Ok-Odessa Hotel In Arcadia

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 ...

... the black sea. We packed and rolled on down to the Vok'zal – Train station, catching a bus this time. Luckiily last night's research enabled us to have a few handy words ready, and I managed to decipher train station on the bus's cyrillic sign-post.
Sitting in the first class cabin of the train heading towards Simferopol watching I love you man, we summed up the day. It hasn't been too bad overall. We walked around town, going to the scenic parts of ...

We really slept late again and our intention was to go to the beach, but by the time we all got ready, it was after 1 and we still hadn't eaten. Sure, you think, just stop by your local KFC and pick up a bucket of chicken and be on your merry little way.. au contraire, mon ami. Not in Eastern Europe. Let me describe the dining experience for you. In America, we have this great little system going which is get in and ...

... foot you know that it is quite the scene. There are hundreds of people waiting in line to cross the border on either side They are all crossing to the Ukraine, buying cigarettes and coming back....over and over and over again! Fortunately one of the border guards saw me (obviously a tourist not a cigarette runner) and let me go to the front of the line. That was super cool as all of these people were waiting for hours. I crossed over and got a hotel room which ...

... Lots of street life, beer gardens and outdoor cafes/ restauarants. The attitude is laid back, everything is open late, and the weather has been glorious! The food has been surprisingly good, especially after Romania! My Czech is really helping, I've gotten a handle on the cyrillic alphabet in just two days, and once I sound out the word it's often the same as Czech, so between my Czech and ryan's German ...

... book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which, in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. In order to “give a meaning” to the world, one has to feel involved in what one frames through the viewfinder. This attitude requires concentration, discipline of mind, sensitivity, and a sense of geometry. It is by economy of means ...

... or luxe. I didn't think I'd start my Ukrainian rail experience traveling with a bunch of livestock, pensioners and drunk rural folk on a hard bed, so I didn't have much choice but to go for the latter. 335 Ukrainian hryvnia straight up - in other words, about US$67. Not the tremendous deal I was hoping for, but at least I have a ticket now. So with that done, we proceeded out of the station . . . and into the pouring rain. Wonderful. Happily it didn't last ...

... after saying goodbye at passport control before beginning our lengthy processing, and even though the boat departed an hour late, they kept waiting on the railing just brimming with anticipation for the moment they got to wave goodbye as the ship actually finally set sail. It's a Russian thing. Moral of the Story: I just saw the movie Omen and I'm pretty sure that if I were to take scissors to that dog's coat I'd find that triple circle 6 birthmark. Stupid Dameon.

... above in an old man's farmyard. He used to lower food and messages to the partisans below. After a half-hour or so in the tunnels we were back up in the field again under the warm spring sun, blinking like moles. On the way back to town, Stanislav and I talked about Ukraine in the Soviet era, his time in the army near Vladivostok, and the changes since. He told me that the former mayor of Odessa was a Kuchma crony who bled the town dry and offered his duly elected ...

... you.) A long crawl through stop and go traffic most of the 12 km into town. Odessa couldn't be less like Kiev. It's a city of about a million spread out along the harbor. It's very dusty and hot as we pass rows of crumbling 19th-century homes, snaking through traffic at speed and dodging enormous potholes. When we get to the hotel he gives me his card and says to call him when I need a lift. I'm checked into the Londonskaya hotel. Built in 1829, it's fluffed the ...