Back from the Old World

It was a long trip, but a good one. I spent 10 days in Germany and 9 in Ukraine, the first part of the trip being unadulterated tourism, and the second part a return to the home of my childhood. Germany was definately fun, picturesque, medieval, and with plenty opportunities to climb things; I stayed in Mainz, and visited Cologne (Koln Dom, gigantic, dark, menacing, and yes, beautiful 13th century monastery);
Worms (a city obsessed with its own midieval romance of the Nibelungs);
Heidelberg (with the larges castle ruins in germany);
Bad Munchster(small, littleknown castle ruin);
Kaiserslautern, Bonn, Nierstein, Frankfurt;
And Wissemburg (It's in France);

but it was Kiev that had the greatest emotional impact. Many things have changed, and what remains seems older and smaller somehow, but still, the memories came pouring back as I returned to the house I hadn't seen since I was 9. Ukraine is still very much in transition. In the streets of Kiev, I heard more Russian spoken than Ukrainian. Sometimes it's frustrating to see an untended street of 19th architecture that can be as beautiful as anything I saw in Germany. Still there are gems of breathtaking beauty. The monasteries from the Kievan Rus' that have stood for a thousand years, the sunset view of Kiev accross the Dnipro River, the forests and fields that don't belong to anyone. Somehow the sky seemed bluer there than anywhere else, and even the subway smelled nostalgic.

Still, I was probably gone for too long. When I returned, my 1-year old sister had forgotten me (she ran away whent I came near her) and my school schedule had been magled by the computer (after an intesive email campaign and all but stalking my counselor, I managed to get it fixed). Now I'm working on my CBTA app and hoping my classes don't assign as much work as they seem to threaten to.