Odessa - Day 1

Our last train at Odessa station

At about 8:30 our train pulled ito Odessa Station; the end of this line. It's also the end of our train travels. We've come about 11,000 km fom Vadivostok, which surely would qualify for steak knifes if Russia Rail had a frequent miles program. That's nine nights of travel and a small quantity of vodka, beer, "wine" and packet noodles.

We soon found our hotel, but, as this is a class establishment, check-in isn't until 2 pm. Leaving our bags, we set off to explore Odessa. Firstly, we looked for breakfast. While restaurants are abundant, most seemed to be busy cleaning up from the night before. We found a Japanese place that offered breakfast. It took some time to arrive (we probably had to wait for the chef to come in), but it was otherwise fine.

The city is about 200 years old, founded by Catherine the Great (or maybe Potemkin or one of his lieutenants, depending on your historical religion) in the late 18th century. The city was occupied during the GPW, but wasn't trashed. This means that most bulding seem to date from the late 19th centrury to the 1930's - solid piles built to display the wealth and pride of their owners. The streets are not wide, but are generally lined with what look like plane trees and are therefore quite attractive.

Odessa Opera House

The Opera House is a beautiful building, built by the Austrian architects of the Vienna Opera in the 1880's. We called in and picked up some tickets for tonight's performance, which cost us about A$18 each.

Our stroll continued. The city is fairly compact, so that while there is much to admire with the buildings, avenues and parks, it doesn't actually take a long time to feel that you have seen the city.

The city gradually got moving, so that by lunch time there was reasonable life in the streets. We had lunch at one of the many sidewalk restaurants - borsh tfollowed by a meat roll. By now, it was check-in time, so we headed back to the Londonskaya hotel.

Pushkin lived here for two years - hence the statue

This is one of the old and grand hotels of Odessa. It is on Prymorska Boulevard, a short distance from the top of the famous Potemkin Steps (which area  broad set of steps and landings leading down to the waterfront port area). The hotel is reminescent of Melbourne's Windsor and has been well cared for. Our room proved to be the best of the trip - a spacious portico, with an adjoining bathroom, with double doors to a large space, with two queen beds, belle epoque chandelier and wall lights, high ceilings and a number of dark wooden tables, desks and cabinets, looking out at the trees of Prymorska Boulevard.

In the evening, we put on our best travelling kit and headed for the opera. The opera tonight is Pagliacci. While it is commonly partnered on the bill with Cavalleria Rusticana, tonight it was the whole bill. This means that we have a short night, or that it takes longer to sing in Ukrainian.

Gilt on the boxes at Odessa Opera House

As it happens, it is great night at the opera, with the opera sung in Italian (with Unrainian surtitles). The Italian name, Pagliacci, is transliterated into Russian as something rather like Payatsi, which then appears on the English translation of the playlist as Paytsy, which all, sort of, makes sense if you listen to the sounds only. If the Opera House is a beautiful building outside, it is magnificent inside. Years of renovations have brought back all the original glory. Sparking marble, crisp white plaster, wonderful space, ranks of boxes and the most opulent gilt everywhere makes the interior very special. After the building, the music was very good and the opera enjoyable (but not great).

At the conclusion, about 8:40 pm, we headed off for dinner. We found a Ukrainian restaurant, where we had dishes like salmon caviar, borsh and vareniki (the Ukrainian version of pelmeni), with a good Moldovan chardonnay.