Empress Katherine the Great

These are pictures I took when exploring Odessa.  I was told that Katherine the Great was a founder of Odessa.  Although there are only three shown here, there are actually four men under her statue.

Exploring

This is the monument of Duke de Richelieu.   Right at the base of this monument, you can see the Potemkin steps.  All 192 of them. 

If you look at the top of the steps, you can see the monument.  We took the tram that was beside these steps.  Sporting a stroller with a 40 pound boy in there, we were REALLY grateful that this had finished being reconstructed.  We climbed into what seemed to be an elevator and watched it take us up. Below you will see a picture of what it looks like when we are inside the elevator and we're going up.

A Different Kind of Snow

There was a different kind of snow on this day.  It was snowing these fluffy dandelion looking seeds everywhere.  It really looked like snow.  If you kept your mouth open too long, you might ingest some!  It encouraged many people to take their cellphone conversations indoors.  We were told that allergy sufferers didn't far well when it was snowing like this.  We all sported some kind of headache for a few days after this.

We tried to capture the image of them.  The wind was blowing so hard so it was difficult to capture.  If you look at all the white specks, you will see a different kind of snow.

Trees trees trees

Here's the trunk of an old tree here.

I love to stop and look up at the leaves when I am walking.  It's easy to get mesmerized by the beauty of the sun shining through.

Milk and Butter

This is how milk comes here.  There is bottled milk available here, but you have to be careful of the content.  There's vodka in some of the bottled milk here!

Here's the butter. No sticks of butter here!  This is shaped like a large bar of soap.

Very TALL Tree

If you look at the base of the tree, you will see our girl.  This tree is over 110 feet tall!  These trees are EVERYWHERE here.

Mass Transportation

There's many forms of mass transportation here.  It's really nice to be able to walk a ways and then hop on a form of mass transportation.  You either find a seat early, or squeeze in like sardines in a can with standing room only.  It is not unusual to find 31 people in a bus that seats only 18 people.  That's including the driver!  No seat belts here!  Just hang onto a rail or a seat close by for dear life!

This is inside of one of the buses.  It was described to me that it is cheaper to buy a cargo van from Europe and have it shipped here.  From there, they bolt as many seats as they can fit inside of it.  This one is one of the buses that my husband's knees are jammed against the seat in front of him just to sit down.