Sights, Snow, Food and Friends

We took a guided tour of Odessa today. We went with another adoption family from Michigan. It was interesting to see points of interest in Odessa and have the history behind them explained. The sun also came out for a few minutes and we saw a few patches of blue sky, just long enough to get a photo. We toured several churches and some of the 2000 kilometers of catacombs under the city. These were formed when Odessa was built, as the limestone was mined and used for the buildings of the city. There were no forests for lumber, so limestone was the cheapest and fastest way to build the city. During World War II, the Resistance used these catacombs to hide and as a base of operations for 2 - 3 years. Much of the time they lived with no light. The thousands of entrances to these tunnels have been closed, because of the danger of getting lost if you enter them.

The tunnels included sleeping areas, work areas, kitchen and hospital facilities. The only time they would come out were for night raids on the German army. They held out much longer than other European countries.

When we returned, we talked to Oles, who had spent another day in Illichevsk getting Igor's paperwork in order. We also talked to Julia B., who has been teaching the girls English, and she made arrangements for the girls to stay with us for the weekend. She brought Yulia, Masha and their friend Vera to the apartment. We made plans to go out to dinner/supper and to have Oles meet us there. By this time it was snowing and making the streets and sidewalks a bit slippery. As we were getting ready to order, Lisa, Michelle's roommate called to say that she and Betsy were going out to eat and would we like to join them. We told them where we were and they said that was where they were going, so they joined us at Steakhouse Meat & Wine with the cow statue out front. http://www.steak.od.ua/english.php We ended up with nine of us in the group and had a good meal and wonderful conversation. Isn't it great how God can arrange meal plans so we could all be together? As we left the restaurant, we met two more Americans, one from Texas and the other from Florida. Small world.

Tomorrow the girls will help with the blog, so no telling what you will get.