Nice shot of my flat. Note the old style Victorian look.
This is the courtyard for my building. It was such a nice spot! Walking distance to Derabosovskaya street, the main drag in the city center.
These girls thought it was the funniest thing in the world that I was talking to them in English. Goofy girls. Having fun.
Yep. This is the public transportation. Usually the buses are packed and smell rather strongly of gasoline fumes.
Another nice view out to Odessa from my windows on a fine Spring day. Shamelessly plugging my flat. It was so nice.
Anya enjoying a nice beverage and digital communication.
We were sitting in the Odessa airport here, on our way to Istanbul.
Me and Yegor Bugayenko, who I met in California when doing tech work there. We are hanging out with our MacBooks, like we did in California. The cafe is Lviv Coffee. I spent a lot of time in there working.
The chocolates at Lviv Chocolates. Oh, the chocolates.
This is a statue of the famous Ukrainian writer Isaac Babel.
Santim is an upscale supermarket, sort of like a Trader Joes or Whole Foods in the States. It was on Kanada street, a five minute walk from my residence.
This thing was actually alive, and swimming around in Santim as you're shopping in there. I found it strange and sort of fascinating. Apparently it's a plus.
Yes, they have an IKEA in Odessa, and in fact standing outside this particular IKEA, I received the call from Harvard that they were giving me a contract for my book. So, I can't forget this IKEA. It says "everything for your home" in Russian.
I worked at the Silent Cafe around the corner from my flat (basically in the same tower but on the ground floor). This devushka would frequently serve me my Americanos while I worked there. She knew a little English and was always very accommodating
The Silent Cafe. Ah, the memories.
I am having fun with the currency here. Their "dollar" is called a Hryvnia (pronounced "Greeve-na"). Valentina is taking the picture and I'm sure finding it amusing as I'm saying something like "My first Hryvnia!"
I met her, for like a "date." And look at how formal and polite she is sitting! She was very nice and sociable.
In Eastern Europe, they have their Easter celebration by doing this silent middle of the night walk to the church to light candles. It's very strange to a Westerner. Well, it seemed a little strange to me, I should say.
Here is Anya (we at this point are essentially friends), getting ready for the Eastern walk to the church at 4:00 am (or thereabouts).
This post is obviously a long compilation of basically impressions and photos I took after arriving. I'll end this post with this shot of a typical city center street.
Comments