Planes, Trains and Automobiles.... and Boats

The adventure has begun!!!

We got up Monday morning at 3:45 to take mom and the boys to the airport.  Dad and I  got back to the hotel just in time for me to meet up with Katya Klebingat for a run to the temple to meet up with the sisters.  We were both so excited to see our former companions!  I couldn’t believe I was seeing Sister Stiles in the flesh again on our old stomping grounds!  It was so surreal!  We pretty much eye flirted the whole time!!! 

After our run we did some laundry and headed into center to once again meet up with the sisters at Puzzies (nickname for a Ukrainian restaurant given by the missionaries) for lunch.  It was 5 sister missionaries, the mission president’s daughter, me being a former sister........ and HOWIE! Oh plus another companionship just happened to show up when we were leaving! Howie was such a good sport coming and being stuck with us gals having mission talk!  He treated us all to lunch and ice cream! I sure love my daddy!

One of my dear friends Natasha never believed me when I promised her I would come back to Ukraine.  She promised to feed my family if I really came.  I was good on my end and she invited us over for dinner Monday night.  In traditional Sister Schmidt style, we were late!!!! Surprise Surprise! We had a great time chatting and reminiscing. Then we were off to the train station to hit our next city L’VIV!!!!

So In Lviv I was able to see some friends.  Unfortunately, we were only there for a day and a lot of the people I wanted to see were gone or busy.  I would have loved to see some other members.  We went out to dinner with Ihor Petrichko and his family and I played tag with Ephram for ever!  He is was hilarious.  I love little kids that speak pure Ukrainian!

After Lviv we jumped on a night train to Krakow Poland! Oh my hilarious! So our first train was normal we bought four beds so we were alone. But the night to Poland was more expensive so we couldn’t well we get to our cabin and there is a little Polish lady already there.  She was so sweet but Dad and I couldn’t help but laugh because of the small space!  It was three beds on top of one another.  Naturally I took the top.  I didn’t even have room to make my bed.  I was laughing the whole time!

We got to Krakow and had an amazing morning looking all around the city.  We then headed off to Auschwitz, the WWII Jewish concentration camp.  That was such an amazing experience.  I really couldn’t believe it all.  It felt so weird walking on the grounds of where all those awful stories took place.  Looking at the rooms where people had been tortured and starved to death were all most too much to take in.  They real heartbreaker was going into one building where they had the hallway full of hair that they buzzed off of everyones heads to make money off of.  That really was awful and then the case of children's’ shoes that were collected from the people that went to the gas chambers really got me.  I am so grateful I was able to go and see the place I have learned so much about.  I was able to pay my respects but most importantly be reminded and never forget the things that people have gone through.

After Auschwitz we hit the night life of Krakow!  Howie and I couldn’t get enough of the town.  There were people everywhere street performers on every corner!  It was incredible!  I would recommend traveling to this city! I think my favorite was the fire dancers with all the drums! Howie loved this band of all super old men and then one really pretty young gal singer!  They drew the most attention on the main square!!

In the morning we went for an amazing run around the city, saw the cool old town center and then headed on a bus to a different city to catch our airplane to the Netherlands. Once we got to the netherlands we jumped on three different trains in order to get to Brugge Belgium where we then jumped a taxi to take us the the sea area.  Yes in one day we truly did planes trains and automobiles.  Get this tho,  Tonight we jumping a ferry boat to cross the sea to Hull England!  Yes we are using ever means of transportation, that is except for a bike.  Hopefully, we can hit up the bike today as we find out what Belguim has to offer!!! Apparently chocolate is the thing to eat!!