“Booliltsya Deribosivskya”

This is the main walking boulevard in Odessa, Ukraine. More than a decade ago, we lived just off this main street in the downtown area. My, my, how it has changed! There are so many modern restaurants, shops, and stores now. It is really hard to believe.

Many beautiful, old buildings are being restored…

The city park is more manicured…

The men in fur hats have cell phones now, and notice the Wi-Fi sign… You have to remember that a decade ago there were places in this city that still resembled the Jewish village in “Fiddler on the Roof.”

There are still camera-shy blondes with fur collars on their coats…

Scores of homeless cats roaming the streets, or in this case, sleeping on the street… but he looks fat though, like he is well-fed…

But there are two things that are just the same: Lots of old people who beg on the streets; because when Communism fell in the late 1990s, they lost their pensions and many have no income… You may think that she doesn’t look poor, but she probably owns only the clothes on her back and may live in a community house with a number of families in one apartment…

And the borscht (red beet and cabbage) soup tastes as good as it always did.

Maybe even better!