Life with Lydia

  I got to spend a few days in Odessa, Ukraine - the beautiful city by the Black Sea <3 In the courtyard of our Airbnb apartment. I really liked the pretty vines growing on the old buildings. And the neat stairs inside the building A cool painting on the street wall. Also passed by this old castle looking place. The Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater! We wanted to go to a concert there, but the concerts were sold out :( A delicious meal in this cute outdoor restaurant behind the Opera house.  They even had blankets in case you got chilly ;) Odessa's city garden  The Transfiguration Cathedral and the Memorial to the Unknown Soldier Walking through the streets of Odessa. It was quite busy and there were many street performers. We did a lot of walking that day, and up and down many steps too :/ Odessa's sea port. The Black Sea!!! The water was really cold! And there was this neat old piano that I had to get a picture with ;) Georgian food and also my favorite Russian dish - Pelmen

I went to Kiev, Ukraine this past May!  The street view from the Airbnb. The first evening we went to this hookah bar. It had this old piano there. I thought it was neat! First dinner was delicious! Chicken cutlets and mashed potatoes. Our Airbnb kitchen was really cute :) Kiev has a metro system similar to St. Petersburg's.  I really had missed riding the metro! A ferris wheel in Kiev My friend Daniel. We met studying abroad in St. Petersburg in 2019.   It was really cool to finally be in Ukraine! See the fisherman behind me? :) I got to ride in this small plane a few times. Andrey is a fantastic pilot, and he is teaching Daniel how to fly. The first day we flew over Kiev. The weather was perfect! No turbulence. Kiev from the sky The Kiev Sea / Reservoir The next day we flew over Chernobyl! Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience! Here's a close-up picture of Chernobyl that Daniel took! It's mostly a forest now, but you could still see the site and the city pretty clear