Family Visit

On September 24 we traveled to Spain to meet Steve's Mom and sister there. They had planned on coming for a visit for over a year and finally the time arrived! They wanted to see a bit of Europe as well as Ukraine so we decided to show them our other home in Mijas. 

We ate our favourite chicken (it's seriously the best in the world!), we went to the beach on the Mediterranean, we went to Malaga and were taken around by really good friends of ours who were on staff while we were at G42, we climbed the mountain up to the church in Mijas, we had just a lovely time.

We spent four days with them in Spain and then we all traveled to Budapest for a few days. We chose Budapest because we discovered a great flight connection between there and Kiev! Good to know for the future too! We had never been to Budapest so it was exciting for all of us to see something new together. We did a lot of family selfies :)

We were astounded with how beautiful Budapest is! Definitely a must see city in my opinion!

The Great Market Hall:

We did a lot of walking and wandering - Steve and my favourite way to see a city! Just wander and see what you find and then do a few of the exciting touristy things along the way! We went into the labyrinth beneath Buda castle where Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) was held captive for 14 years. We went to the public baths (which we disliked) and we went on a cruise on the Danube at night and that was just amazing! Cold, but wonderful!!

This is the Parliament building lit up at night - those specks above it are all birds flying around, illuminated by the building.

We also spent a fair amount of time in McCafe.....

Over-looking the city:

Outside the parliament building:

After Budapest we brought Mom and Kara here to Zaporozhye. I think they were quite.....astonished....by the change in everything  - the transportation, the atmosphere, the language - once we arrived! We had a few hours in Kiev so we took them to see a few of the more momentous places - Maidan square where the revolution began almost two years ago, Pazatta Hatta which is THE Ukrainian restaurant to go to, ha ha. We went through a souvenir street market and saw some of the extravagant Ukrainian Orthodox churches before taking the afternoon train back to Zap. I have to say it was a little nerve wracking bringing them in the door of our home! We are so comfortable here after almost two years of living here but sometimes I look around with fresh North American eyes and I think yikes! This place is so....Ukrainian!! ha ha

We spent the week doing some of the more...."exciting".....things around Zaporozhye. We walked across the dam (which takes FOREVER because it's so big!), we walked down to the beach, we went to the BANYA (the Russian sauna!! Which is my personal favourite activity ALWAYS). We went Khortitza Island and did shashlik (Ukrainian BBQ over a fire), which happened to be a beautiful warm day so the boys went in the water:

The "forest" path from the marshrootka stop to the beach which is about a 20 minute walk.

We took them to the largest market in the city which is quite a sight to see and we also did normal, every day things like grocery shopping, and shopping at second hand stores.

We had an absolutely wonderful time with them and it was so much fun and meant so much to us to be able to show them a bit of our world. It's hard to describe every day living to people who have never experienced being here and it's wonderful (and kind of a relief in some ways!) to be able to share this place with people we love.