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Odesa

    What do you do when you visit Paris? You take a walk on the Champs Elysee - the main street in Paris. I guess the same can be said about Odesa and it's famous Deribasivska Street. You haven't been to Odesa if you did not visit Deribasivska Str. This street is filled with many little restaurants and shops that are trying to catch your attention with appetizing smells and stylish shop windows.

    Odesa is famous for it's Opera theatre, unfortunately, when I was there the theatre was undergoing renovations because of the fact that the soil that it is built on is filled with many catacombs and is generally not very stable. You can even take a tour of the many catacombs that fill the coast.

    Right near Odesa's port you can find famous Potiomkin's Stairs - 192 giant steps, 20 by 10 (8 were lost to the sand). They have been filmed in many movies and are quite popular with the tourists. At the bottom of the stairs, near the yacht club, the skyline was scarred by a massive hotel "Odesa". The view was much better before the hotel was built. But anyway, the view from the top of the stairs is still quite nice. Moreover, at the top of the stairs there is a statue to Duke Richelie - one of the founders of Odesa. This statue is a popular tourist attraction.

    Not far from this place, about five minutes away, you can find an Odesa's Natural History Museum. Although it's collection may not be as big as in some western museums it, nonetheless, has some interesting items. For instance, you can see some Egyptian items including three sarcophagi and mummies, a collection of Gold Coins and a lot more. If you'd like to see - then pay them a visit.

    Well, one of the main points of visiting Odesa was seeing my relatives - Natasha, aunt Nina and uncle Sasha. They are nice people - always smiling and energetic, much like the Odesa's sun. Natasha has shown me around the city and told me about the best ways of getting around in this large city. At one point uncle Sasha and I went to Juzhny to see grandma Ania - thankfully she's in good health and humour.

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    The entrance to the Natural History Museum in Odesa is guarded by a statue of Laocoon - a personage from Homer's "Iliad". He was the one who warned the Trojans not to accept the horse from the Greeks and was later punished by Poseidon together with his two sons. Eventually his warning transformed into the phrase "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts".

    While strolling on Deribasivska Str., you will be assailed by the many opportunities to take a picture of something interesting - animals, antiques, and much much more. Well, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to have my picture taken in the role of Ostap Bender, the protagonist from Il'f and Petrov's classic "The twelve chairs" and "The little golden calf".

    As I've mentioned above, at the top of Potiomkin's Stairs there is a statue of Duke Richelie. Apparently if you rub the gold spilling from the sacks of Mercury it will bring you good fortune and wealth - at least that's what tourists believe in I'm told.

    Odesa is a large city with long history and there is plenty of thigns to see. It is, therefore, impossible to cover everything on this page but, hopefully, I've given you enough information to wet your appetite so when you have a chance to be in Odesa you will see what I've seen and more.

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© 2007 Yaroslav (Slava) Bezverkhnyev, a.k.a. Agarwaen
Last Update:     May 27, 2007