, hot springs, a language not like any in Eastern Europe and a great public tranportation system.