Odessa Favorites

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Favorite thing: When you're in Odessa don't forget to visit numerous churches, the Opera Theater, Archaeological Museum, City Hall, the port, and of course beaches.

Fondest memory: I miss long streets of Odessa full of cars, marshrutkas, buses and trams. I miss all those lovely monuments too. Can't wait to get back there!

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Favorite thing: Located just next to the main downtown street, the neoclassical plaza of the Greeks offers relaxed atmosphere, a huge shopping centre ("Afina"), local bus terminals to From the airport and elsewhere, a neighbouring park and for us Greeks the Museum of Greek Culture with the house where the Greek Independence movement was founded in the early 19th century...

Favorite thing: When going to Odessa you'd better take US dollars or Euro with you. I visited six currecny exchange offices and they sell or buy only dollars, Euro, Moldovian lei and Russian rubbels... It is not possible to change for example British pounds...

Favorite thing: Those who live in Odessa are called Odessits by Russians and Odesits by Ukrainians. On Odessa, even though today it is a part of Ukraine, people speak Russian, while the Internet address, just like everywhere else in the world are written in Roman alphabet. Only McDonald's wishes to be politically correct inviting everyone in Ukrainian.:) The staff - when they do not feel like working - hang in the entrance little card in Russian `Closed due to technical problems`...

Favorite thing: The Black Sea which is obviously the only one available in Odessa istn't black after all :). All my hopes went down!

Well... but it still is warm, quite clean/clear and the waves in the municipal beaches aren't too big to cause problems and not too cmall to make it "lake alike".

If you are afraid of jellyfish watch out as you may be surrounded sometimes. Fortunatelly these aren't dangerous :)

Favorite thing: This is a typical housing block in Odessa, these are Soviet-era apartment buildings. This particular building was built in 1967, it seems older because of the spartan construction and that they were not all that well maintained over the years. This building had newly painted walls in the stairwells, the security doors work and the lights in the stairwells weren't burned-out, and it isn't leaking water or sewage, so it is in much better shape than many others! The city is trying to replace these aging relects to socialism, but it will be a long process because many of the owners of these apartments can't afford new one's and would rather stay in these, albeit they usually stink, either from sewage or mold and/or mildew, and are falling apart. Many of the owners enclose the balconies to help with keeping the apartment warm in winter. Most of these apartments have newer, insulated, euro-windows, but the buildings are still drafty and chilly. Most have central, hot water heat, that is not reliable, the radiators rarely get too hot to touch. Since this is also the hot water supply for the apartment, many have auxilliary hot water heaters because the hot water is usually not hot enough to bathe or wash with. Also electric and telephone service is often interrupted, sometimes for days. Ukraine's modest capitalist expansion was too much for the Soviet-era infrastructure to handle and is straining it to the max. I have a very difficult time calling to Ukraine, and when I succeed in getting through, the connection is usually very poor. Many newer apartments and hotels have their own water pumps and back-up generators for service outages. The more prestigious hotels in Odessa have these, (Londonskaya, Mozart, Kempinsky, etc.) and some apartments for tourists to let. If you rent an apartment, try to find out if they have their own back-ups in case the power or water are interrupted. Some times it may be days before they are back on-line.

Fondest memory: Right next to the Opera House there is the Naval Museum. It mainly shows photos and models of ships. Don't expect English explanations!

In the 19th century the building uses to house the "English Club", where noblemen and the rich merchants played for money.

Fondest memory: The former palace of prince Gagarin now houses the Literary Museum. The rooms are beautiful (especially the Golden Hall), but they are the only things you will find interesting if you don't understand Russian or Ukrainian, which is a pitty as this city inspired a lot of famous literats (e.g. Pushkin, Gogol,....). But if you understand the explanations you can enjoy a collection of works and personalia of writers and poets.