Z Dnem Nezalezhnosti! Happy Independence Day!

I'm glad we're not on Besarabka today, though. Too many people there, too noisy, too dirty afterwards. Here, it'll be wise to stay away from the beach for a week or so, before it gets cleaned up, but it's so peaceful in our little garden, and I'm nowhere near as freaked out as I was yesterday, on my first night here.

Everyone seemed to be making shashlyk here today - the air is still filled with smoke and that totally delicious smell.

A neighbor yelled to an acquaintance who was walking by his house: "Valya, take a bottle of vodka!" She said she didn't need it, but he insisted, and she protested again, and then it turned out he was asking her to buy him a bottle of vodka: somehow, he knew she was on her way to the main street, where the little shop is. The way he cursed at someone at one point, I don't think he was able to make that important journey himself.

Another sign of the holiday are the fireworks, of course: Marta slept through it all, which is very nice.

And we don't even have a TV here yet, so I've nothing else to report on this subject.

Still, z dnem nezalezhnosti, everyone!