Odessa Things to Do

There are some beautiful parks in Odessa. One has a beautiful fountain with statues and is lit up at night by multi coloured lights and is serenaded with classical music. It is a great place to walk through at night.

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This is something you shouldn't miss. The Potemkin stairs create an optical illusion no matter if you're looking up or down the stairs. The statue of Duc de Richelieu is located on the top of the stairs.

Tropa Zdorovya is The Road of Health:) a long long road along the seacoast where you can go jogging, rollerblading or cycling...or else. In summer time there are bars and discos working:)
The beaches are also there.

So called Literature Yard is famous for its small sculptures. They are all funny and show different characters from books and films. Thay put a new one every 1st of April:)
You're allowed to take pics only if there's a person next to each sculpture.
By the way, there's a Museum of Literature there (it doesn't work on Mondays).
Open from 10am till 5pm.

Odessa strived for the right of building the theatre in 1804, and in 1809 it was already built. On the10th of February 1810 the first perfomance took place. The building was different from the one that stands there now. Unfortunately in 1873 the old building was burnt completely. P.I.Tchaikovsky, N.Rimsky-Korsakov, S.Rachmaninoff, Ezhen Izai, Pablo Sarasate and others performed their works here.
All the detailed information, repertoire, open hours etc you can read on its website.

The Opera & Ballet Theatre was built in 1880 in (neo)baroque style and it looks more western-like. No wonder, as the architect came from Vienna in Austria. Once this theatre was famous, but nowdays it became infamous. It is closed since 1996 for renovations. Even the formers president Kuchmas order to hurry up didn't help. They just lack funds and who knows how long it will remain closed.

Potemkin steps became famous with a film Battleship Potemkin (by Sergei Eisenstein, 1925) and are thus one of the most popular sights in Odessa. These 192 steps, (at the bottom 21 wide, on the top 13m wide, makin an illusion taht steps are acctually higher) are the place where people come to hang around, where street performes try to earn couple of gryvnas from people passing by.

Adam Mickiewicz- propably the best/most valuable/ most well known poet from Poland (ironically, he was born in Lithuania, but back then the geopolitical situation was different). During the Russian occupation was sent East as a part of the occupants' policy to get rid of "politically dangerous" people.
So he landed in Odessa. His faith was different than many others'- no prison, no work camp, a bit more like holiday.
And now You may see his monument on the biggest and very shady square from which busses take off. Not the most sympathetic place, but still... The monument was just done in 2004- openned the day after I had left.