Hello, I am new here and would like to introduce myself. My name is Doug Cook or Bernard D. Cook from Birmingham, AL USA, and I have spent a good bit of time in Ukraine in '16 and '17 and am planning on going back next month (yes, I know it's getting cold) to do a little more scouting. I stayed there before in Odessa, last year even in the dead of winter....sooooo cold!! Traveled around the country a bit but found Odessa more exciting and friendly than other places. This I suppose is because they are used to having lots of tourists there because of the Black Sea. I am going to rent a hotel for a month or so since it is soooo cheap, and go back to my favorite tourist haunt, the Biergarten in the City Garden in the central part of City Centre. Here I met ppl from all over the world and most actually spoke English, including the great bartenders! I became friends with a couple of them outside their work and was actually invited to attend a Ukrainians only group for English-speaking practice, a group where all they spoke was English in order to sharpen their skills. If anyone is a part of the expat community there or say, Kyiv or L'viv, which I hear is just gorgeous, I would like to meet you when I arrive. Selfishly, it would do me a world of good to connect and not feel like I'm only America there. Thanks for any info you would like to share, especially your favorite hotel. Last two times I stayed at Hotel Mozart across from Opera House and found it satisfactory but nothing to write home about, but it WAS very convenient to almost everything. Cheers!!!
