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1997

Route in China (UKRAINE - Odessa)

Bec
2004-09-20 10:20:31

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Odessa
One of the major landmarks of Odessa is this great staircase made famous by the massacre scene in Sergey Eisenstein's 1925 film "Battleship Potemkine". It connects the port, where it is 21 meters wide, to the upper town where it narrows down to only 13 meters to give an impression of greater height.

I would have liked to come here by boat from a Georgian port but the unsettled situation in that country had made that route uncertain so I had to fly from Yerevan.

These days, there are more dreams than voyages because of the very severe economic regression that affects Ukraine since the breakdown of the soviet empire. This luxury cruise ship has no more customers so it has been transformed into a hotel, hoping that better times will allow it to sail again someday.

It is thanks to Levon and Arthur Hachikian's personal invitation that I managed to get a visa to visit Ukraine. The Greek colonnade behind us graces the gardens of the 1826 Vorontsov palace also overlooking the port.

A few blocks south of the steps, Derybasivskaya vuilitsya is where all the action is. There is a park, several sidewalk cafés, fancy shops and fashionable bars and it is not far from the Opera and Ballet Theatre and no less than six excellent museums and art galleries.

Elaborate doorway decoration inside the fancy 19th century mall called Pasazh (from the French "passage"), near Derybasivska vuilitsya.

The old center of the city is definitely European in a refined way even now after 70 years of soviet rule.

The Black Sea coast offers a series of fine beaches stretching for endless kilometers on both sides of the city. This one, called Arkadia, is about 6 kms to the southeast.

Much further still lies this deserted beach, whose name I cannot recall, where we visited the sister of Levon's wife Lilia in her small dacha. Meeting the Hachikian family and their friend Roman made all the difference and explains why I think so highly of Odessa.

The next day, Levon and Arthur brought me to the bus station very early in the morning. The difficulty of saying goodbye is the price to pay for heart warming friendship.

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