pics

I drug myself out of bed this morning to get some work done at the library. I arrived only to find that it's closed, but this isn't a bad thing: it's had problems with plumming all year. (This is the establishment that suggested that I pee in a hole back in October.) Last week they not only had no bathrooms, but also no running water, so you couldn't even wash your hands after you peed in the hole. They're closed till they get all this sorted out, and let's hope they do get it sorted out!

This gave me some free time to roam around, though, which is what I like best. And it was another gorgeous day--so warm that I sat on a bench and ate ice cream! Crazy that this is December in Ukraine.

Pictures from today follow below.

Bessarabskii market--Bessarabskii because traders from Bessarabia (present day SW Ukraine and Moldova--then, the deepest, darkest corner of the Pale of Settlement) brought their goods there. The Brodskiis, wealthy Jewish sugar magnates, paid to cover the market in 1908. Most of the street was blown up in WWII, but thankfully the market was saved.

Tacky "New Year Tree," post-Soviet style, on Independence Square.