A little blip on New Years…
We had fun on New years... went to our Dutch friend, Juul's for shrimp dinner. Just me and Jim, Louis (a 50-something Peace Corps guy from New Orleans) and Juul. Really nice, long, slow dinner (lots of small courses) and then champagne and a good walk-about Odessa to see the crazy street sites. We ended up on the Potemkin Steps with our bottles of beer and champagne and sparklers to watch the fire works. Well, we thought they would be over the water and we would have a good view. Shxt! They were right at the top of the steps and we ended up directly underneath them! What a sight! But it kinda freaked me out too. I was sooo jumpy all night. People were throwing firecrackers at each other and sparks and things blowing up all around-I had to work on staying cool. The smoke of gun powder was also more intense than I ever experienced. Juul said it was like Amsterdam and it would be worse in the morning. So, as you can tell by my story-it was an experience and it was tons of fun! We avoided the bar scene and were really glad to not be inside, confined in a smoky place.