Ah, Odessa, the pearl of the sea

      Ah, Odessa, the pearl of the sea

During the trip to Ukraine we decided to visit Odessa, one of our favorite cities, where our new acquaintances invited us so intensely. The fact is that in the middle school in Columbia, where I worked at that time, there was an exchange between teachers and students; the Ukrainian city of Odessa was a twin town of our city. We had a special contest. We accepted them, drove them proudly, visited schools and museums, and showed them the ocean. They were delighted.
When I was informed about our trip to Kharkov, we were invited to come to Odessa-Mother. Here we are with husband and gathered on the train. I must say that we were very worried. We bought two tickets in the compartment of the VIP care, with us there was no one else. But the excitement did not leave comfortable. Everything seemed to go well; we began to fall asleep under the rattling of the wheels.
 Suddenly the doors of the compartment opened, a young fellow entered, silently climbed the second shelf and began to snore. Our hearts tightened, we already thought about ourselves, what can happen if this person is a bandit!
 We lost sleep, we lay in our places and only exchanged glances! It is obviously difficult for the reader to understand us. But we remembered the slovenly (to put it mildly) cases before our departure abroad. And the guy slept, turned over from side to side, not paying any attention to us!
So we made it to the morning and only a little nap. In the morning the passenger woke up and left. We breathed a sigh of relief. In Odessa, we arrived on time, left the car and heard a song that was broadcast for each approaching train.
 We were met by the teacher Lyudmila Mikhailovna, whom we twice hosted. The meeting was joyful and exciting. Several days in Odessa flew by quickly. The students and the school administration, which we had in exchange for Columbia, were waiting for us with impatience.
Everyone was interested to see the Americans and talk to us. We arranged a small concert, showed the classrooms and the gym, and treated us remarkably. We could not wait to see the Black Sea. We gladly walked along the shore, we wet our hands there. Remembered the words:  The bluest
of the world in the world is mine! Pleasure and 
joy we experienced!
We watched the performance in the theater of opera and ballet, once again admiring the beauty, equipment, decoration of rooms and hall, and even the presentation itself.

We walked along the streets and photographed near the monument to Duke. We were young in Odessa. We had a good rest and enjoyed the sea and the weather. Deribasovskaya Street remained the same as it was in our memory. We even went to the bazaar, were surprised by the variety of food and clothing. A great impression was made on us by the Wax Museum. Miracle as the originals, artists of the cinema and theaters, made of wax, themselves!

     The road to Kharkov was calm, without any problems         we   returned to our friends and continued our vacation in Ukraine. Our departure was approaching, unfortunately. The next city was the capital of Austria Vienna. I'll talk about the trip there a little later