Coolest stroller

This has got to be the coolest stroller on the planet.  Look at it!  It is a tricycle with a push bar on the back and a little covering for the kid's head.  I saw one little boy peddling away and falling asleep in one of these.  (What do you do with a kid who falls asleep at the wheel? That's the only drawback that I could think about with these.)

Outside Cafe Eating

This is where we ate today for lunch.  It was alot of fun eating outside.  After this, we walked to the orphanage.

This is the view from our table.  I love eating outside when the weather is so cool and the day is so beautiful.

This sandwich was made in a unique way.  The bun was cut into three slices.  Between the top and the middle slice, was a type of savory salad with cabbage, oil, vinegar, dill, dill pickle, parsley that was on top of lettuce.  The bottom layer was ketchup and finely chopped onions on the bread, then the chicken.  This was really yummy!  This sandwich cost about $1.14.  Even our little one got one!  He loved it!

 What was really neat is that we met someone who was willing to give us her phone number so she can help us with translations.  She said she needed to practice her English.  The people here are so sweet!

City Garden - Just beautiful!

This is where it is on the Odessa City map.

This is just a gorgeous place to visit here.  The park was filled with little children, strollers, mothers and grandparents the morning I took this picture.  This gazebo is HUGE!

Herre is the roof of the gazebo.  It's just gorgeous to me.

If you look on the far left by the lampstand, you will see the lioness.  On the far right, you see the lion.   My husband and I thought it was quite romantic having them in this park facing each other.

Here's the lion who has just dominated his prey which appears to be a wild boar.

Here's a closer view of the lioness with one of her cubs showing here below her.

Buildings

This is one of the very tall buildings very close to where we are staying. I just love the architecture here.

It is quite common for the buildings here to be painted in pastel colors.  It really brightens things up here.

Beautiful fashions

The people here love fashion.  I love the frilly ruffly stuff that I have seen here.

This was a window display we passed by the evening we went to Pizza City.  I love this one.  I like the feminine clothes here.

Fertile soil, beautiful flowers and plants

The soil here is so dark and fertile.    I was told that the Germans loved the soil here so much that during the World War II the Germans loaded up trains with the soil from here and carted it back to Germany.

 The people here love to plant flowers and trees everywhere, even in the most remote locations that you wouldn't expect flowers to be planted.  These taken from a location that would suggest poverty.

This one was taken right across the street from the picture above.  This little flowerbed is located in front of a pharmacy.

This is even further down the same street before you get to the pharmacy.  On the left, you will see chestnut trees in a row lined up along the street.

Pizza City

It was quite encouraging seeing the sign in English on the left.  So, we decided to go on in and see what it was like for ourselves. We spent about $23 for two salads, pizza, soup, two desserts and two drinks.  We wanted to try something different.  It feels so expensive in comparison to all the other places here.  We normally spend about $10-12 on a meal for all three of us.  We won't be going here very often. 

They issued us menus that were printed in English.  The measurements are in metric.  The prices were in Hryvnia.

This was the greek salad described on the menu above.  This salad was so yummy.  The most unusual thing to me was that they used soy sauce and olive oil for the dressing.  I was ready for something other than mayonnaise or just olive oil at this point.

 

This is mushroom soup.  You can see the onions and dill floating on the top.  This was not as spicy as I thought it would be.  It was a delicious basic soup.

Here's the pizza.  We got the large one.  The extra large looked to my husband as if it was 3 feet in diameter.  It was HUGE!  We got the one that was Salmon and Spinach pizza.  It was quite salty, but good.  Yes, we chose the one with the tomato sauce and not the mayonnaise sauce.  There were only two on the menu to choose from that came with tomato sauce. 

This was my husband's dessert.  The sweet waittress described it as apples in a biscuit.  They really go all out here to decorate their desserts.  I think our little one was most fascinated by the hardened caramel topping standing on its side.  My husband had to guard his dessert.

Ah.. Tiramisu! My favorite. I'm kind of picky when it comes to tiramisu, so I actually like more of the ladyfingers in there than cheese. Nevertheless, it was delicious.

Amazing!

This park was completely cleared out of all the old grass and plants in like 2 days.  It took 2 more days for them to put this beautiful park together like this.  It was amazing watching like 20-30 people digging, planting, and working together to make this beautiful again.  They are redoing some of the walkway, also. The right side of this park area is where we get on the bus to go to the orphanage every day.

Afina

This is Afina.  It is also called, "Athena" by some people.  It's a VERY tall building that is like a supermall.  It's amazing to look up at all the stores from the bottom floor.  In the picture below, you can almost see all 7 floors.  There's a basement to the building below these 7 floors, too.

Salmon and Potatoes

This is what my husband likes to order.  He really likes the potatoes here.  Dill is used in many, many dishes here.  I love it!

The Fat House

This is the sign to one of the restaurants we go to.   It can be translated, "Belly House" or "Fat House." The people here have been so friendly. We can get a meal for three of us plus a dessert for less than $15.

Cats Everywhere

Cats are everywhere here as well as dogs.  There is no such thing as animal control here.

Curbside parking

It's not against the law here to park on the curb.  Parking like this is common.

Bus station

This is the bus station that we arrive at every afternoon. Then we walk about 3 blocks to the orphanage everyday.

Varenyky

These are dumplings with cherry filling.  Sugar has been sprinkled on top of these.  Sour cream is also a choice for a topping.

Mayonnaise Sauce

 I asked the waitress to bring out the "mayonnaise sauce" that they kept referring to on the menu so I could taste it.  It was MAYONNAISE!  They do actually use "mayonnaise sauce" on their pizza instead of regular tomato sauce.  I didn't believe you, David, until I saw it myself!

More Yummy Food!

This was SO good.  Buckwheat has become our little one's favorite.  We had an interesting time here.  There was a man who was intoxicated that wanted to sit with us. I had no idea what he was saying, but he was pretty passionate about it.  As my husband motioned to the manager, he was escorted away with his coffee. My husband is learning a second language -- charades.  It has served us well!

Barbecue

 It was so peaceful that day with a gentle soothing breeze in the air. As we were walking, I smelled an amazing aroma of barbecue. This was like two blocks from where we are staying.  I really liked this carrot salad they had, but the barbecue sauce was surprisingly dressed-up ketchup.  It was good, but surprising. 

You will also see a picture of one of the tables at the place where we ate. Unfortunately one of the chestnut blossom's petal landed in my juice.  We definitely should have sat under an umbrella!

Street Vendors

It really amazes me how many street vendors are out here. Just about every street corner that I go to in this part of town has a cellphone vendor and sunglasses.  Certain vendors sell a good pair of Ray Ban sunglasses for about 8 dollars here.  The cellphone vendor sells cards to add minutes on your cellphone.  If you have a used phone, you can buy a sim card for cheap and buy cards to pay for the minutes as you go.

Chestnut Tree

This is a beautiful tree in bloom.  These blossom clusters are so beautiful.  When their blossoms fall, it's like snow falling during this time of year.  Many streets here are lined with these trees all in a row like in the picture you see below. I just had to capture this.

Christ is Risen!

This was the banner inside the church we went to today.  It was a charismatic church here.  It was so nice being there!  What a blessing it was!

St. Paul's Lutheran Church

This church has quite a history behind it.  It was mostly destroyed in a fire in 1976. It wasn't until the last three years that this church started to be rebuilt with funds from the German government.  You can learn more about this church here:

Germans from Russia Heritage Website

My favorite salad here!

My favorite!

The Hot Pot!

This has become one of my friends here.  I can have hot water anytime.  We are needing to boil our water before using it here.  Coffee or tea anyone?

Coffee on the Train

This coffee was SO good.  It was served on the night train.

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre

We were getting to know Odessa a little bit.  There are many beautiful buildings here. 

More vendors

One of many street vendors is shown here.  This was lined up along the souvenir strip in Kiev.