Aa usual, forgive the results of the small.keyboard……..
Beginning with the military checkpoints at Odesa’s outskirts, it was obvious that things were a bit more serious down here on the banks of the Black Sea. So why go? I was up in Kiev back in 2017 and I overheard a couple older ladies sing its praises and it always bugged me a little bit that I didn’t check it out then. I doubt I’ll be coming this way again so this was my last chance to see if I have the same taste as 2 old ladies. Sure sitting through back to back reruns of “The Golden Girls” would probably be a little less risky but I need blog content. And what hasn’t already been written about “The Golden Girls”?
I dont know why there aren’t any trains running between Moldova and Odesa. In fact, I was even surprised there were enough fares to fill a long bus but this was full. All women for some reason. The bus ride from Moldova is short by distance but getting a fully loaded bus through the Moldova border and then 2 minutes later, the Ukrainian border. It took almost 3 hours to go 2 miles.
After that, there isnt much military presence at all. There isn’t an old town although there is a touristy area of shops and restaurants. I use the term touristy because it’s where tourists would go if there were tourists. Now it is mostly teenagers milling around enjoying time out of the apartment. No malice like you might get in a US mall when too much bored teenage testosterone gathers in one place.
I didn’t do much but walk around and see what the old ladies liked about it.
You have to look pretty close to see any remnants of the war. There are Tank traps blocking roads and around government buildings. I walked into a church at the edge of the tourist area. I could help wonder why it was in such bad disrepair while at the same time in su h good condition from the outside. A quick Google search revealed that it took a beating from a Russian missile barrage early in the war and was being rebuilt. The buildings in central part of town had a lot of boarded up windows. I couldn’t tell if that was due to previous war damage or preventing any in the future. The basement windows of along the streets were sandbagged. Probably to make them into bomb shelters.
I checked into my $25/night hotel room and headed out to explore. I was almost immediately greeted with an air raid siren test. Like in Lviv, they seem to take them seriously. Most people stop and wait for the siren to end.
My hotel was near the beach rather than the touristy area. With nothing going on at the beach in the middle of winter, I usually walked over to the touristy section when I went out. It was only a few blocks on the map. I should have checked the map’s scale (and packed a snack). Corner to corner, they are a trek. Usually it’s all residentialial so no reason to walk a block other than to get to the next one. I easily walked 10 miles a day exploring the central part of the city. And slept well at night. Except for the occasional air raid siren test.
I thought it was kind of overkill to do a test at 3am. 
Hmmmm. I did a quick Google and found a site that reports active air raids across the country. The air raid siren tests hadn’t tests. The fact that they have a website dedicated to alerts means the horns probably get used enough that they don’t need to be tested. That added a bit of excitement to my stay.
That was it for the war stuff. People are pushing stollers (lots of strollers), Walking their dogs. Scraping the bottoms of their shoes, Chatting in the cafes over fancy coffee drinks. The store shelves are stocked full. A lot of nice cars too.
I am sure walking through a tree lined avenues as they get their Spring bloom or at an outdoor cafe on a warm summer evening, Odesa is probably pretty good. But for a winter trip, I’ll stick with Golden Girls reruns. There isn’t much to do in the middle of winter in a beach town on the Black Sea so I after my 4 days, I was ready to move on. The problem was that the bus I wanted was leaving in day 5. I puttered around for an extra day and was up and out before the sun. The Russian were up early to wish me a good journey. This happened as I waited for the bus.
(With a little help from Adam Arkin and Peter Falk from the Great movie The In-Laws.)
Until i get time for another post. Here is a currated link to the photos of the trip so far.
