The Times They Are a Changin’

What a fun and long day it was today in Odesa!  I spent the early morning just walking down Deribasovskaya Street, watching the shop owners hosing down the pavement.  The smell of the morning made me think of the song from Guys & Dolls that goes “My time of day is the dark times….when the street belongs to the cop…and the janitor with a mop…” it was so quiet and peaceful.  This led me to discover an entire park that did not exist when I lived here!  And it was HUGE!!!  A giant gazebo…lots of attractions…there are a bunch of pictures here to show it better than I can describe with words.

I then came back to the hotel for breakfast where I ran into Tom.  Tom was supposed to leave this morning for some other city, but had seen so little of Odesa and loved it so much, that he decided to stay and keep me company throughout the day.  After breakfast, we went to the Smuggler’s Museum, which is sort of like a “Cold War Spy” museum.  The man working the counter shooed us away the first time, saying that the tours were only in Russian, and that they weren’t open then anyways.   We went to a cool café and had some great lemon aide, then returned.  This time he sighed, shook his head, and said “If you insist but tour is only in Russian language.”  He really did not want us going into that museum!  When I responded “Japinimayo Pangliski oche hresho, (I understand Russian very well),” he just stood there dumbfounded and let us through.  Tom didn’t understand a word of the tour, but it was still fascinating.

I also filmed what I hope will be a series of random videos of me doing really dangerous and stupid things (like walking down dark alleyways I haven’t previously investigated).   And we found the local ward building for attending church on Sunday (after some ingenious detective work).

And in what other city is there a cat who runs their own wine booth?  I’m curious if anyone has a response to that one!

We did SO much more today…this only accounts up till about lunch time.  But this blog will only let me post so many pictures and write so much…so it will have to wait until tomorrow.  This is honestly my favorite place on Earth.  Until it starts to snow.  Or is bombed. But for now, I’m literally having the time of my life.

Jeff.  Aug 19th:  2016