Odessa
N 46°34'28.2'' E 030°54'28.9''Today it’s been really cloudy for a long time. It’s even raining a little and the temperatures have dropped by almost 10 degrees. Everyone rejoices. We are also relieved after the months-long heatwave. We take advantage of the drop in temperature to pay a visit to the city of Odessa. The women decided to give us seventeen-year-old Eugen as our guide. Eugen speaks a little English and is happy to accompany us. The bus only takes 60 minutes to the city center and stops right in front of a hotel. “Let me ask you how much an overnight stay costs,” I say, curious as to whether the hotels are really all that expensive. At reception I am given a price list on which the simplest double room is listed at 15 euros. So we didn’t have to go through the nightmare of the bypass. But anyway, we are now staying with the lovely sisters Luda and Helena and after a few days of settling in we feel at home there.
After checking our emails in the cheap hotel, Eugen shows us a large Orthodox church. Then we stroll through the lively and pretty pedestrian zone. We have a beer and satisfy our hunger in a nice street restaurant. The tour continues to the opera house and the harbor, which is the country’s most important trading and fishing port. Eugen explains that in such cold winters it has to be kept free of ice by icebreakers.
I read that Odessa is one of the most important industrial cities in Ukraine, a railroad junction and cultural center. The most important products are gasoline and other oil products, food, plastics, pharmaceuticals and clothing. There are also several higher education institutions here, including a university, a polytechnic and a medical college, a naval academy and a conservatory.
It is assumed that a Greek colony already existed in ancient times exactly where the city is located today. The Crimean Tatars traded here in the 14th century. Odessa itself was founded in 1794 as a Russian naval fortress on land wrested from Turkey in 1792. The Russian settlement then became an important grain export port in the 19th century. During the Crimean War, Odessa came under fire from the allied French and British warships. The crew of the armored cruiser Potjomkin supported a workers’ revolt in 1905. Odessa was occupied by German and Romanian troops during the Second World War and was severely damaged. Many civilians were killed by the occupying forces. Like all large cities, this one has a long history of ups and downs behind it. Eugen, Tanja and I take a harbor tour to see the city from the seaside. Then we drive back to Nova-Dofinovka, where we are warmly welcomed like long-lost family members.
