Frapolli Hotel Odessa

... was staying there. She is in charge of a new branch magazine opening in Kiev; they were just visiting Odessa. But, she and here husband were both very smart in the workings of the people in Ukraine. And then, there was Isbell, a younger lady from Canada who was just killing time waiting for her Russian business visa to get processed. So, all in all, was a great time there.<br>

... this town - not even a bus station!! Louise, a pcv friend gave me the tour of her town. She has an orphanage for about 500 kids in the center of town - I didn't see one child or a piece of playground equipment - don't ask. Being Louise's first guest, I got to do a couple of firsts with her. First, we sat in one of the outdoor beer tents and had a beer and chatted. Met people who heard English and ...

... beach was odd and it was high up, so we had to go down very steep steps over and over again and we all were like,"this is going to be hell getting back up here," but we went anyway. After soaking up the sun, we decided that going back up those steep steps was not an option, so we found this lift, like a ski lift, paid 3 dollars and rode it to the other side. It was pretty rickity and it stopped really high up and right in the middle ...

... and said no to their worried faces...sorry ladies not going to help you smuggle!!! Well 2 hours later after opening secret compartment after secret compartment (the bus driver was smuggling tons of cigs and vodka too!!) they came up with this huge pile of cigs and vodka (see the picture!!). Me and Brits were just astonished seeing every 5 minutes a new bag or box of cigs and/or vodka coming out of the bus thinking...no way not another bag!! yup another one! 10 ...

... their wallets by stopping foreigners, asking for ID, and fining them if they don't have it, or inventing other false charges for which you must pay an on the spot fine. One guy staying at the hostel said he was stopped at least every day. I had no problems, but it's not just the police you have to worry about. A favorite local scam involves dropping a 5 bill ($1) on the ground. When you bend down to pick it up and hand it ...

... give more to the East? Do we need a market system that promotes unlimited materialism? Cell phones are the status symbol of the average people of the city population. Here in Odessa there live about 1.2 million people. 40 per cent of them are "average", that is, their monthly income reaches barely ...

... law bridge, that legend has it was built by the city's governor who needed a quicker path to his mother-in-law's house so he could more easily lunch on her tasty borscht. I say myth because neither borscht nor, I'm told, mother-in-laws, are wonderful at all. Passed onto Alona, we toured the kids store where the girls work, cried because instead of a giant piano like in Big they instead had the scariest animatronic elf statue ever, and come back home to ...

... pickled vegetables -- garlic cloves, dills, tomatoes, cabbage, apples, red bell peppers and a few VERY hot red and green peppers, to have with my vodka. Then a plate of Black Sea bullhead, a plate of four trouty sort of fish about seven inches long, sauteed crisp from head to tail. Delicious but very bony and much disassembly required. Near midnight I woke up to the sounds of very wild and strange music pouring through my window -- almost Arabic -- a high frantic keening ...

... It I ordered Hetman's Borscht which was a treat, potato pancakes and mushrooms and a dish of sturgeon, salmon and asparagus in a cream sauce topped with caviar, all outstanding. During the course of things, a fiddler and accordion player filed in. The sound, though not the picture, on the TV was turned off, and they began to play some spirited, toe-tapping Eastern European/Gypsy music interspersed with Elton John songs. They were joined by a lovely raven-haired ...

... I had paid for such travels! The process was more than a simple pain-in-the-ass...it was downright convoluted, mesmerizing, and ridiculous! --NOTE: When no tickets/receipts are issued, it means the gov't representative is "pocketing" the money rec'd-- Anyways...I did make it to Odessa!!! But...not without significant discomfort! My bus travels involved sharing 2 seats with 4 other people--a mother, father, and 2 ...