Odessa and the Black Sea

So we escaped the heat of Kiev for the Ukraine long weekend and headed on the train (awesome) to Odessa. The train was really crowded, since the biggest thing to do on a long weekend is head by train to the Black Sea. If you can believe it, it was less glamorous than the first Ukrainian train I was on, but I was more prepared this time. There was also a big group of us, some who spoke Russian, and packed lots of beer and food. It was a really fun trip. The amount of space that three people should have fit eight comfortable on beds about a foot and a half wide, three on each side of the bunk room and two stacked parallel on the aisle side, haha. I got to sleep on the top bunk over a guy who brought a bike. So I worried that I was going to fall out of bed on that all night.

When we arrived at the Odessa train station the next morning we were met by the “Babushka Mafia”, or a ton of grannies trying to get you to rent a room in their flat. A few of us had a hostel arranged, sort of (imagine, booking something in advance??) but we thought it was going to be pretty sketchy. We preferred accommodations with everyone, so with our luggage we walked around the city centre looking for a cheap dorm at a university. When it wasn’t going to happen, we split up, some people going with Vania and Dasha to their relatives, and the other half going to our “hostel”.

We called to add a few more to the reservation. This would be the fourth call to some girl I whom I got the name of out of the Lonely Planet guide book. The second call was to change the date, the third call was to make sure she didn’t think we booked a hostel in Kiev (she did) and now to meet our agent guy who was to show us the flat. We were told hostel had moved to new location, a man was to meet us at arch near building. There was one sketchy guy already in the flat, which we assumed from brief conversations to be a sex tourist. Anup negotiated a better price with the man who met us. We checked out room and waited for our counter offer. It had a computer with internet, nice beds, sketchy roommate, but it was okay. The man came back and we got better price and the keys.

When we were leaving around noon we met owner of the building on street. Apparently when the hostel is full they rent apartments in other buildings and the owners get the cut of what the backpackers pay the hostel. The owner said our new price was not okay, and now we had to renegotiate the room price with him. The owner wanted to get rid of middle man and the hostel , negotiated with us, get us a completely new apartment in the same building, bring in beds and sheets, and said we had to avoid old roommate and middle man. He reminded of the kind of guy on t.v. you could ask for anything, guns, a getaway car...We went up to see the new apartment. We were scared to leave our luggage there for the day, but oh well. We had wasted enough time looking for a place and negotiating in Russian. There were not enough beds (only 2), and the place was a dump. It was full of another man’s things like money and change, his passport, and lots of laundry. We were assured this would all be cleaned up when we got back later in the day. My only thought was who else were they going to bring through this apartment to show, tell them it would all be cleaned up, and then remove all of our stuff?

We went out for the day, had really good food at sandwich place, and walked the main street. We headed right for Arkadia beach, which is the most famous beach on Black sea. We met the others, who instead of negotiating for a place had been sightseeing all morning. We hit the beach with some beers after a really hot and crowded bus ride. The beach was awesome though, it was really crowded, we swam in the sea, played some frisbie, and worked on our tan. Before we headed back to the city centre we checked out the cover charge and dress code for a couple of the huge nightclubs right on the beach. We will be back...

We had dinner at our famous chain cafeteria and bought more beers. We walked through the old city which was lit up and really beautiful. Most of Odessa was spared a lot of the violence from the wars. The Opera house is nicer and more famous than in Kiev. There was a lighted street with Christmas lights and lots of monuments. It led to the Potempkin steps (very famous, check out old movies) an we walked down them to the waterfront, which was very similar the Halifax boardwalk.

We walked back to apartment, and by some miracle there were beds, sheets, and our luggage on the beds. I really have never been more surprised than this. To celebrate we got more drinks and after a day in the sun we somehow found some energy to go back out clubbing. The only choice now was Ibiza or Itaka. We hailed a sketchy private cab and headed back to Arkadia.

Itaka more was rowdy, had huge crowd, and crazy MTV party. The cover was not too much. There were many levels, huge balls bouncing around, fog, foam floating from out of nowhere, a big open dance floor, what more could you want? The beer was a lot, so we went out to get beer on the street and drank it in the alley. We partied until sun came up and went to beach after to walk along pier. I was so tired and sobering up. Everyone else wanted to watch the sunset, but somehow I convinced them it would be too much longer. We argued for a cheap cab back and slept for a few hours.

We went for our second day of sightseeing looking at the Opera, the main street, and the steps in the daylight. We headed to a new beach which was a little closer to the centre. It had a chair lift to get there and back over a big hill. This was hilarious, very sketchy and unsafe I’m sure (Side note: people from other countries find it hilarious how much Canadians use the word “sketchy”). There was a boardwalk with activities like at a carnival or something. We took the chair lift back up the street and headed for the train home.