Yunost Hotel Odessa

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 squaresblack and whiteare the lines blurred?
The look that we get - the meaning is inside our thoughts.
The wind blows around - over timethe trees will bend too.
Eventually, we worked up enough courage, after she finished, well after, to dance, and then even later, when the inviting dancing of the two girls in white in front of us became obvious to go chat to them. Jon lead the way, sat down next to the blonde, and chatted away for the rest of the night. I tried my ...

... hot the first day but we found the ice cream and it was a little over a US dollar so we took advantage of that opportunity and it was yummy!! We then went to an internet café and got some emailing and calls done. Kristen wanted to download some pics, but they rest of us didn't have our laptops so we went to the park across the street, where they had little booths set up for selling goods. Hope, Liz ...

... another american guy staying with him who was currently teaching English in Hong Kong. We hit it off and explored the city on our own the next day. He invited me for a place to stay in hong kong so hopefully when i get to Asia I'll go visit him!! From Kiev I took a train to Crimea, which is the peninsula in the southern part of the Ukraine. I was told to visit a couple tourist cities there because of the beautiful scenery and what not. However all plans changed ...

... entry and waste that tidy sum we paid for our own private cabin. Well, we must've looked a sorry sight because soon enough the two grubby, sweaty exhausted backpakers that they were going to kick out on to the street suddenly found themselves in their own cabin (and rightfully so!). We complained at reception that we were not informed of this but they just looked at us with insolent former Soviet stares and told us to complain ...

... grapevine that overnight train tickets to Kiev weren't especially easy to come by last-minute during this season. Better to have a little more leeway rather than get caught out. This morning I had a much more leisurely rise than usual, and didn't actually get out of the hostel I'm staying in (which is super nice, might I add) until just before noon. Prioritizing things though, I made sure to head straight for the station. It's a damn good thing I did too ...

... voting. Its about to join Russia. Its unbeliveable, there is allready Russian Military on the so called border on the Nistr river to Moldova. Anyway I passed that ****ing place and looking forword to got to peninsular Crim and of course to Kazan...

The streets glistened on a damp morning, the sky and sea merging in a watercolor blur. It looked like a good chance of rain and after breakfast I headed into the center to have a cup of coffee and see which way the wind was blowing. Finished the Chekhov last night and started in on Tolstoy's Sevastopol Sketches, his impressions of the seige of the city during the Crimean War in 1855-6. A little ahead of the game, but I'll be there in two days to ...

... piano. Isadora got up and began the slowly dance on the table..." Room 333 (my room) "The famous film-director and writer Alexander Dovzhenko was staying in this room in 1925." Odessa. Stolen away from the Turks in 1789 by prince Grygory Potemkin, Kate the Great's main man, as Russia extended her reach to the Black Sea. Prince P. died before the city was built in 1794. Catherine envisioned it as a sort of Petersburg South. Laid out in a grid, as ...

... Romania variation) seems to the #1 favorite word here! I am not sure if people are intentionally trying to discourage me...if they truly don't know a particular answer...if they prefer not to communicate with me due to my lack of knowledge of their language...or...if NO means..."FIND ANOTHER WAY" (i.e. A BRIBE would be nice!). In some cases...the BRIBE does seem to be very effective! So...as for my bus travels from Chernivtsi - Odessa (a 15 hour ...