Odessa, Ukraine - July 5

A thunder storm welcomed us into Odessa – mail language here is Russian not Ukranian. The city walking tour that is booked for the morning is cancelled. We have another one booked for the afternoon, so hopefully that will go ahead.I am having a tonne of trouble getting photos posted from the boat, so photos may be posted haphazardly.

The afternoon’s tour to the Odessa catacombs goes ahead. It takes about an hour by bus to get to catacombs used during the war to fend off the Germans. Apparently Odessa has 3500 km of human-made catacombs.

The cruise line we are on prides itself on its high level of service. This was very clear to us at lunch today. While eating at the buffet restaurant the waiters carry your plate to where you are seated! You basically walk along side the waiter while he carries the plate. Just as I thought I was being ignored by having to actually carry my own plate from the dessert buffet, the waiter swooped in from out of no where to rearrange my place at the table by moving my tea pot about 3 milimeters so that my dessert plate would fit. Perhaps this story looses something in my telling it, but my point is that we are being well taken care of!

Things I noticed about Odessa…
1. Men don’t care for wearing shirts…men of all sizes, doing any number of things.
2. Women of all sizes wear very tight clothing.
3. There is very, very little English anywhere we were. This made it painfully difficult to find a café to enjoy a Ukranian beer. Prices seemed relatively cheep however…about 1.50 CAN for a beer.

This shot is of the famous Potemkin steps – 192 steps and the view above is from our balcony in Odessa!