Pictures of Kiev

I have all the pictures in my Picasa web album so you can check them all out there. I don't have very descriptive captions on them, because I find writing captions really boring.

A play by play of our days there would be boring. Basically, we walked...and walked and walked...and walked some more. For everyone we have walked to the brink of exhaustion, you can't even imagine how far we have to walk to make ourselves exhausted. Basically our full day was an 8.5 hour walk with a few stops to sit and rest, or to eat along the way.

We happened to be there on May Day which was a lot of fun, because all the locals were out enjoying themselves and there were concerts and all sorts of hoopla going on. It was a lot of fun.

Our Cute Room

Michael with Cool Architecture

St. Sophia

St. Michaels

St. Michaels
In the midsts of the May Day Celebrations
This pathway stretched for a long time, and most of the gates you can see were covered with artwork. These were not though.
In Kiev cars often pop up and drive on the sidewalks and park as well.

Hanging out with the GIANT Rodina Mat. She is 62 meters tall

After a looooooong day of exploring

To see all of our pictures, visit the link below. :)

Kiev, Ukraine

Easy as 1, 2, 3

1. Today, after almost 15 months,was our very last Danish Class. I have a post semi written out about it, but I didn't have time to finish it before bed and our trip tomorrow, so I'll post about that after we get back. But it was an exciting day for us to be done.

2. Remember that one time back in 2002-2007 when we had that big extensive website then we moved to Denmark and it disappeared? Well, It's back now! kinda. We aren't hosting it anymore, so it doesn't have the amount of pictures and details, but it works for now, until one day, we can get our BIG site back up and running. Check it out " www.mnp8.com " , there is also a link on the side of the page now.

3. Remember when we booked tickets to Texas the night before we left for Italy? Well we did it again.

Twas the night before Kiev, and all through the house,
not a creature was stirring not even our plane tickets to Amsterdam.

Michael is attending a conference in Amsterdam in the middle of May. I'll meet him down there on day 2 of the conference and play solo traveler for a couple days while he sits and learns all sorts of big important things about something or other. Yippee!

now...bed.
*yawn*

Bella Roma Day 2

Wednesday morning came fast, especially since we didn't go to bed till quite late. Myra left early for a day trip for work and Michael and I slept in. When we got up, we headed straight out the door after of course changing to go across the street to a little cafe called, "Friends Cafe" where we got some coffee and croissants. It was good and fast so we could come back and take showers and pack up for the day and get on our way.

We started our "sightseeing" by walking from Myra's place to the Spanish steps which is about a 10-15 minute walk. When we got there we sat on the steps for a while watching the world go by.

Spanish Steps

After the Spanish Steps we walked around alot and found lunch at a cute little cafe. We ate outside under heated lamps, but the wind started to blow and it got quite cold. When we left we had the intention to go to the Pantheon, but since we just went the "general direction" and weren't really looking at a map to get there, we ended up by the river close to Vatican City, so went there instead. When we got there I had to use the restroom and Michael was convinced he remembered there being a restroom hidden on a wall on close to the entrance I wasn't so sure about this, but as we started walking underneath the columns it all came back to me and I knew he was right and there it was, a hidden and empty restroom! We sat on the steps in the square for a long time. The sun was out and I was in heaven. It was so warm I even rolled up my sleeves and helped my body make lots of vitamin D!

Michael Crossing Over the Bridge

Tiber River

St. Peters Square and Cathedral

I LOVE this picture.
Michael and the two nuns.

I'm in green, sunbathing

We decided we would try to go to the Pantheon again, so after reading a map we were on our way and this time made it there. It was about a 45 minute walk or so, but as Myra will attest to, we can out walk anybody in fact in Paris in 2002, she gave Michel the nickname "Walking Nazi'. The Pantheon was just as huge as I remember. It is such an amazing building and to think that the building that is there now has been standing there since 125AD blows my mind.

Pantheon
Can you find Michael? He is hard to miss ;)

It was starting to get later and later and we needed to meet Myra back at the apartment at 7:00. We knew we had a long trek back home so we got some Gelato for the road and headed back. Our plan was to go to the Spanish Steps and then from there back to Myra's house, until we saw signs for the Trevi Fountain (which is relatively close to the Spanish Steps) so, made a detour to go there instead. We spent a few days on our first trip sitting by the fountain eating lunch. When we were here in 2002 the fountain area seemed so empty, there were usually only about 20 other people there with us. It was the end of February on that trip also, so I don't know why this time, there were so many more people. We didn't sit on the steps in front of the fountain but on the wall to the side of it. I found a little corner that I fit in perfectly and Michael stood and researched the map to find the best way home. This time, we made it all the way home with no stops. We were gone from 11:00am til 6:00pm. It was a lovely day of walking around the incredible city, taking it all in and enjoying ourselves.

Coffee Flavored Gelato

Trevi Fountain

This is look like when I walk for 6 hours. Tired!

In the evening the three of us went to the grocery store to stock up on food for the party that was happening the next night at Myra's place. We loaded our backpacks down with 12 bottle of Procceco and tons of food. We also got some pasta, bread, and pesto for dinner along with a jar of instant coffee so we didn't have to run out the door so fast the next morning, breakfast for the morning and a toothbrush for me because mine is sitting in our cabinet in the bathroom in Lyngby. oops. We ate our food, drank some wine from Macedonia and had a lovely evening.

Cooking Ravioli stuffed with Ricotta and Spinach

Odense Pt. 2

Sunday morning we woke up and Marianne went to get us some delicious 7 grain bread from the bakery. After filling our tummy's Michael and I left for the day leaving Nis, Marianne and Viggo to rest and nap.

The first place we went to was Skt. Knuds Kirke(St. Knuds Church). The church is Protestant, but was formally Catholic. It was named after St. Knud who was a former king of Denmark from 1080-1086. We got there just as the visiting hours started at noon and we had the church to ourselves. By the time we were walking out we were far from alone. I was glad we got there when we did!

Skt. Knuds Kirke

Looking Towards the Alter

H.C. Andersen plaque on the church wall saying he was confirmed here

The reason we wanted to visit here was because of something I knew we would find in the crypt. Behind the alter we found the steps to take us down where we found some old books and two cases that contain the remains of two men. The first case contained St. Knud, former King of Denmark. The second contained his brother, Bendick. They were killed while kneeling at the alter inside the church down the street during a peasant rebellion, where they had taken shelter. Apparently St. Knuds death is said to have been the end of the Viking Era!

Michael looking at St. Knud St. Knuds Remains

St. Knuds Remains

Writing about Benedikt

Benedikt

Literally down the street sits St. Alban's Church, which is Catholic. We thought about going in, but they had masses going on all day, so one church was enough for us. But it was pretty from the outside.

St. Alban's Church

The two chuches covered in trees

From the Church we walked around, looked in stores and window shopped. There is an obscene about of amazing looking wine and whiskey stores in Odense. We were in awe and wondered why we haven't found that many that were that big and so incredible looking in Copenhagen!! We also looking at housing prices and realized that if were were to ever buy a house in Denmark, we would have to move to Odense. The prices were so much more reasonable! We found lunch in a cute cafe where we had some nice warm coffee and tapas. YUM.

Cute Street

My Favorite Little Street in Odense
Notice all the lights in the air

Al Pacino's Pizza and Grill - This made us laugh.

Lovely Danish Buildings

Park in Odense

Cafe where we ate

Our train didn't leave until 9PM so after spending the day exploring we went back to Nis and Mariannes and talked for a little while before we packed up everything and left to do a little more walking, find some dinner and make it to the train station for our train ride home.

Marianne and Me

Nis Marianne and Viggo
Such a good looking family!

Pedestrian Street at Night

Odense at Night

We ate dinner at "El Torito" which was pretty good, the atmosphere made the restaurant. We had some Negra Modelas and tacos and sat for a long time to keep us warm and to pass the time. Our train ride home was pretty uneventful. It was dark but it was fast. We made back to Lyngby about 11pm and went straight to bed!

Odense was a cool town. It wasn't big, it wasn't small either. The perfect size actually. It was fairy tale saturated, but if you don't live there, it is pretty cute. I can see how it might get old after awhile though. Even a lot of the bars and restaurants are named after something of H.C. Andersens. Most of the time I forgot I was still in Denmark even though it seemed so very Danish and everything was written in Danish and people were speaking Danish. As we were leaving to come home Michael was talking and said, "When we get back to Denmark...." We laughed, and about 10 minutes later, he did it again.

Thanks again Marianne and Nis for letting us stay with you and showing us around town! We had a great time!

Meeting Old Friends

Five years ago while planning our wedding I stumbled across a website that made planning our wedding 1,000 times less stressful. It was a forum style website that was very active and I met lots of friends on there that were all planning their weddings at the same time as I was. One girl I met, AnnMarie, is responsible for this blog. She started a blog a couple years before I did and it was easy to keep up with her. She told me a few times I needed to start one, and finally one day I did. I think everyone that has ever read this blog has asked me, "Who's AnnMarie?". Especially when for a year or so she was one of the only ones that ever left me comments. :) She lives in Florida, and unfortunately, we have never been out there so I've never met her. But fingers crossed, one day we will!

Another girl I met on UW is, Marianne (Pronounced: Mar-yanna) is Danish. Her and her family were living in New York for the past few months and just got back in December. This past weekend we finally got to meet in person. Marianne, Nis and Viggo live in on the island of Fyn in the town of Odense. It is the 3rd largest town in Denmark but only has a population of around 150,000. Odense is on the island just west of the island Copenhagen is on and it only took 1.5 hour by train to get there.

Our train departed Copenhagen Central Station at 7:00AM. We left Lyngby on the 6:00 train. and we were up about 5:00AM. When we arrived we stopped for some breakfast and found our way to Nis and Mariannes house. Before arriving they offered to let us stay the night with them, but warned us we would be sleeping in the basement with the spiders their storage and the laundry. We were SHOCKED when we saw such a nice little guest room space set up.

Nis and Marianne's adorable house

The Guest Room

We warmed up (which would become a common theme for the weekend) and all went to a little market set up with flowers and fruits and vegetables.

Market

Odense is the hometown of the famous Dane, Hans Christian Andersen, or as he is known in Denmark, "H.C. Andersen". He is best known for "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "Thumbelina", "The Emperors New Clothes" and many many more. All around town there were statues and plaques of and about H.C. Andersen, and his fairy tales. I thought it was quite funny to see so much about one person in one town. Nis mentioned that there are only a couple statues in town that have nothing to do with him and I assure you there were a whole lot of statues.

The yellow house on the right is where H.C. Andersen was born.
It is now a museum of his life and works.

Steadfast Tin Soldier

This is the stream that H.C. A's mom did laundry in as her job.

The Emperors New Clothes

The Boat from "The Steadfast Tin Soldier"

Marianne and me with a H.C.A statue behind us

Even the street lights for the cross walk were H.C.A.
See his little top hat and cane?

After walking around a bit it was time to go get little Viggo. He had stayed the night with Nis's mom. We picked him up and headed back home to warm up. He was just as adorable looking in person as he is in pictures. After warming up we ate brunch at a really yummy restaurant, walked around the shopping streets, and went home again to warm up...again. Michael and I left after it got dark to see the city all lit up with Christmas lights, then came back we watched Marianne clean the oven (very well too might I add) and Nis fixed us a wonderful dinner. We stayed up talking for quite a while and then we both passed out and had a spider free, wonderful nights sleep.