Translation: Venturing into Odessa, Ukraine with a Brush of Danger 🚀

The first stop of our New Year's journey was Odessa, Ukraine, where we had a close encounter with 🚀, and thinking about it still sends shivers down my spine. 😨 On the first day of the Lunar New Year, we embarked on an impromptu trip. We set off, slept on the sleeper bus overnight, and arrived in the morning. After storing our luggage at the hotel, we headed out to explore. We went to the seaside, feeling a bit disheartened. It's a beautiful and friendly city, but due to 🤜🤛, it has become quite empty, or perhaps it's because of winter. There were very few people by the sea, making it feel like we had the entire ocean to ourselves, as shown in Figure 1. We sat by the sea for a long time, feeling comfortable but also a bit cold. There weren't many people, but there were plenty of chubby cats, all very cute and super lazy. Odessa is filled with chubby cats everywhere, and you can also see feeding bowls and water bowls scattered around, which is quite heartwarming. The first day was very quiet, so quiet that I forgot we were still in danger. On the second day, we continued our sightseeing as usual. I highly recommend the underground museum shown in Figure 5; it was the highlight of my trip, although getting there wasn't very convenient. A taxi ride in the city costs 240 hryvnias, and the round trip is about 80-90 RMB. The ticket price wasn't clearly marked, and an old lady charged us 1000 hryvnias for three people, collected inside the cave. The cave was pitch black, and at first, we thought we had been scammed or might even be in danger. But as we ventured deeper, we discovered a whole new world. The old lady explained everything very seriously and in detail. She didn't speak English, so we mainly communicated through my friend's Russian, but in the end, my gestures were more effective. My eye contact and body language with the old lady were very smooth, much better than verbal communication. The underground paths were intricate and winding, but she explained everything very patiently, and we learned a lot about the stories of World War II and the resilience of the people. Later, we also tried shooting, and I turned out to be a natural, achieving such a good score on my first try 🥳. The problem arose on the second night when my companion suggested going to the seaside 🎰 for a little gamble. Just as we were about to take a taxi, the alarm 🚨 sounded. Due to our usual mindset , we still took the taxi. As soon as we arrived at the 🎰 entrance, there was a loud bang. At first, we were numb, perhaps not realizing the severity of the situation, and quickly took shelter inside a building. About ten minutes later, there were two more loud bangs. Checking the map, we found out that the incident happened just 200 meters from our hotel. We were really scared 🤯 and wanted to flee by bus overnight, but it was too late. After the 🚨 stopped, we nervously returned to the hotel. The area around the hotel was blocked off, and we were afraid we couldn't get back or that things might get worse if we did. In the end, we mustered the courage to return. The surroundings were in complete disarray, as shown in Figure 3, and we only dared to take a few photos. The window next to our room was shattered, but fortunately, ours was intact. However, we barely slept that night, and in the middle of the night, we heard two more bangs. The next day, we quickly packed up and left. When people are not so close to danger, but we won't dare to do that again. Despite this, the trip was overall satisfying. #NoEarlyMorningTravelDiary #Odessa #OdessaCuisine #UkraineTravel #FirstStopOfNewYearJourney #StudyInUkraine #UkrainianStudents #NewYearBehaviorShowcase