"Pearl of the Black Sea"

Vivian and I made a trip this last weekend to Odessa -  the "pearl of the Black Sea"; 275 miles from Kyiv. This is the 3rd most populous city of Ukraine with over 1 million people.  It is a major tourist center which was on full display during our visit.  It is also a seaport which is also home to ships of the Ukrainian Navy.

We had a great weekend.  We combined our meeting with local Church priesthood leadership regarding training on financial and audit matters with a little sightseeing of a very beautiful city.  We did visit Odessa in February so the pictures included in this post include some from February as well.

A note on our travels.  We travel by train.  It affords us an opportunity to see a beautiful countryside of small cities and villages, farms and local gardens, cows, goats, horses, sheep, dogs and cats and even chickens and roosters in a small cornfield by a small house near the train tracks.  We get to see it going 85 miles an hour as it whooshes by the window.  I've tried to capture some of this with my camera.  Of course it's always better in person.  A picture of a sunflower field is something I really wanted and I got a picture of it...going 85 miles an hour past it.

Our train departed from Kyiv to Odessa very early in the morning.  It seems like all the trains we take to wherever in Ukraine leave very early in the morning.  We have a driver, Andrey, who picks us up at our apartment at 5:00 am and delivers us to the Kyiv train station for a 6:00 pm departure to Odessa.

Driving on the main street to the Kyiv Train Station.  It's old monolith with modern fast food restaurants around it.  There's a McDonalds just to the right of the station but can't be seen in this

shot.

Outside view of our train car No. 8...the Russian word for this is translated as "wagon".

Inside look of our car...lots of leg room.  This is a first class car...only two seats in a row, wifi access for free ( but very slow) and electrical outlets for our electronic devices.  A must as far as I'm concerned.

Disembarking at the Odessa Train Station after a 7-hour trip.  Our first time at the station..  Vivian is walking with Gennadi, our driver, who met us at our train, took our luggage and drove us to our hotel.  He is on the left of Vivian who has her back to the camera.

I liked the architecture of the station.  The blue banner translates to "Welcome to the city of Odessa Heroes".  I believe this is in reference to when Odessa defended itself as part of the Nazi invasion in
World War II.

According to Wikipedia it says:  "It was one of the first four Soviet cities to be awarded the title of "Hero City" in 1945 ( Leningrad, Stalingrad, Sevastopol, and Odessa)."

Our hotel, "Ayvazovsky" had a very European feel (what else).  A few pictures below. The hotel is named for a very famous Odessa artist who specialized in maritime art.

Now comes the vanity photo...and before you say it.  Yes, my clothes no longer fit me.  A circus clown comes to my mind.  When I leave Ukraine I will be donating most of clothes to a needy group.  There is no Deseret Industries in Ukraine.

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 Sidewalk dining...how European!  We had lunch with Elder and Sister Anderson from Alberta, Canada serving in the Dnepropetrovsk Mission as CES missionaries.  This is their second mission having previously served as office missionaries in the Baltic Mission.

This is my Ukrainian pose on the left.  I noted Ukrainians are very serious about

having their pictures taken.  They really like to pose.  The women look like models.  This is my impression of the men I've seen posing.  On the right...the real me.  I love this promenade.  It is tree-lined as you can see and runs parallel to the shoreline of the Black Sea.  It overlooks the sea.

The Odessa Central Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is on this main street near the Odessa Opera House.  This is where we did our training on Saturday evening and attended Church on Sunday morning.  There are three floors in this building and all three floors are used.  The gables on the third floor includes a kitchen and foosball table among other things.  When the branch has a social in the winter time this is where they hold it.  Also, the young adults use it as a gathering area.  When the missionaries have their Odessa Zone Conferences, this is where they are fed lunch.  The floor off the street is where the chapel is located and is where Sacrament Meeting is held.  When we attended the meeting there were over 50 in attendance.

The plaque on the building to the right of the door says:

Це́рковь Иису́са Христа́ Святы́х после́дних дне́й

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

This is the presidency of the Odessa Ukraine District - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  President Vitaliy Chernega and his counselors President Vasilii Vozniuk and President Sergei Glukov.  I work directly with President Glukov - he's the District Audit Committee Chairman; and he and President Chernega attended the training meeting we held Saturday evening.

Here are the missionaries of the Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk Mission currently serving in Odessa in the Central Branch.  The young man on the right is Elder Archbold, one of five missionaries transferred from the Ukraine Kyiv Mission on June 27th as part of the realignment.  Elder Archbold's companion is Elder Rawson.  I am sorry but I didn't write the sister missionaries names down and I don't remember them  The sister on the left is a Ukrainian from Vinnitsya.  The other sister did the translating of sacrament meeting on Sunday and did a very nice job.  The other couple are the Andersons with whom we had lunch on Saturday.

A view of the chapel prior to the beginning of Sacrament Meeting (Sunday Service)

 Courtyard outside the window of the chapel

Various pictures taken on our sightseeing trip on Saturday

Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater.  One of my favorite sights in Odessa.  In February Vivian and I attended our first professional ballet, "Swan Lake", in this theater.  It was great!

This was the tour "bus" we took around the historical area of Odessa.  We were the only English speaking people on the tour.  The rest were Ukrainians so the tour guide spoke Russian and occasionally translated a summary of what she said.  We enjoyed seeing the buildings and hearing about the history of Odessa.  Vivian is sitting in the cart on the last row facing forward.  She's in the shadows.

 Statue of Catherine the Great of Russia.  She founded Odessa.

 This is one of the smaller parks in the city but very beautiful and within walking distance of our hotel.

This statue is of Duc de Richelieu.  He was a French statesman who was governor of Odessa, 1803-1814.  He designed the layout of the city.  This statue is facing to the Black See at the head of the famous Potemkin Stairs down to the sea.

 Above is Primorsky Boulevard.  I love this walk.  It goes from the Opera and Ballet Theater to the Potemkin Stairs or Steps.  The shade of the trees and the breezes from the sea make it a pleasant walk.  We took a walk along it before church meetings on Sunday.

Above right is looking down from Primorsky Boulevard.  There is another level you can walk along.  I just liked the pretty flowers.

Right, the Black Sea and a lighthouse.

 To the left - Ukrainian Navy ship.  The weekend was celebrating the anniversary of the Ukrainian Constitution - June 28, 1996.  Above - Ukrainian sailors who consented to my request for a picture.

This is the Hotel Londonskaya on Primorsky Boulevard facing the Black Sea.  Our tour guide this this architecture was of Italian origin, maybe Medici if I understood it.  I wasn't a Humanities Major at BYU so I'm not sure of stuff like this.  I liked the look of though and Vivian and I thought we might come back here as tourists sometime.

The Potemkin Stairs/Steps.  Very famous.  A bit of trivia from Wikipedia:

"The stairs were so precisely constructed as to create an optical illusion. A person looking down the stairs sees only the landings, and the steps are invisible, but a person looking up sees only steps, and the landings are invisible."

Back to Kyiv

 The Odessa Train Station from the front.  A beautiful afternoon for a train ride - 7 hours of beauty.  Left at 2:52 pm and arrived 9:54 pm.  A driver met us at the train, took our luggage, drove us to our apartment arrived by 10:30 pm.  No muss, no fuss.

SIGHTS ALONG THE WAY

If you got this far in the blog...thank you.  I know this was a long one.  I hope you've enjoyed our experience in Odessa.  There is a good and a not-so-good thing about traveling by train.  We are able to get out of the city into the country; we don't have to drive; no traffic; we get to see a lot of different things along the way; including my sunflower field.  But...it is difficult to take pictures.  As soon as you see something you'd like to capture...whoosh, it's by you!   If we were in a car, we could stop and look around and take pictures.  Oh well.  Here are a few of my shots taken from the window of the train, both going and coming back.

SUNFLOWERS!!!

So close, yet so far.

SUNFLOWERS...UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

My good friend, Elder Steve Haldeman...in a sunflower field.  Now this is what I'm talking about!