Hotel Fregat Kherson

Hi all,

I'm gonna jump right in and talk about Kherson. There were lots of pretty girls at the social. I started talking to a few, and went out that evening with one. She's a smoker, which is quite a downer in my book. There are several pics of her. I'm not sure if she is the right girl for me, she's pretty wild, and I'm wild too, but more in a laid back kind of way.

There are lots of good cafes in Kherson. I went to one that was ...

... they would just have subtitles. But Lilya explained the story to me as it went on.

We did a little shopping at the mall, and she asked why I don't have any rings? Rings block out the "evil eye" she said, when people give me dirty looks or are jealous. I thought, you know, that's a good point so I bought a steel ring.

Then we went to a cafe and smoked a hookah pipe, they call that "Kalian" here.

Check the pics and I'll write about Kherson tomorrow!

- Adam

After I spent six days in Kiev, I took a train to Odessa where I will meet the tour group.

If you recall, my luggage was delayed, and after 6 days of wearing the same clothes I arrived with, I had already bought new clothes, a new suitcase, and lots of other stuff because I had assumed my luggage was gone forever. Which would've been a shame because I had all my nice clothes in there and a ...

Yes, I was there on the famous Potemkin Stairs. In fact, I climbed down them, but there is a little cable car that carries you back up, if you wish to avoid walking. Which is what I did.

I was in quest of a cheaper ferry service from Odessa to Istanbul, but..nada. The only one I could find charges 180usd to use. That's the least expensive bunk. So....around the horn by ...

... no other key to the room. Fortunately I didn't have to wait much time. The "neighbours" told me dinner would be served at seven, and they were very strict about meal times.
Indeed, we all felt like little kids who had to behave. As someone said in one of the enactments: Good boys come to lunch on time, or they will eat cold food.

The first thing that greeted us as we entered the Ukraine, Odessa, was a giant muscular baby smiling down on us with an evil grin. In the distance, we could see the Ptempkin steps leading up towards impressive buildings and wide boulevards. We decided to go in search of the train station, and since we saw some tracks, we decided it could not be far from there. But looking around, we could not decide which direction to follow the tracks in, and walked up the ...

The boat ride merits little mention. Some sunbathing on the top deck as the wind blew harder and harder from the north, through the widening mouth of the Bosporus, until we had to abandon all notion of staying out, and went inside to watch a movie. The meals came frequently, always cold, but tasty, and filling, and the company was probably the most friendly on the boat, a pair of Moldovans, and a Turkish man.
The boat itself was huge, 8 floors, two exterior decks, two discoteques ...

But that is it! More than two weeks with people who i can say now i love and would like to see more often if only i could. Who knew that i would find SO good friends here! I've never been treated so well. Who knew that i would fall in love.This craziest thing we know. And it's not just a seaside story it's a fairytale, my own story with continuation.

After a 36 hour sailing we arrived in Odessa, an affluent port/city full of wide, cobbled, tree-lined boulevards and with a buzzing night life. We settled into Hotel October in the east of town - a well maintained Soviet-era hotel with high ceilings, wide corridors and plenty of gold fixtures.


We met up with the Aussie couple the next morning along with Irina's mum to do a tour of the market. We sampled each of the baboushka's home made ...

One week in Odessa. A really nice city, didnīt imagine before. Clean, very nice city centre, nice buildings, great restaurants (ukrainian food, great sushi...). Many homeless dogs and cats, I tried to give food to all of them. Had the impression that they eak out a living. Many dogs can walk only on three legs after an accident with a car. Hotel Londonskaya was nice, but ...