Beautiful and perfect day

today was beautiful, we are still not sleeping well but we were able to get on a somewhat normal schedule. We spent the whole day in the park next to the Dnieper river that splits East and West Kiev. the park is beautiful the trees are covered with moss and the walk ways are cobblestone and wined through the hilly park. Kiev is hillier than we imagined. The weather was beautiful today it was cold but it was much milder than it has been, there was even a wedding going on in the park. Everyone is a lot more laid back then they seem to be in the city.  we walked a good 2 1/2 miles today it was great to get out and explore and breath the fresh air. there is tons to see in the park even a statue of what appears to be Saint Andrew. Ryan posted a picture of St. Andrews in a early post but here it is again with the picture of the statue.

The story is told that St. Andrew came to this location when it was only a hill and erected a cross where he prophesied that this would be the foundation for a great christian city, in later years Kiev became the center of the eastern orthodox faith. it has been so much fun to come home and research this stuff!!! as it stands now the church is undergoing foundation repair, the statue was in the park in a different part of the city however you can tell how important that history is to the people here....

during the walk we came across this bridge that was quite curious, it was covered in pad locks and pieces of fabric tied in knots, we came to the conclusion that it had to do something with marriage or love and we were right. It is so cool that something like that is universal, as the Beatles put it "All you need is love" it cool to see love in every language is the same!! as soon as we got home we looked it up it is the "the lover's bridge" if you kiss your loved one on this bridge your hearts will be forever locked together. I, of course am in search of a lock and you can bet we will be back there to share a kiss :)!!!!

And of course we had to find the football (soccer) stadium Ryan always gets a kick out of that!! We ended our walk by seeing parliament and finally getting dinner were we ate what I think was traditional Ukrainian food. I had trout wrapped in some kind of dough with barley as my side and Ryan had pancakes that were more like crepes with meat they were sooo good the trout on the other hand was not my favorite but I tried. I did get a bloody marry and that was a mistake I should have known better it was vodka and Ryan says vermouth with a splash of tomato juice it was strong, quite funny really. here is a picture of parliament. they are in the middle of election so it is cool to see.

We love you sooo much let you know when we can travel as soon as we know. thanks for the support!!