Beach Time

This weekend a few of us here in Moldova decided to check out Ukraine since we're so close. Hello, Black Sea. That's right, the weekend consisted of running away to Odessa, Ukraine right on the Black Sea. It was beautiful, cheap, and very relaxing. (Don't worry those of you who shelled out some money for Moldova. I used my own money for our short trip. I would have felt bad otherwise.) It was nice to get away for a weekend after working long days. It's been a little over a month since I've been here - just five more to go. Wow, that seems weird.

Our whole trip revolved around the beach. We slept in then headed straight to the beach until the sun went down. Afterward we went back, got ready, went out to eat, and just hung out together on the main road of Odessa. It was pretty sweet.
There are pictures up at: http://bobbielydick.shutterfly.com/. Feel free to check them out.

The only down side of Odessa was a little bit of homesickness I felt. The company on the trip was awesome, but when you're some where great it's hard not to have your best friends surrounding you. I kept thinking, "Oh, my college friends would really like that."..."If the c-towners were here we'd definitely be doing this right now" or "This reminds me of this person or that person". So at times it was a little bitter sweet. Know that I miss you guys back home!

The way back was a little interesting. Instead of going straight from Moldova to Ukraine, we passed through Transnistria. Transnistria is located mostly in a strip between the Dniester River and Ukraine. It is internationally recognised as being a legal part of Moldova, although de facto control is exercised by its own government which declared independence from Moldova in 1990. Transnistria is run completely independent and has quite a few issues with Moldova. Let's just say it was an interesting experience. At one point I was taken into a room and told, "You WILL have problems." Crossing the boarder was a little harder, longer, and cost a little bit more than expected since we were from the US. All was well in the end.