Odessa (Sam)

(Sam)  Odessa

Read my Dad's blog for a detailed blog about the boat trip from Batumi to here, Odessa.

23^th of June 2011

We are staying in a weird hotel called Tokyo Star. There is 1 receptionist for 600 rooms, and the rooms are clean yet tiny. It's like those drawer hotels in Japan except a bit bigger. Odessa is gorgeous, it is like a warmer, miniature St Petersburg, with it's grid streets and Russian (pre-soviet) architecture. There are not many “must-sees” in Odessa, but wandering around the leafy streets is great none the less. On our first day here we were walking around the Opera house when my Mom spotted a ticket office. She found out that we could get tickets to “La Boheme” on the 23^rd, for 20 UAH (2.45 $) each and decided that we would all go even though our wardrobe is hardly formal. We ended up with 4 tickets for a slightly higher than expected price of 30 UAH (3.68 $). We spent the day before going the show wandering around town, booking train tickets and eating Borscht. At 6:40, we went inside to find our seats. We climbed up some stairs, up some more stairs and up one more flight of stairs before arriving at what we assumed must be our seats. A women showed us to seats 108, 110,112 and 114 and a few minutes later the lights went out and the curtain was raised. The show was, like most Operas, a fairly simple story of love and death, lots of fancy costumes and loud singing. The orchestra was, personally, the highlight, although the auditorium itself was quite incredible, with lots of gilding, paintings and statues.

We have been having a bit of trouble communicating in Odessa, it seems that English is even sparser than in Georgia, I can read the Cyrillic lettering and that is handy for street names and such but even though I can pronounce it does not mean I know what it means. We have learnt how to use bus number 148 from the train station to the centre and that is all we need really. Tomorrow we are planning to head over to Arcadia beach which is supposed to be tacky and busy, especially in summer.

24^th of June 2011

We got out of our closet fairly late this morning, had some sort of apple pastry from the nearby market for breakfast and went to catch a tram. We knew that Arcadia beach was the end of the line on tram number 5. When we saw a number 5 we hopped on, paid our fare and sat inside for about 15 minutes before the conductor motioned for everyone to get off. We had a quick look around and realized that we were not at the beach but in fact at the airport, oh well. We crossed the street and got back on the same tram which had just turned around. It took about 30 minutes to get to Arcadia, and those trams are not smooth, fast and quiet as they are in other European countries. The tram is most likely from Stalinist times and the rails from even before that, maybe I'm exaggerating but it sure looks that way. An interesting thing about the trams is that nearly all of the tram drivers and conductors are women; the bus drivers seem to be men. The tram emptied out on a wide pedestrian boulevard leading to the sea. The beach at Arcadia is quite interesting, it is mostly taken up by private clubs although there are a few cramped patches of public beach, the food and drink is fairly expensive, and there are plenty of kitschy souvenir stalls. It is a good place place for people watching but not great for swimming (the water is about as cold as Lake Superior). We sat on a shady bench near for about 30 minutes, eating raspberries and watching life go by. For lunch, I went to a doner kebab shop. A little later Mhari and Dad decided that they were hungry as well and they went to a small restaurant. Dad pointed at what he assumed meant doner kebab because there was a picture of one beside it. Mhari did the same except with a hamburger. A few minutes later a man brought them their meals; for Dad, a bread roll with chicken, carrots and mayo, and for Mhari, a large crepe with dill flavoured cheese inside. Not what they were expecting but they were hungry so they eat it anyways. We are back in our closet hotel now, soon we will go out for a walk and to buy some more train tickets and later try to Skype my uncle to sing Happy Birthday. Have a good one Matthew.

Onion Domes

Opera house