I had booked myself onto a night train
from Kyiv, walking from school to the train station in order to catch
the train on time. The train left on time, as most Ukrainian trains
do.
Despite leaving on time, the train was
just over an hour late in arriving the next morning in Odessa. I
didn't mind, since it was supposed to arrive at 0500 but actually
arrived around 0615. The late arrival saved me sitting around the
train station for an hour, waiting for sunlight.
I followed the map and walked straight
up the street in front of the station, called Pushkin Street. Odessa
was once the third largest city in the Russian Empire, and still has
some of the old grace. Sadly, many of the buildings haven't been kept
up very well, but you can see what used to be. I really wished I had
a ladder and a proper camera and editing software. I took heaps of
photos even without all that.
Along the way I stepped into a church,
which was in the middle of a Saturday morning service. Do services
always happen this early on a Saturday morning? Heaps of people were
coming in with bags of bread, then they put candles into the bread
when it was sittingo n a table. Is this part of the season of Easter?
When I got to the end of Pushkin Street
I caught a glimpse of the opera building. It's a pretty magnificent
building, an iconic spot in Ukraine. Since it was early on a Saturday
morning there were very few people around and I was able to take a
photo without anyone else in the frame.
Nearby is one of the many museums of
the city, not open at that hour.
I kept walking, and found my way to a
statue of Catherine the Great (Katarina the 2nd,) and the
other founders of the city, in the middle of a traffic circle.
My walk took me over a bridge (that
crossed a street, not water,) and to the building in which my
accomodation was located. Just like many other buildings in the
country, it is a big building, with many entrances.
I called the phone number listed on my booking to figure out how to get to the right
entry, and found my way inside.
I stayed inside for a couple hours,
warming up and relaxing. In the hallway I discovered the (fake)
crocodiles who were 'guarding' my room. (Why this place had crocodile
statues in the hallway I do not know.)
I got ready to walk again, and when I
got outside I discovered it had started to rain. Argh. Not heavy
rain, but still really annoying. Rain is by far my least favourite
weather to deal with while traveling.
The outer door wasn't open, and I
didn't see hours listed anywhere, but I decided to try anywho. When I
walked in, I found two ladies sitting in a coat check area. I
indicated that I wanted to look around, they didn't look happy. Was I
there when I shouldn't have been?
They were sitting in the coat check
area, which didn't seem like an obvious place to hang out, so who
knows.
Since I didn't know if there were open
hours, I just stood and waited. The lady gave me a number and I
handed over the money. It was probably more than it should've been,
but I didn't feel like fighting. She seemed really surprised that I
was there by myself, not with a tour group.
She took me up the stairs and unlocked
the door. Then she left me alone, and went back down to her friend.
As I was walking out of this room the
lady from downstairs came into the room and seemed shocked that I was
taking photos. She said I hadn't said I wanted to take photos, that
that cost extra. The price she quoted was crazy high, I wasn't about
to pay that much for photos. I walked through the remaining couple of
rooms, thankfully they weren't quite as beautiful, so I didn't feel
like I was missing out on photos.
The lady stayed with me as I walked
through these last couple of rooms, presumably to make sure I didn't
take photos. Argh.
I got back out on the street and
continued my walk. My next stop was a building called the building
with Atlanteans. Two statues, holding up the world, underneath a
balcony, are the photo everyone takes. It's a good photo, but that's
about it. Sadly, the rest of the building is not in good shape; you
can see where the paint is peeling and everything is just old.
My next stop was what I thought was
Vorontsov Palace. It turns out I was wrong. What I thought was the
palace was actually called the Colonnade.
As the name indicates, it
is a bunch of columns. Despite the rain, I wasn't the only one out
exploring, I had to wait my turn. I wasn't necessarily patient about
it, but I did wait. A couple girls had an umbrella, which I wished I
had, as it would've looked really good in a photo. (Gray skies, white
columns, the umbrella was a great pop of colour.)
The building that actually is the
palace has Arabic written in a couple places, and didn't look open to
the public. Argh. Why do apps and books list sights when they're not
open?
More walking took me to what I wanted
to see next. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. This set of stairs
was closed off at the top, being renovated I think. Argh.
I think the
sign said the steps would be open in May, but I'm not really sure.
Potempkin Stairs are well known because
they were featured in a movie years and years ago. I haven't seen the
movie, but I've been told there is a scene when a baby buggy goes
bouncing all the way down the stairs. The stairs are an optical
illusion, so they look as if they go straight down the whole way,
instead of widening as most stairs look like they do.
Near the top of the stairs is a statue
of the Duke de Richeliu, who was a man beloved by Odessans back in
the day. I don't know why.
I walked more, ending up at an area
called the City Garden. It isn't really much of a garden, argh. There
are some green areas, but no special landscaping. There is a gazebo
in the middle of everything, but that's about it. My photo looked
decent only because of the clouds.
One side of City Garden is bordered by
a pedestrian street.
This street took me past bars and restaurants
and cafes and shops. One of the restaurants had a statue of a bull in
front. I wouldn't have thought of it as anything special, but it was
covered in flowers. How often are the flowers changed?
I walked back in the other direction,
taking a couple more photos. Both of these were of people from books
well known in Ukraine. I don't remember the name of the guy on a
bench, but the other photo is from the 12 chairs story.
My next sight was a church. No matter
how many of these I see, in countries all over the world, they still
fascinate me. This particular church was big, and in the middle of
another park. The outside of the church is dark yellow, but isn't
very exiting.
Even though I'm not Orthodox, the
atmosphere of this church felt quite welcoming to me. I loved the
colours of the church, and I loved the chandeliers. I stayed inside
the church longer than I normally do because I liked it so much.
I walked through a place called the
Passage, basically a building with a mall of sorts.
The architecture
of the interior walkway is totally awesome. Skylights line the entire
ceiling, and there are statues leaning off the walls. It's just a
mall, but it's really pretty. I stopped into a tiny cafe in one
corner and took a break. It's not as if I'd walked a long way, but I
was cold and hungry. Tea and macaroons was definitely the way to go.
I started walking again, making my way
back to the train station by following another street. I stopped into
a couple supermarkets along the way, for more snacks. I took photos
of more old but pretty buildings, and admired others. I walked past
another church, the old synagogue, and the Arabic center/mosque.
I
noticed that security folks were standing outside the synagogue and
the Arabic center. Are people behaving inaapropriately at religious
sights a thing in Odessa?
Near the train station is a church
everyone sees when they leave the train station. St Panteleimon has
gold domes, and is not a separate building.
To get into the church, you climb a
couple flights of stairs. I put on my headscarf again, and walked in.
Immediately I noticed that the center of the sanctuary was being
renovated. There was scaffolding around the middle, basically
blocking it off. Amazingly, a service of some kind was still taking
place along the side aisles of the church. I stayed at the back,
staying out of the way.
From there I walked all the way back to
my room to drop off a couple bottles of water. They were heavy, my
shoulder was starting to hurt.
After that I walked to an Indian
restaurant for dinner. At least, that's where I thought I was going.
When I got there, I found a sign on the door saying it was closed,
argh.
I think the sign gave a reason for the closing, but I don't
understand enough Russian to know what it said. It didn't give any
dates, so I don't know when it closed, or when it would opem again. I
was hugely disappointed, as I'd really liked this restaurant the last
time I was in Odessa.
Since I was in the mood for Indian
food, I found another Indian restaurant listed on an app, and made my
way there. It wasn't nearly as good, but oh well. After dinner I went
back to my room and fell asleep rather quickly.
The next morning I woke up early and
wasted the morning doing a whole lot of nothing. This is my typical
weekend travel behaviour, even though I hate that I waste so much
time behaving this way. Argh.
I packed up my stuff and checked out,
which seemed to surprise the lady who ran the place. I hadn't
checked, but I assumed check out time was around noon, so I needed to
get going. The lady let me leave my bag behind the front desk, which
was nice.
It wasn't raining that day, thank
goodness. I made my way back toward the area with the statue of
Catherine the Great, and found a falafel restaurant there. It wasn't
big, more like a fast food falafel/shwarma kind of place. They made
juice straight from the fruit, it was good.
My first stop of the day was the Museum
of Western and Oriental Art. I'd noticed it the day before, while
walking up Pushkin Street.
The entrance was pretty, and I was happy
as soon as I walked in. The ticket price wasn't big, and I checked my
coat. The ticket lady asked me if I planned to take photos, I
answered in the affirmative. She told me I could only use my iphone,
which didn't make any sense to me, but oh well.
The museum itself is on the second
floor, so I walked upstairs. The first room is grand, with a great
ceiling. The ceiling was awesome, with guilded gold everywhere. There
was some art on display in the room as well, but I didn't pay any
attention to it because I liked the decor of the room so much.
The
next two rooms were lovely as well, with more art on display. There
were also several items of old furniture on display.
From there I went through the remaining
five or six rooms of the museum which were very bland in comparison.
The focus was entirely on the art displayed on the walls of each
room. The walls were painted simply, a different colour in each room.
I'm not a huge fan of art museums, but I really liked this one.
Like other museums, this one had an
attendant in every other room or so. I assume when traffic is low
they turn off the lights.
Back out on the street I continued my
walk. The next place took a lot longer to get to, I walked all the
way to the beach. Well, one of the beaches in the area. Odessa is
more of a summer town, as there are beaches all along the coast, with
clubs in nearby areas.
I really ought to go back to a beach
town when it is a lot warmer.
As I got to the beach I walked to the
water just to put my feet in, and say I'd been in the Black Sea. I
found a pier and took a couple photos, then got back on a path that
was parallel to the beaches, going through park areas. The path was
pretty well developed, with lines indicating direction and even
separations for pedestrians versus bikers.
At one point I was walking in the
pedestrian lane and got honked at by a biker, which annoyed me.
Apparently it annoyed the couple in front of me as well, as they
yelled at the biker for not staying in his lane. (I don't speak or
understand nearly what I should, but sometimes I can figure it out
and it's funny.)
More walking eventually brought me to
the area of beach and clubs that most people in Ukraine know,
Arcadia. I realized really fast that it had been redeveloped since
I'd been there 5 years ago. I admit I didn't like the redevelopement,
it didn't feel much like Ukraine.
At that point I was pretty chilly and
tired, so I found a cafe and ordered a giant hot chocolate. It wasn't
nearly warm enough, even though I'd asked for extra hot. I know that
baristas don't like it when things are ordered extra hot because they
say the milk will get burned, but if I can drink it like cold milk,
then it isn't hot enough. Hot chocolate is supposed to be hot!
From there I walked through City Garden again, the gazebo was lit up at night; kinda pretty to see. I also walked back to the big church, it was lit up at night as well. Since the exterior of the church wasn't all that extraordinary and noteworthy, I was more interested in the groups of locals that had gathered in one area and were playing games like chess. Very cool to watch that for a little while.
The train left on time, and I arrived
in Kyiv the next morning safe and sound.
If I can find time to take several days
to spend on a beach I'm definitely going back to Odessa. I'd also be
happy to go back in order to see the catacombs that are somewhere
near the city.
