PREEMPTIVE CONSIDERATION

WHERE ARE THE PICTURES?

If you are new (or haven't been paying attention) be sure to click on the titles of the blogs to get taken to the photobucket of where ever I am.

Also, if you go here, you can see a column down on the right - search that for various country pictures you may have missed.



THE PLAN

Currently, I am going to be staying in Sevastopol until Saturday then I will return to Odessa. No boats appear to leave from the harbor in Sevastopol any more... When I am in Odessa, I will cool my heals for a couple days. On Tuesday, I will purchase a ticket (you can't do it before due to public holiday) and on Wednesday I will be on a boat for the real recently war torn, Russia invaded Georgia. The boat ride across the Black Sea should take about three days. I'm planning on staying there for three months, assuming I can live cheaply. I've heard it is about the cheapest place I can live and I need to work on saving some money. We'll see how I do on that.

It's annoying to me - and it will be to everyone else I contacted on Couch Surfing that I'm going to have to delay my plans on getting to Istanbul. The current plan is less nifty for right now but I think makes sense financially. I need to try to recoup some of the funds that got blasted through in Western Europe.

Before I leave this country, I need to get the last of my Ukrainian money changed into Euros because I suspect that in other countries, Ukrainian money will be as welcomed as a two tone fart during a formal dinner.

I also need to get a English-Georgian phase book. I suspect I will have to wait till I get to Georgia to find this.



GMO IS GOOD!

This nifty picture brought to you by Genetically Modified Organisms. And just remember, that probably includes you...



CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE FORMER EAST GERMANY AREA

I was talking to three nice ladies from Germany who were telling me about the current state of affairs there.

They are in this picture, on the left. From left to right, Karina, Jana, Bettina. (The couple pictured on the right are Lelde and Kristfan who I was fortunate enough to spend the day with at the Khan's palace). I was told in the 'former East Germany' area the population is 'becoming older' because the young folks are going west to get higher paying jobs. Jobs in the east pay less than the same job in the west. Afterward, the conversation moved to such eclectic topics as 'atomic mushrooms' and 'atomic cherry'.



TRAVELER'S LORE

Adam was kind enough to give me some good tips for the type of travel I am doing

Be aware of the people around you. If cleaning is going on in another part of the house, at least ask if they would like you to move. If it's a couch surfing thing (as opposed to a hostel), volunteer to help.

Respect the space. A lot of areas - especially in Europe - seem (to me, anyway) to be pretty confined. If people are needing to eat, at least offer to move your stuff you have spread out, rather than making them work around it.

Few people will actually ask you to move - but they will stew about it.

Leave a small footprint.

Think about how you're impacting the situation. Do little things like put shoes where less people will have to smell them, hide your underwear and things that nobody wants to see.

Be preemptively considerate.

Good advice for getting along with people - especially if they are kind enough to let me stay at their home for a time.



COSTS

Train ticket from the train hub (1-2 hours away from where I am) back to Odessa - 111 UAH.



THIS IS UKRAINE!

So I am sitting in TIU Front Page Hostel in Sevastopol (TIU means 'this is Ukraine', in case you didn't make the connection) and the electricity blew. It took awhile but Adam and I (mostly Adam - but I was helping, damnit!) tracked down the problem. If you are an electrician, check out these lovely jury rigged wires - under the sink - directly under dripping water.

This is the general view of what it looked like though you can't see all of the water and moisture.


You see the gray pipe in the upper left? That is the GAS. I'm not kidding. Also, keep in mind that these pictures were taken after various explosive chemicals were removed from under the sink.


This brown piece of shit with weird fluff (read as 'tinder') stuck to it? Hand made by someone who (according to Adam) didn't have a clue what they were doing.


Keep in mind that getting an electrician in Ukraine is seen as a wasteful, needless expense. Even if it means wiring your house to act like a bomb. This sort of thing helps make Ukraine the 'adventure destination' it is today!

Adam told me that calling someone and asking them to fix it would result in nothing but wasting time. Plus, he could do a better job - and he certainly cared more about the result than they would have. So he patched it up as best he could...

And this is the fixed version. He added a multi-outlet that has it's own fuse.


Unfortunately, it continued to pop the fuse. Trial and error showed the guilty culprit to be - the hot water heater. Yes, delicious morning showers will be a thing of the past until (and unless) the land lady comes out to get it fixed somehow.

We'll see what happens.



RUB IT IN, GOD

For the second time in less than a week, more marching bands have gone by where I am staying. Not just one, but many. Sadly, they don't seem to do them well in this town. They haven't discovered the 'joy of floats'. They just have some guys with instruments and someone leading them with a stick playing military music. Even the small children who ran out to see what was up ran back in from being bored with the plethora of marching bands to go back to playing with sticks in the dirt.

That's really a big hint - if small kids don't like your marching band, load back up in the truck and get the heck out of there, you have failed.