The Long and Windy Road

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My first day back in Ukraine….well, half day.  I should probably account for just how difficult it actually is to get here in the first pace.  I left Wed at 4am, to be dropped off at the San Francisco airport at 5:30am.  My five hour long flight to Washington DC left at 7:30.  Arriving in DC at 1:30 EST, I ran for my gate and found it just in time to board another outbound flight for Munich, Germany.  This flight was 8 hours long, and spanned the night.  I did not really sleep.  However, so far so good.  It was now the next day (Thursday), I was in Germany,. and only had one more short flight to go.  It was at that point that I saw the prop plane I would be flying in for the next two hours.  However, I arrived in Odessa on Thursday at around 3pm, alive and well.

To my surprise, there was a note waiting for me at the hotel reception.  It was from my friend Tom!  Tom had arrived two days early and was staying at my hotel!  We soon met up and I had my first real meal in almost two days, at an Irish pub called “Mick’s Irish Pub,” which is conveniently located in the hotel we’re staying at.  I had a burger that was either exceptional, or I had been starved (perhaps it was both).

We briefly walked around Deribasovskaya street (the main hub of action in the city), but Tom was anxious to see the Potemkin Stairs, so we walked over to that end of town.  On the way, we stumbled onto a street fair of some sort (which are what most of these pictures are from).  It was so crowded, that we couldn’t get any good pictures of the stairs….they were so full of people!

It was at this point that I realized I had been awake for almost 48 hours…so I said goodnight and somehow found my bed.  Only to wake up 2 hours later, wide away.  I hear a Simon & Garfunkel parody coming my way….”Hello Jetlag my old friend….I’ve come to cope with you again….”

Jeff:  Aug 19th:  2016