The View From My Window #23: Vermont

Don't let the the cactus in the foreground fool you, those rolling hills in the background are located in the Green Mountain State of Vermont near Mount Mansfield. I'm here for a wedding and the wedding venue on top of a hill has amazing views as well.

The View From My Window #22: Seeing Russia From My Window

When Laura and I lived in Kharkiv, Ukraine before the Russian invasion, we lived in the closest major city (Kharkiv has about 1.5 million people) to the Russian border. We joked before a Russian invasion was a realistic possibility that Kharkiv might be the first city they would take but having such a large population turned out to be a benefit as controlling a city that size would have required more military resource than Russia was willing to use. 

Now that Laura and I are spending the summer in Washington DC, it turns out we are closer to Russia than we ever were in Kharkiv. I know Sarah Palin famously joked about seeing Russia from her doorstep but I can literally see it from my window was we live right across from the Embassy of the Russian Federation. That's the embassy compound behind the tan walls. 

The compound, which includes an apartment building, school, and sports areas, was constructed in the late 70's and early 80's. It is built on a hill called Mount Alto and no one is easily jumping the fence and making it onto the grounds as there are several levels you need to climb to actually get to the building levels.

The famous Russian spy Robert Hanssen alerted the Soviets that the Americans were building a tunnel under the compound to better spy on the complex.

The View From My Window #21: Philadelphia

I haven't done one of these in over a year, I'm surprised to find! Today's post comes from 23 floors up in our country's first capital, Philadelphia. We rented an apartment in the Rittenhouse neighborhood in Philadelphia which includes a Rittenhouse Square that was one of the original parks designed by William Penn. 

In the distance in the gap between the two buildings, you can see Citizens Bank Park which is the home of the Philadelphia Phillies.  

The View From My Window #20: South Padre Island

The view of the Gulf of Mexico from our hotel on South Padre Island. Looks like there was a storm coming in the distance. 

The View From My Window #19: Playing With My Shutter Speed In Kiev

Although I'm now home in America, I'm going to keep posting as if we recently had these adventures around Europe. I'll post the dates we actually visited these locations at the start of each posts in an attempt to keep things straight. 

The View From My Window #19: Kiev

Photographed: April 11th, 2013

Here's the view from our apartment window on a hazy spring day in Kiev.  Nothing too amazing to take notice but...

...what a difference a few hours and some car break lights make.  I've done a couple of shutter speed experiments before but I think that this was the best result I've had so far.

The View From My Window #18: France

While we were in France, we stayed with my Godparents in the city of Asnieres in the northwest side of the Paris suburbs.  Here was the lovely view from our window:  

While the cars down below in the courtyard would change throughout the day, the one constant was a least one or two cats were always sitting around in the sun.  Someone feeds the cats from the apartment buildings and so at feeding time all the local cats stop by.  I looked out at one point and saw that there were about 10 cats sitting there.

With the camera angle I had I was only able to get seven of them in one photo.  There were several more cats to the left of the this photo that wouldn't quite fit. 

The View From My Window #17: Santorini

The view from our window in Santorini which is an island in an archipelago that used to be a volcano. On a good clear day from the opposite side of the island you are able to see Crete in the distance.   

The View From My Window #16: Athens Night/Day

We flew into Athens to begin our long delayed honeymoon around midnight and so as we arrived into the city we really couldn't get a sense of what the city looked like.  So from our balcony I tried my hand at some long exposure photography with the traffic below.  Now I just need to get a tripod to make sure the camera doesn't move at all.  

With daylight though, the street and the view transforms into something much more amazing.  A view from the opposite direction gives you a partial view of the Acropolis.

And here's a rare "view of my window" from the park below.  We are the white door on the top floor.

The View From My Window #15: Kamianets-Podilskyi

On the right, the hotel we stayed at in Kamianets-Podilskyi. On the left, a building bombed out and left vacant since World War II.  

The View From My Window #14: Ivano-Frankivsk

In our travels around southwestern Ukraine we ended up in the city of Ivano-Frankivsk twice but we never spent the night there.  Instead Laura had some interviews there [with me awkwardly sitting in the back of the room understanding about 2% of what was going on].  I snapped this photo from the office building window where one of the interviews took place and I enjoy the bright yellow house in the gloomy Ukrainian hillside.  

The View From My Window #13: Lviv

We've had many bright and shiny days these past frew weeks in Ukraine...at least where we've been...I can't say for sure for the rest of Ukraine!  

Tuesday may bring a trip to the Lviv Underground which was highlighted in the movie In Darkness about a sewer worker who hid Jews in the tunnels during World War II when Lviv was still a part of Poland.  That movie and Everything Is Illuminated should be required viewing for any American living in Ukraine.  

Here is the In Darkness trailer:

The View From My Window #12: Kiev Hostel

The view from our hostel in Kiev...all night long there would be loud bangs and crashes as the snow from the angled roof would fall off.  At first I thought people were throwing their garbage from their windows down into the dumpsters below.  

Here's another view of Maiden Nezalezhnosti which I will never get tired of photographing.  

The View From My [Train] Window #11: Dnieper

Here is the view from my train window today crossing the Dnieper River on our way to the center of Kiev.  

You may recognize the monument in the distance as The Motherland Monument that we visited back in November.

The View From My Window #10: Bombs Bursting In Air

Fireworks are a pretty regular occurrence around our house on the weekends but it was surprising for them to be so loud and so close on a Monday night.  They were being shot from the roof of a building a block away.  I must admit that whenever they go off in back of my mind I wonder if Russia has invaded.

The View From My Window #9: Quite A Difference

The view from my window tonight...

...there is quite a difference from my view back in October.

The View From My Window #8: Premium-Comfort Kiev!

After several delays, Monday found Laura and I back in Ukraine and at the Kiev train station...a sort of home away from home where we've spent many an hour waiting...and waiting...for our trains to arrive.  

This was our fourth trip through the station but the first where we've seen it decorated for Christmas.  Orthodox Christmas traditions run nearly through the end of January and so it was nice to see a huge decorated  tree in the middle of the stations entrance.

The station was particularly busy and we met up with two friends and so seating was limited where we normally ended up sitting.  We were walking around and came to an area of the station we hadn't explored before...and then we saw this sign.

"Premium-Comfort"?????  Yes, please!

Turns out it is a "private" waiting room which costs about $4 U.S. dollars to access.  It has huge leather coaches, TVs, and about a million less people.  Kiev train trips will never be the same again!

The View From My Window #7: Briefly In Riga

I was reminded the wonderful thing about briefly traveling 900 miles north from your home in the dead of winter is that the sun doesn't come up until 8am which works out well when sleeping in a room with no curtains on the windows.  Here is the view from my window today in Riga, Latvia as we are stuck here for a little while as the largest airline in Ukraine, called Aerosvit, has seemed to have gone out of business and cancelled all their flights.

It's more than a little inconvenient but it could have been so much more difficult if we didn't have family friends in Riga.  And now onto the dreaded task of trying to get full refunds on our tickets.  

The View From My Window #6: Kiev

We've rented an apartment for our stay in Kiev with a great view of Independence Square which was center stage for the Orange Revolution in 2004.  

And here's the view of our window from the other perspective.  We are situated a few stories above a McDonald's.

The View From My Window #5: Parking

Just glancing out my window the other day we got to see Ukraine parking at its most basic.  The first rule of parking in Ukraine is there are no rules.

Don't have enough space to parallel park between two cars?  Just create your own diagonal parking spot half on the curb, half off.  All the parking spots taken on your block?  Just create your own lane of parking spots on the sidewalk.  Do you live on a street with traffic going both ways?  Feel free to park your car on either side of the street in which ever direction you need to...just as long as you've got yourself a parking spot!  

The View From My Window #4: A New View

This past weekend was moving day for us as we moved to a different apartment which was down a few blocks.  We are still on a busy street but the street is not as wide and so there seems to be no motorcycle traffic which makes it nice and quiet.