July 23 - Oh, Odessa!

After a non-complimentary breakfast at the hotel (Julia did not arrange it for me, sigh), I took a quick look at the main church of Perispol and then it was time to head for Odessa.

No hammer and sickel to be seen on this church

The decision to stay the night in Peristol turned out to be a wise one, there was a very straight, very smooth, wide road with close to no traffic leading to the border, with nothing but crop fields to see for miles and miles and miles. I was relieved when the border came, which went rather smoothly, there I met the couple of Danish tourists I saw the previous day in Peristol, they were traveling around this part of the world by train and bus.

Traffic jam en route to the Ukranian border

At the money exchange, the 19-year old model Katarina helped me, then we sat down to chat for a couple of hours in her family's nicely air-conditioned restaurant. She was very mature for her ago, and was a multi-talent and a super positive person. It was about 1 pm by the time I had left, with just about 70 km to Odessa.

Katarina

 

The road was quite pathetic, while there the traffic was still light, it was quite a change compared to the perfect roads of the Transnistrian Republic. I think it was before 4 pm that I got into Odessa, witht he exception of war memorials from WWII, there was not too much to see.

The first impression of Odessa was anything but positive, the outskirt of the city was outright ugly. There I met an older guy who claimed to have shot down 5 US planes in the Vietnam war, with his fellow camarade downing McCain's aircraft. To me, his story seemed authentic.

My initial unfavouralbe opinion changed quicky, as I got downtown, it turned out to be a sort of a Mediterrenean town, with large boulvards and impressive buildings. The Potomkin stairs were a bit of a disappointment, but the rest of the town on this Saturday afternoon was thriving with people, in cafes, pubs, restaurants, walking up and down listening to street performers and all kinds of entertainers. It was hard to walk due to the merry masses, let alone ride a bike.

The Odessa Opera

There I met Michael, a German biker, who was returning from a trip to Georgia and Armenia, biking there (almost) all the way from Germany. We had a coffee and some light food in a restaurant on one of the main pedestrian streets, he gave me some of his maps and told me a lot of stories. The evening I spent cruising around in the city, visiting its many sites.

Odessa by night

My hotel was close to the center, very reasonable, 4-star for the rather modest price of Eur 33, called Odesskiy Dvorik. I would certainly recommend it to anyone going to Odessa, though at least on Expedia, it was the very last room I had booked. A highlight of the hotel was the next day...