Day of Rest

Today the team leaves. And we have a little rest. And apparently I need it. Yesterday I took a 4 hour nap and 5 hours after waking up I went to sleep again for 9 hours. I woke up ready to work, but instead I was invited to go with Olya to her Aunt's Hotel and the Black Sea. So after moving my things to a different room, to make more space for the new interns. I went with her. The black sea was very wavy, we swam in waves that were 2-4 feet in height from the valley to the top. It was exhausting and yet very fun. The hotel I saw amazed me. It is not a normal hotel for Ukraine, Olya tells me. It is more or less for people who do not have much money, but people travel very far to come here. It was very interesting.

This is the entrance:

Here is the Shower:

Here is the sink I used to clean up with the mirror that doesn't reflect much of anything, yep...no walls.

Here is another out door kitchen. There were like 3 or 4 with a hot plate, and either a sink or a refrigerator but not both.

Here is the well which apparently gives a salt water/fresh water mix. It is not fresh water but also it is not like the sea. This is the water that is served to the people here. I watched this pail being poured into the drinking water tap.

Here are the cow barns that you need to walk by to get to half of the rooms.

These are the owners of this hotel. She is going in one of the many "kitchens". The Mirror by the man is the one the guests get to use...yep it is out side.

Here are a couple of rooms. It was quaint and pretty with grapes hanging over head everywhere.

These chicken ran through the area above before starting to fight in another part of the hotel.

To give you context to the doors they are all different heights, but this size was not uncommon. I am just under 5 foot 5 inches tall, wearing flip flops. So I'm thinking this door is just under 5 foot tall. Olga says they call these chicken houses.

This is the dinning room for the guests. Again, no walls. Plastic roof with grape vines apparently holding it together. On the far right/back side of the table is the jar of juice that came out of the refrigerator, "room" temp. I was served a full cup, so I had to drink. It was without any sugar and I didn't know what kind it was. I later found out it was prune juice :o( Oh well. The "milk" sitting on the table unrefrigerated is thick like heavy whipping cream...probably from the cows here at the hotel.

Each of the rooms were covered with a simple sheet. No locked doors (in fact no doors were even closed.) Inside the room is just a bed or two, and nothing else. At least in the rooms I saw. And one woman staying here traveled all the way from Moscow to come here.

This is the upstairs of the owners house over looking the gardens. These look more like hotel rooms that we know it...but I'm not sure because I didn't get to really look in them. I did however get to go in the owner's house...even though I wasn't so bold as to take pictures. There are four rooms. 1) entry way/hall about 2.5 by 3 feet (a place to take off your shoes and figure out which way you are going to go) 2) a toilet room 3) a kitchen/Dinning Room (which also has a bed in it) and 4) a bedroom/living room where the beds double as couches and there is a refrigerator (which I'm pretty sure didn't work, so maybe it just held more stuff.)