I'm working out in Austin, Texas. This is the idea here.
I'm waiting on this.
There is a storm in the New York City area, so my flight from Austin is delayed. I stay overnight in Manhattan.
I am reading this. Because I am leaving the US and, I figure, I need something like the James Bond mentality. Plus, there is a "philosophy" behind the popular icon.
I fly from JFK to Vienna, then to Odessa. When I get to Odessa, I check into this hotel. The Hotel UNO.
Anya and I met online. She meets me at the airport. Here we are sitting down for a steak dinner in Odessa city center. I think I had known her for about a week here. She is very charming. Speaks broken English (but of course).
She takes me to a hookah bar in Odessa. You see that vape sitting on the table? That is mine. I later lost that vape, buy another one of same brand, and lose that one too. Stunningly, I bought a third of the same type and lost it too.
There is a Texas BBQ joint on Derabosovskaya Street in the Odessa city center. The guy the owns it is from Houston. He speaks Russian. The menu is not really Texas BBQ.
He collects license plates.
Odessa city center.
Outside my hotel.
I find a beautiful flat on the 13th floor of a building near the city center.
This is Valentina. She works for me for a while and helps with translation. She helps me get the flat, because the real estate agent doesn't speak English, and neither does the owner. She studied English in Eastern Europe in college.
While I'm looking for a flat, I'm living in the Hotel UNO, and eating a breakfast like this every morning.
I find this cafe to work--to write. It's called "The Cube," and is centrally located. The owner's niece went to high school somewhere in Seattle, and is "Americanized," a term immediately understandable to any expats living in Eastern Europe.
I move into my flat in about ten days. This is the view from my balcony.
It's a really stylish place!
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