Odessa: Part 5, the sites!

We had to do some of the touristy things while in Odessa too. Enjoy the pictures!

Potempkin Stairs

Only in Ukraine...

Since Odessa is such a giant tourist attraction in the summer, they have all sorts of tourist picture traps available. This was one of them...why yes, I'd love to have a picture of my child with a chinchilla on their head?!

Phil sported the other tourist photo opp. outside of the Opera house. He got that tattoo (his first tattoo!) just a few days before we left for Odessa. It says Phil in Russian cursive (a cooler version of this...Фил)

The Opera Theater at night--with LED lights that change color

The Opera Theater

Outside the Opera Theater during the day...Phil reminds me a lot of Scott Meier :)

The Opera Theater by day

Why yes, I wouldn't mind living in these darling apartments!

This had all sorts of giant cities all around the world...pointing in the direction they are and showing how many miles away (or probably kilometers...).

Near the hostel is one of the most popular streets in Odessa--Deribasovskaya Street. It is a pedestrian only street with restaurants lining both sides of the street. Horse-drawn carriages, charicature artists, gelato, and other fun things (including a McDonalds) can be found on this street.

Deribasovskaya Street

Kym and I on Deribasovskaya Street one night

That about sums up my trip to Odessa. It is a great city with tons to do and I can't wait to go back sometime! I think I'm going to try to bake another batch of chocolate chippers (as my dad calls them). This time, with more baking soda and less baking powder. Wish me luck! :)

P.S. Today is the first time in my 24 years of life that I touched and cooked raw chicken. Shocking, I know. Let's just say I've always had a meat phobia...but I overcame it today! And it didn't come out too shabby.

Odessa: Part 4, the shopping!

What would a vacation be without a little shopping? They get you as soon as you get out of the train station with all sorts of souvenir stands...

Or underwear stands as the case may be?

Anywho, Odessa is rumored to have one of the biggest (if not the biggest) bazaar's in Ukraine. I was on the hunt for a hiking-esque backpack (rooksack in Russian) and knew that there would be tons of places around the bazaar to shop. I know that we didn't even see half of the places that the bazaar had to offer...enjoy!

This is only one part of the bazaar. There is also a giant warehouse type building that has butchers in it...I don't go in there though. I've walked into them accidently both in Oster and in K-grad...

Need some eggs? I have no clue what the difference in all of them is...

After we were done at the bazaar, we hopped on a bus that took us to Metro...which is like a giant Sam's Club/Costco store.

While on the way, Kym decided to take a little nap...

Elyse and Davi, fellow PCVs

Metro...in all it's glory.

The map of Metro...

My haul from Metro included gummy bears, peanut m&ms (I can get gummy bears and m&ms here in k-grad but they are expensive and they were way cheaper at Metro), a men's XL t-shirt (to sleep in!), and chips that I couldn't buy here in K-grad. It was a glorious day :)

Odessa: Part 3, the food!

One of the things that I was most excited about was eating Mexican food while in Odessa. Jamie, one of the guys in my cluster, lives an hour south of Odessa and texted me a week or two ago telling me he was eating at a Mexican restaurant. Not fair! Kirovograd (the city where I live) has a bajillion pizza places which I like...but no Mexican food :( So, I was on a mission to find a decent Mexican restaurant while in Odessa. But first...let me show you the neat cafe we came across our first day. The pictures will explain on their own:

Look familiar? :)

We didn't actually eat here, but it was too cute not to take pictures of!

That says 9 and 3/4 in Russian...

We ate at Top Sandwich (which happened to be next door to Platform 9 & 3/4) which had this awesome art display on the walls. Maybe it was because they were red lacquer, but I loved them none the less!

Scrumptious fries at Top Sandwich. Everything in Ukraine comes with garnishes of herbs of some kind.

Even in Ukrainian, you still know what came inside that little box...

And now, for my amazingly delicious burrito, that had sour cream, guac, and onions, all of which I normally despise, but couldn't have cared less as I ate an ACTUAL tortilla with chicken, beans, cheese, and rice.

before...

during...

Zakonchila (finished). Don't judge.

Lydia & Kym (totally candid and not ready)

Kristen, Lydia, Kym, and Tondraya

Tondraya displaying the hot sauce the Mexican restaurant had (food in Ukraine is typically not spicy at all)

Kym, Lydia, & Phil with ice cream/gelato on the streets of Odessa.

The end!

Odessa: Part 2, the beach!

There's really not that much explaining to do about this post. It's title says it all!

I will tell you a funny story thought about our first day in Odessa and our marshrutka ride to the beach. The hostel that we stayed at was incredibly helpful about giving us directions when we needed them. They told us where to catch the right bus (number 203) and take it until it gets to the final stop. Then just follow the crowd. We waited for a good 15 minutes on a bus...maybe even 20. The first day it was just Kym, Tondraya, and myself going to the beach...and when the bus finally showed up it was the most crowded marshrutka I have ever seen. We were already sweating and ready to get into the sea, but we knew we had to get there first. Kym and Tondraya were saying that it was to crowded to get on the bus...but I wasn't about to wait another 20 minutes. We politely shoved our way on, true Ukrainian style (don't worry, this is normal here) and were off. Everybody on that bus was touching at least one other person, if not 2 or 3. It was the sweatiest ride I think I've ever endured in my life...but we made it! When we got off the bus, there was literally sweat rolling down my legs that you could see glistening in the sun. Lovely, I know :)

One of the piers where everyone jumps off...the people you see in the water on the back right of the picture are standing on a cement wall that was built...

Who can spot the craziest hair in this picture above? Hint: she's in the picture below too...I was trying to be candid when I took this shot.

I don't know how she got her hair to do that!

That about does it for beach pics :) enjoy!

Odessa: Part 1

Still catching up on blog posts from way back (I don't think I ever finished the swearing-in ceremony...whoops. add that to the list of things to blog about!), but I've been dying to post about my little vacay down to Odessa. When I got back from my camping trip, I learned that we didn't have work the next week. A group of fellow PCV 41's (my training group) were going down to Odessa for a few days to catch some rays and enjoy the amazing(ly hot) weather. I didn't want to go by myself though because I had yet to ride on a train here in Ukraine and was nervous to do all of that on my own. However, when I was hanging out with some of the PCVs who live in k-grad with me, Phil mentioned one day that he was thinking about taking a little vacation somewhere, maybe Odessa. I jumped on the opportunity to have a trouble buddy (let alone a seasoned travel buddy who had already been to Odessa few times!), so Phil and I went to buy our train tickets. This is an incredibly nerve-racking process because there is no doubt a line when you go to buy it, it is all done in Russian/Ukrainian, and the ladies that sell you your tickets are not usually very nice. But, I got our tickets purchased without a problem and was so excited to see friends I could hardly stand it.

It is typical to travel by train overnight here in Ukraine so that you arrive the place you're going in the morning and you don't waste a night. Our train left at 2:30 am (which kind of sucked) and arrived into Odessa at 8:30 am. When you buy your ticket, you request one of four ticket options: luxury (first class, 2 beds in a compartment), plutzkart (2 upper and 2 lower beds in a compartment), kupe (upper and lower beds in hallway-type configurations, no doors), and coach (a seat, similar to an airplane). Phil and I got 2 plutzkart tickets for around 130 griev each (a little over $16.00)--and we had bottom beds, or so we thought. When we got on the train at 2 am, there was a young mom and her 3 year old daughter asleep in my bed, while the dad was on one of the top bunks. The train attendant (kind of like a stewardess) woke the mom up to tell her that she needed to move to her top bunk, but she wasn't having it. I said it was fine, that I would sleep up top. Little did I know that the daughter was going to wake up at 5 or 6 am and scream and cry for the next 2 hours until we arrived in Odessa. Here are a few pictures of the train and how it's situated...these are actually pictures from our train home but they're all the same.

the hallway (all of the plutzkart rooms are on the left and there are windows on the right)

odd numbers are the bottom bunks, top bunks are even numbers

looking out the rain when we were still at the train station in Odessa

Phil's bottom bed (the bed lifts up and has a box where you can put stuff to secure it overnight.)

My lower bunk (the stewardess had not brought us our linens yet)

View of the whole compartment!

There is also storage above the hallway outside so that the people on the top bunks can put their luggage up there.

So, once we arrived in Odessa, we were greeted by their stately train station. We headed across the street to McDonalds (which has free wifi, air-conditioning, and public toilets) where we met Kym (who was in my link cluster group) and Tondraya, whose train had gotten in at 6:30 am.

The Odessa Train Station (Вокзал)

Train stations in Ukraine are usually pretty spectacular as far as architecture goes...especially the ones in big cities.

The schedule of trains...which I can pretty much understand!

After Phil and I ate breakfast at McDonalds (it was all I could do to contain myself not to get a McFlurry at 9 am), we left our bags with Kym and Tondraya to go back to the train station and buy our tickets home. That was when we discovered this lovely hidden gem in the train station where they have a) air conditioning, b) no lines, c) a patient lady who showed me the many options back to k-grad on a computer, and d) a stunning mosaic and chandelier. I will most definitely buy my tickets from that hidden room the next time I'm in Odessa!

Our time spent in Odessa included time on the beach, shopping, eating, and enjoying the company of other Americans. I think this post is long enough, so I'll go ahead and post it :)