Yes, yesterday I unfortunately made it to reach the Black Sea. There fore I had to start around 7am in the morning. After one hour cycling I reached a trucker cafe, where I had breakfast. It's really funny how living one month abstinent from too much food and doing almost daily sports changes the needs and the pleasure about simple things. The breakfast I got was two eggs with 3 huge pieces of extremely fat bacon - and believe me, it was great to have such a meal for breakfast!
At the truck stop there was a pheasant - now you are able to have a close look at this nice animal.
After almost 100 km cycling I almost did it.
And here we go, the first suburbs of Odessa. The area of this town, where 1 million people are living is really huge, so it took a while to find a place where to stay. But who seeks will find!
In the evening I had a small walk to the seaside and was trying to breathe the flair of the city.
Beside nice churches I saw, very stylish trams, which makes you feel being back in the USSR.
These spikes are really everywhere. Even in Odessa, so nothing special war monuments like in Berlin, Paris, => same shit than everywhere ;-)
Dried or smoked fish is very famous in Russia, I knew that already, but obviously in Ukraine as well. Some of the fish looked like small belugas - maybe you can see it if you are zooming in.
And here we go, crowded beaches...
And Mr. Davis Hasselhof's working place.
But not only the hipster and stylish people in their teen and twen ages have the possibility to present them selves, also about the very small ones was taken care a professional way, so that the moms and dads could enjoy them selves.
Today was dedicated to get the Visa for Russia. It took me a while to find somebody who knew where the Russian embassy was. And the two maps I had were no help at all, cause the streets were written in it in Latin language and all road signs in Cyrillic. And also Google Maps did not know the address from the embassy ;-) And really almost no one was speaking a word English - which made it quite complicated to find the way.
Anyhow after a while I found it, now I am sitting in a cafe and waiting until 3pm when I hopefully get my passport back with the Visa. Costs for Germans to get a Russian Visa in Odessa the same day are US$ 91 - could anybody tell me, what the hell they want with US$?
Beside trying to get the Visa I also had a look at the city itself - as my maps are totally crap and I couldn't find a tourist office so far, cause no policeman is speaking English I couldn't tell you in detail what is shown on the pictures.
Here is a church.
Here something like maybe a theatre or maybe something else - but it looks great, isn't it?
The same building just from an other direction.
And then I went to the beach again, this time to the real hot spot where the party will go on during weekends and nights. I didn't like this place too much, cause in each single cafe they were playing horrible music, and the beaches itself were too crowded for me to feel comfortable - so in that case my theory might be right, that beaches are mainly something for idiots... but aren't all of us when we are honest to ourselves at least sometimes idiots?=> ok but Saint Moritz is similar to Saint Tropez, and Sölden/Ischgl to Ballermann therefore forget it. But I will tell you something about the bad sides I saw in Odessa so far.
The prices in the bars and restaurants at the beach had almost the same level than in Germany, even Ukraine is more poor. But the hipsters here are spiraling the prices with their excessive way of living and partying. And that's good from their point of view, cause if it would be cheap it would be totally worthless, I guess.
Anyhow I think from party point of view this place is probably comparable to Ibiza or Majorca, even I have never been there before and it might be even better and/or cheaper.
Maybe I will try out tonight and write a statement, just to provide you with good information of course!
Yes, Yes, Yo => After one hour waiting, and some arguing I have my Visa, with 2 possible entries into Russia!
I had to pay now 75 € for the Invitation letter and 91 US$ for the Visa itself. No idea if this is cheap or not, but this are the facts ;-)
It was very interesting for me to sit in the embassy and look at the people:
so nice experience ;-) when you got a positive feedback. But I assume foreigners are having exactly the same experience when they are visiting a German embassy.
Now relaxing could start... Metallica Orion
Ok no real party report, but many good things about this city: Following the shore North Eastern from the Ballermann spot you find really nice places at the beach to hang out. In this area you find as well great bars and restaurants in chilly atmosphere producing less noise and giving this town an amazing flair. I was just sitting in a nice bar, where I had one beer.
I spontaneously decided to stay one night longer in Odessa to discover it a further and here we go with some more pictures.
Odessa was an old Greece settlement 5-3 centuries bc. You could visit places like this as well. And one interesting possibility is to visit catacombs from the 2nd world war, but to do so you should at least book one day in advance - cause the catacombs are 30min driving distance away from the town.
Poor guy, he has to carry so much...
Conclusion about Odessa:
I think Odessa is truly worth to visit! As it has for everyone something - which most other cities might not have (party zone, beaches, old buildings, very old history, stylish alternative spots, a lot of beautiful girls, ...) But do it better sooner than later! Right now there is a lot of construction going on in this town - so they are preparing themselves for big tourism, which means higher prices. Right now you can still explore something special. Transportation is a bit annoying in town, cause of heavy traffic, buses and trams are no real alternative, cause they are using the same lane as the cars. With bicycle it is pretty fast. So take your bike and enjoy this town!
At the truck stop there was a pheasant - now you are able to have a close look at this nice animal.
After almost 100 km cycling I almost did it.
And here we go, the first suburbs of Odessa. The area of this town, where 1 million people are living is really huge, so it took a while to find a place where to stay. But who seeks will find!
In the evening I had a small walk to the seaside and was trying to breathe the flair of the city.
Beside nice churches I saw, very stylish trams, which makes you feel being back in the USSR.
These spikes are really everywhere. Even in Odessa, so nothing special war monuments like in Berlin, Paris, => same shit than everywhere ;-)
Dried or smoked fish is very famous in Russia, I knew that already, but obviously in Ukraine as well. Some of the fish looked like small belugas - maybe you can see it if you are zooming in.
And here we go, crowded beaches...
And Mr. Davis Hasselhof's working place.
But not only the hipster and stylish people in their teen and twen ages have the possibility to present them selves, also about the very small ones was taken care a professional way, so that the moms and dads could enjoy them selves.
Today was dedicated to get the Visa for Russia. It took me a while to find somebody who knew where the Russian embassy was. And the two maps I had were no help at all, cause the streets were written in it in Latin language and all road signs in Cyrillic. And also Google Maps did not know the address from the embassy ;-) And really almost no one was speaking a word English - which made it quite complicated to find the way.
Anyhow after a while I found it, now I am sitting in a cafe and waiting until 3pm when I hopefully get my passport back with the Visa. Costs for Germans to get a Russian Visa in Odessa the same day are US$ 91 - could anybody tell me, what the hell they want with US$?
Beside trying to get the Visa I also had a look at the city itself - as my maps are totally crap and I couldn't find a tourist office so far, cause no policeman is speaking English I couldn't tell you in detail what is shown on the pictures.
Here is a church.
Here something like maybe a theatre or maybe something else - but it looks great, isn't it?
The same building just from an other direction.
And then I went to the beach again, this time to the real hot spot where the party will go on during weekends and nights. I didn't like this place too much, cause in each single cafe they were playing horrible music, and the beaches itself were too crowded for me to feel comfortable - so in that case my theory might be right, that beaches are mainly something for idiots... but aren't all of us when we are honest to ourselves at least sometimes idiots?=> ok but Saint Moritz is similar to Saint Tropez, and Sölden/Ischgl to Ballermann therefore forget it. But I will tell you something about the bad sides I saw in Odessa so far.
The prices in the bars and restaurants at the beach had almost the same level than in Germany, even Ukraine is more poor. But the hipsters here are spiraling the prices with their excessive way of living and partying. And that's good from their point of view, cause if it would be cheap it would be totally worthless, I guess.
Anyhow I think from party point of view this place is probably comparable to Ibiza or Majorca, even I have never been there before and it might be even better and/or cheaper.
Maybe I will try out tonight and write a statement, just to provide you with good information of course!
Yes, Yes, Yo => After one hour waiting, and some arguing I have my Visa, with 2 possible entries into Russia!
I had to pay now 75 € for the Invitation letter and 91 US$ for the Visa itself. No idea if this is cheap or not, but this are the facts ;-)
It was very interesting for me to sit in the embassy and look at the people:
- some of them were frustrated, cause the people working there had a lot of to complain about their visa forms,
- other were totally desperate, cause their visa was refused
- some were humorous about such bureaucracy
- others were just pissed
so nice experience ;-) when you got a positive feedback. But I assume foreigners are having exactly the same experience when they are visiting a German embassy.
Now relaxing could start... Metallica Orion
Ok no real party report, but many good things about this city: Following the shore North Eastern from the Ballermann spot you find really nice places at the beach to hang out. In this area you find as well great bars and restaurants in chilly atmosphere producing less noise and giving this town an amazing flair. I was just sitting in a nice bar, where I had one beer.
I spontaneously decided to stay one night longer in Odessa to discover it a further and here we go with some more pictures.
Odessa was an old Greece settlement 5-3 centuries bc. You could visit places like this as well. And one interesting possibility is to visit catacombs from the 2nd world war, but to do so you should at least book one day in advance - cause the catacombs are 30min driving distance away from the town.
Poor guy, he has to carry so much...
Conclusion about Odessa:
I think Odessa is truly worth to visit! As it has for everyone something - which most other cities might not have (party zone, beaches, old buildings, very old history, stylish alternative spots, a lot of beautiful girls, ...) But do it better sooner than later! Right now there is a lot of construction going on in this town - so they are preparing themselves for big tourism, which means higher prices. Right now you can still explore something special. Transportation is a bit annoying in town, cause of heavy traffic, buses and trams are no real alternative, cause they are using the same lane as the cars. With bicycle it is pretty fast. So take your bike and enjoy this town!
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