one of the perks of going to medical school in israel is that we get 10 days off for the jewish holiday of sukkot! i decided to go on a little trip :)
stop #1: KIEV, UKRAINE
i had a 24 hour layover! after finding my way into downtown kiev by about midnight, i searched for my hostel in some dark alleys for about an hour before finally finding it. its only identification was a tiny piece of paper with 12 point font that said "hostel" scotch taped above the door of the building! huh, eh! anyways, i ascended the 7 floors of the communist era apartment building and woke up the woman who runs the place. turns out she sleeps in the bunk bed directly beneath me! before i left she gave me a huge box of about 100 gourmet ukrainian chocolates! i didn't know that chocolate was a ukrainian specialty. i still don't think it is. but those chocolates satiated me for the rest of the trip. the only drawback of the hostel was that when i picked up my bag at the end of the day it was clear that someone else had gone through it while i was gone. i don't think i would have expected anything less.
but overall i had an amazing day! kiev is a wonderful city, especially in the autumn. i went to independence square, home of the infamous orange revolution of 2004. also, st. sophia's ukrainian orthodox church, whose clocktower one can climb for fantabulous views. i also made sure to stop at the arsenal'na subway station, the deepest subway station in the world! got to love superlatives, right?!?! and the kiev subway is pleasantly priced, at 20 cents a ride. did you know: every soviet city with a population of over 1 million got a subway system? i ate at an amazing self serve ukrainian restaurant for a few dollars, and otherwise just wandered. ukraine has a fascinating and rather unfortunate history. but recently they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, at least in kiev. the newest news is that the chernobyl nuclear disaster site recently opened up to visitors, so i guess that's one of the main reasons tourists are going there these days.
stop #2: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
i had a short layover. but it was just long enough to find my way into the city and ascend the steeple of the tallest church in town before the sun went down. and buy some delectable latvian pastries. and wander around at night for a while. it was freezing! and everyone was watching hockey as a pastime! it reminded me of you know where! the baltics have really done well for themselves post-communism. downtown riga is nothing short of glamorous!
stop #1: KIEV, UKRAINE
i had a 24 hour layover! after finding my way into downtown kiev by about midnight, i searched for my hostel in some dark alleys for about an hour before finally finding it. its only identification was a tiny piece of paper with 12 point font that said "hostel" scotch taped above the door of the building! huh, eh! anyways, i ascended the 7 floors of the communist era apartment building and woke up the woman who runs the place. turns out she sleeps in the bunk bed directly beneath me! before i left she gave me a huge box of about 100 gourmet ukrainian chocolates! i didn't know that chocolate was a ukrainian specialty. i still don't think it is. but those chocolates satiated me for the rest of the trip. the only drawback of the hostel was that when i picked up my bag at the end of the day it was clear that someone else had gone through it while i was gone. i don't think i would have expected anything less.
but overall i had an amazing day! kiev is a wonderful city, especially in the autumn. i went to independence square, home of the infamous orange revolution of 2004. also, st. sophia's ukrainian orthodox church, whose clocktower one can climb for fantabulous views. i also made sure to stop at the arsenal'na subway station, the deepest subway station in the world! got to love superlatives, right?!?! and the kiev subway is pleasantly priced, at 20 cents a ride. did you know: every soviet city with a population of over 1 million got a subway system? i ate at an amazing self serve ukrainian restaurant for a few dollars, and otherwise just wandered. ukraine has a fascinating and rather unfortunate history. but recently they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, at least in kiev. the newest news is that the chernobyl nuclear disaster site recently opened up to visitors, so i guess that's one of the main reasons tourists are going there these days.
stop #2: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
i spent 3 days in budapest, mostly to hang out with a great friend and former college roommate named brad. i feel like we have so many memories, everything from weekly wings nights to road trips to maine to wonderful liturgical church services to apples to apples at “family” game nights to lamenting the methods used by certain women to break up with us to wine tasting in the santa ynez valley to an infamous box of stool that just wouldn’t disappear to fish tacos in tijuana to vague recollections of him leaving at 2 am in the mornings for his job sorting lobsta in glosta, just to name a few. it was great to catch up. he is pursuing a master's degree at a very interesting graduate-only institution called central european university that is entirely in english and is a remarkable melting pot of students from every corner of the world. in a couple days i had already hung out with people from over a dozen different countries, including a disproportionately large number of romanians. we went to all kinds of little hungarian restaurants that the tourists don't know about and it was amazing. and cheap. oh and also he was kind enough to show me to a few different shopping malls - they have some seriously amazing malls in budapest! one day we went to a traditional hungarian bath house! i stayed the entire day. it was a good time! speaking of budapest - hey dad! - remember that time we were there on christmas eve a few years ago?! that was also a good time.
stop #3: RIGA, LATVIA
i had a short layover. but it was just long enough to find my way into the city and ascend the steeple of the tallest church in town before the sun went down. and buy some delectable latvian pastries. and wander around at night for a while. it was freezing! and everyone was watching hockey as a pastime! it reminded me of you know where! the baltics have really done well for themselves post-communism. downtown riga is nothing short of glamorous!
