Life with Lydia

In May, I went to Moldova for a few days with my brother and sister-in-law! View from the top of the hill at the "Candle of Gratitude Monument" in Soroca, Moldova. This is the Dniester river separating Ukraine and Moldova. I took a small bus from Odessa, Ukraine to Chisinau, Moldova. I stayed in this Airbnb with my brother and sister-in-law, Alina  The next morning, we walked around Chisinau. Above is pictured the Nativity Cathedral. We then drove a few hours to Alina's small hometown - Drochia. We stayed with her family for a few days in the house she grew up in.  Her village is so neat and beautiful. It's like going back in time. Some of the delicious food her family made for us. It was great getting to meet and speak Russian with them as well! I was a little out of practice, but they were very kind :) They butchered their pig while we were there, which is a yearly tradition. It provides meat for them year-round. Definitely an interesting process to watch. A beautif

The Berlin Wall Before we got to Berlin we went to a German mall All the flavors of ice cream! These signs looked cool Breakfast! Such tasty food :) On our way to Berlin! We got to the Berlin wall in Germany! They had just repainted this side of the wall   The other side of the wall had paintings from different artists We went to a huge store similar to home depot Going to our favorite store, Aldi, in Germany where it originally started! Looks just like Aldis in America except everything is in German :) We got to the hostel where we were going to spend the night. Signing in to the hostel Dinner time! Our hostel in Berlin, Germany. The next day we started driving to Leipzig A small German town Passing by beautiful scenery!

In Germany, at the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp Memorial. It was a sobering day learning more about the tragedies that occurred in this horrible place. The camp memorial estimates that 132,000 women were in the camp including about 48,000 from Poland, 28,000 from the Soviet Union, 24,000 from Germany and Austria, 8,000 from France, and thousands from other countries including the UK and U.S. More than 20,000 of the total were Jewish. This wall still shows where the swastika symbol was during that time. A guitar played by one of the prisoners If you've read The Hiding Place, you know that this is the place where Corrie and Betsie Ten Boom were taken after they were caught hiding and helping Jews in their home in Haarlem, Netherlands. More than 80% of the prisoners were political prisoners like Corrie and Betsy.    The cold, gloomy day fit the terrible realities of this camp's history. There were up to 45,000 women prisoners here at one time. 5