Picture Insert - pt 1

So we have a huge number of pics - and we are still trying to sort them out - but as promised here are a few.

WARSAW

Above - WillaNov



Bottom 2 - Warsaw, old town. Now a world heritage site, Warsaw and its old town was completely destroyed in WWII







Lazy

The Baltic coast

Alister and BJ's Small group - talent night

Singing inside on a rainy day during free time

Sarah with her two "wards" - Wiktor and Bartush (Wiktor apparently started using a few Russian words during the week after the camp - poor kid, I probably totally messed up his linguistic development)

A summer Series pt 2

Warsaw

In Warsaw we stayed with the deacon of the church whose camp we were helping with. He lived in a lovely house on the outskirts near Willa Now (Villa Nov). It was a beautiful summer/ vacation castle that had just been restored - there were lovely parks and walk ways and even WiFi
The next day we explored the center. Sleepy, quiet, lovely, but expensive. Not only has the dollar declined in value - but the zloty has strengthened . . . a lot One dollar gets you 2 zloty - but it will cost you six zloty if you want an ice cream and 10 if you want coffee. Craziness.
Despite being a capital city - Warsaw apparently doesn't have too much going on. Alister Says that it and Brussels are reputed to be the most boring cities in Europe. Later when we saw Krakow - a club or concert on every corner - we understood how Warsaw could be so easily outshone.

A Summer Series pt 1

Leaving Kiev
The last couple of weeks Alister and left Kiev and went to Poland. Alister was lecturing at a camp and I got to tag along to help out.
We traveled by train (20 hours) to Warsaw. Polish trains are differnt from Ukrainian/ Russian trains. Rather than a coupe with 4 beds - the international coupe had three beds stacked on top of each other, a small sink, covered by a table, a medicine cabinet and a fold down seat. The three passengers in the coach could sit on the bottom bunk - but as soon as the middle bunk was made up for sleeping - no more sitting was possible - unless you wanted to end up looking like Quasimodo. Another perk to the ride was free coffee and a free chocolate crosant (the prepackage kind.) The border was surprising fast - considering they hand to change all the wheels to a differnt size - we were across in 2 hours. (versus the bus which later took us 5). All in all the ride was pleasant. We arrived in Warsaw at 7:30 am, had a short nap and then headed out to see the city.