After an average of 20-25km of walking everyday , occasionally you wake up at at 11.45AM
With no regrets.
David is already up getting ready for the day and I’m lying on my bunk wondering why do I have to get up…. amazingly the vodka hasn’t us like a 100,000 Tonne Steam train… lucky escape
David has managed to find a towel finished in Russian patterns… it looks about 100 years old, I’m surprised that the cotton hasn’t turned to dust, i ask him where he found it and he said Dracula rents them out at the Coffin (the front desk) for 50 Hryvnia…. not the best deal but i presume IV Bags of blood don’t come cheap in this part of the world
I get a towel and make my way to the shower block for my 5 minutes of alone time.
This hostel is beautiful in its own special way but both David and i have agreed its a very weird one at the same time. The showers and toilets are unisex in the same block, for example i went to the showers and a girl had finished in there but wouldn’t come out of the stall until i had left… yes before you jump to conclusions..I wasn’t waiting right outside her shower stall and by the time i had got there she was clothed… so nothing to see.
Anyway shower done, teeth clean, Wife beaters on.. lets hit the Street!
Our first stop today on the journey to Odessa would be the Markets, according to trip advisor they are the best in Ukraine. The journey will take us about 3KM and a total commute time of about 35 minutes at a brisk walking pace, Saturday’s seem to be the social day for most here and the streets are littered with families, couples, children and all of Odessa’s homeless population are out in force trying to get what money they can from tourists…. however the best part about this is neither David and I understand a single word in Russian or Ukrainian…. so we wander the streets oblivious to what’s going on around us… wait i lie we know 1 word… Wodka!
We arrive at the Markets and it is a sea of people, there is one main alley of back to back shops, similar the the Bazaars in Turkey but on a much smaller scale, we wander through the alley and realise that the cost of clothing here is cheap.. like you can buy knock off sports ware for a a few euros, i guess to a certain degree it is all in relevance, the government here has started to enforce minimum income laws… and it currently sits at 100USD for the minimum wage… per month about 2000 Hryvnia
I have been told about these great souvenirs here of Russian drivers licenses featuring American politicians and i was hoping the markets would have some one selling them, however i cant see any here, we turn a corner and make our way into a building that is like a hanger, you know one of those half tunnels, its about 40 meters high in side and about 40 meters wide.
The “hanger” housed hundreds of counters serving fresh meat and every kind you can think of,
Livers, heats , pig heads , hooves , steaks , lamb, beef, chicken … and when you enter the door you expect to be hit with the smell of rotting meat , however the only thing you got was the metallic smell of the iron in the blood.
After you passed the meat section you were in the cheese department and there are chillers filed with homemade farm cheese, you can buy a shell of Brie cheese here for 195 Hryvnia (10 NZD)
Such a great country.
We exited the Market after not purchasing anything, but where we are from we don’t tend to have markets to that scale or degree so it was amazing to see… our only mistake was we didn’t take a photo!!!!… bloody useless tourists
We headed for another building which appeared to be a large hall of restaurants, we enter and it is Air Conditioned … it must be the only Air Conditioning building in Odessa, we decide to have some lunch here, David settles on a roll from a restaurant called “fast Fish”…. guess what… they don’t serve fish… mind blown! I go to a wee Dutch place and have a burger, something to help with the recovery of yesterdays antics!
After lunch there is a old Greek building looking out across the harbour we agree to go and check it out it has a 4.5 star trip advisor review, it was peak sun at 2PM, david doesn’t always like how much walking i do but he sees the benefit to my crazy master plan, the walk takes us directly into the main shopping district of town… a place we have never been, it is littered with lovely old buildings and retail outlets from baby Dior to Gucci and Hugo boss.
We laugh cause this seems to be the central hub, however we have never seen this place in our life ! For the last 2 days we have walked in the wrong direction in the city to the dirty suburbs and we feel a bit daft about the whole thing.
We navigate down past the buildings to the Greek palace… or what is left of it in this case… the building looked bigger in the photos and in this particular instance it was covered in scaffolding, David walks right past asking where it is … i explain in the politest kiwi accent… “it was that gorgeous building covered in building paper and scaffolding…. David’s look on his face was priceless and his response was even better, in a very direct German pigeon english i get the response “that’s shit man”.
It appears Odessa seems to have some connection with the Greek Historical foundation and currently on the waterfront appears to be a multi-million dollar garden development going up, it will be built into the hill and feature illuminated walkways and children’s play grounds, there will be a centre feature to the construction will be a grand staircase in marble with a water fountain along with Greek statues in there naked glory.
We make an exit and decided it must be beer o’clock, we come to an Italian Cafe called Fraconi, it would have to be the nicest cafe in Odessa, it features a lovely appointed outdoor area along with a very modern interior, we sit down and are handed some menu’s the average cost of a meal was about double to what we had been paying and at this stage we decided against food.
They servers a variety of cusine’s, sushi was about 20NZD for 6 pieces which is astronomical even for New Zealand, how ever we decided to plonk ourselves in a booth and order a variety of homemade lemonades, the one that took the cake was the Raspberry and Ginger, that was amazing so good we actually had 2, also the ginger would be suitable to settle a tender stomach from our Russian incident 24 hours prior.
As we sat there David had to charge his phone and i had to finish my blog off from the day antics before, the peak sun here is almost unbearable, you are constantly covered in that film of sweat that doesn’t quite evaporate fast enough, however the benefits of being in a constant state of heat far outweigh the complaints about being sticky and gross.
The hours at franconi seemed to go by quite quickly and the staff were happy to house the Kiwi and Zee German, it was about 5 PM by the time we left and we decided to explore the shopping district more throughly, we came across the Opera House and in the low light levels looked very beautiful, we both grabbed a couple of snaps and David wanted to head inside for a look
As we entered the opera house David and i noticed that we were the worst dressed men in a sea of Tuxedos and evening gowns….. we suddenly realised that there was a show about to start and with very red faces and looking like two Tourists we evacuated the premises rather quickly with our heads down.
We turned right when we left the Opera house and walked to a lovely garden area littered with young people and restaurants scattered around the perimeter of the grass quad and water fountain, we decided that here we would feast.
We took as seat near the water fountain and the waiter greeted us, the cuisine was a mix of Ukrainian food, Russian, Italian and western. One thing i would say is that the food in the Ukraine is of a very high standard, we haven’t had a bad meal yet, however what we spend on one meal is what the average family will get in one week for there household… so i suppose it is all in relevance.
We started off with a soup i had mushroom and black truffle and David had Okroshka… and they only way to describe this was like dish water that you had washed cream bottle out in,with some green onion…. Terrible… David got half way though it and the look in his eye was one of puzzlement, amazement and then a twinkle of disappointment, just in case you are wondering the mushroom soup was delicious!
For the main David kept it safe and had Beef Stroganoff, which was served in a small pot with mashed potato and a side of veges, it looked good from the other side of the table so I didn’t feel so sorry for him and his first course mistake, i had the Four cheese tortellini which was just amazing…come to think of it any thing with 4 cheese’s is generally a good time!, the cheese lovers will know what i mean!
We decided against desert as our strapping beach bodies couldn’t handle another cheese cake or Tiramasu, the meal total was about 450 Hryvnia each so about 24NZD, food here is more expensive than Kiev how ever the quality is very good so we are happy to pay the extra.
After dinner we made our way back to HQ for a quick refresh, its Saturday night and we have canceled out 10PM bed time and decided that a few beers might be in order, we get back to the hostel at about 9PM and sit down for a bit, we have had a new comer to the dorm and he is Austrian and just stopping in for a few nights on his way home, he had been in Odessa for a few weeks looking about the town
David can converse with the Austrian quite well as they speak a similar language to German so he yaks away while i sort out my social life on my iPad.
It’s coming upto 10.30 and we agree to move back into town, we come to the main strata, Alexander Street and it is lit up like a Christmas tree, the main portion of the street is closed to traffic in traditional European style and there are thousands of people intermingling and weaving in and out of each other… this was the Odessa that everyone had been talking about!
We make a quick survey of the street walking from one end to the other trying to find a bar that would cater to 2 tourists looking for a beer, Hookah and a chat.
We settled on a restaurant up the northern end that had nice comfy seats, and a good soundtrack being played by a DJ outside who you would describe as nothing short of beautiful, we sit down ad order 2 beers in the best pigeon english we know how, if you ask for light beer it means an ale.
“2 light beers please”
“Big or Small”
“Big” (Lots of hand gestures are used in these conversations to avoid confusion)
While i am waiting for the beers i catch the Hookah Host, they use a seperate wait staff for beverages and food however there is usually a Hookah specialist wandering through the bar and you request the Hookah from him, i ordered a mango Hookah and waited patiently for him to return
Upon his return he has what i would call an overkill sized water pipe in one arm and red hot coals in the other, he puts it down and then spends about 3 minutes adjusting the coals to ensure optimal incineration of the tobacco below.
A lesson on Hookah pipes:
you might not know this but you can get good ones and bad one, its a lot like making a coffee, we have all had bad coffee and if we have enough of them it becomes just “a cup of coffee” however you one day go to a specialist coffee shop and the brew if fantastic, its smooth and creamy and delivers a flavour and customer experience that is hard to describe in words…. you know what i mean??
Well for Hookah it is the same and this guy earned every dollar, while huffing away in my mango clouds he would return every 5 minutes and readjust the coals and blow off the ash to ensure they kept a clean constant heat.
The bar closed at 12 PM and by the time our beers were done and the hookah was out we decided to make a break for the next destination, the second bar was a American Latin Salsa Bar called “Poncho” this was under the city streets and to access it you had to navigated down a stair case to beneath the city.
We opened the door and it was a small bar and would only fit around 40 People in it at a push, the walls are decorated in animal skins and heads, we take a seat at the bar and there is a gentleman on the stage singing salsa music, the locals enjoy this kind of music, and so did we.
We had out second beer there and enjoyed watching the locals dance and took in the cultural mismatch of American Latin and ukranian.
The time was bridging onto 1AM and we decided that this would be a good time to ring the bell and call it a night.
“ Hungry wolf is stronger than a satisfied dog” – Ukrainian Proverb
Quantum Entanglement 