Odessa

High tech bus right here!

I have to say my first impression of Odessa was not what I pictured in my mind when Auntie Linda said it was her favorite city... The train station itself was very nice. Get past that though, and it looked like we stepped into the ghettos of Detroit. While you could tell that the buildings at one point were very attractive and architecturally pleasing, the result of communism is very evident. (Soviets don't believe in maintenance unless absolutely necessary.) Everything I saw was literally falling apart. As we are driving to A's apartment, we pass through some of the sketchiest places I have seen. The contrast between poor and rich in this city is ridiculous. From the bus I saw a Porsche dealership, and literally the building attached to it was missing chunks and there was graffiti all over it.
The bus comes and I find out that you pay the bus driver when you get off, rather than when you get on. This means that the driver is talking on his cell phone and counting your money as he drives the bus, which happens to be a stick shift. This is all in crazy European traffic where no one follows any rules.

I did want this... 

After breakfast at A's, we head off to this famous 7 km bazaar. It is the strangest market I have ever seen or heard of! Since Odessa is a port city, what basically happens is containers come in off ships from Turkey, Italy, even China, and these containers get moved to this massive outdoor space and "organized" into rows. they then turn the inside of these containers into stores and you walk down huge massive long aisles that are kind of sort of covered with tarp to provide some shade. I saw some gorgeous Italian leather jackets for $250-350, which you would pay at least $700 in a normal store. I could have also bought a real fur bathrobe/winter coat if I so desired... However the main interest is the rows of clothing where they are selling absolutely gorgeous boutique clothing for ridiculously low prices. Most shirts and things were under $20. Pictures can't really show anything because everything is jammed together. I took a video which I may upload later. Definitely one of the most crazy places I have ever been!

Sandals vs boots
Canadian vs Ukrainian
(it was 20C that day)

When our feet were about ready to give out, we took the bus to the beach on the Black Sea. We walked for a minute and watched some wind surfers, but it was much too windy to hang out on the beach so we had sandwiches in this little restaurant on the boardwalk, and we accidentally semi-crashed a wedding. Dinner commenced with another two guests at an Italian restaurant. There I blew said guests' minds that I had bare legs and sandals when they were wearing boots... "Canadians!"

Day two of Odessa began with another delicious breakfast, another brief trip to the 7 km bazaar. We didn't stay long however, as Sunday is the craziest day there, and the amount of traffic was insane. We jumped on a bus heading downtown where I wandered through a mini handcrafted market located next to a Ukrainian Orthodox church. With their celebration of Easter this week (which is a huge deal, like Christmas is for us), there were pussy willows for sale everywhere. I'm not really sure what the deal is with that though. We then stopped in at a very nice (and pricey!) mall and had lunch (which came to $10 for 3 people... so awesome). A became a great tour guide and we wandered around the touristy area of Odessa. Here, there is no sketchiness! It was absolutely gorgeous. It makes me even more excited for the rest of Europe! The opera theatre is so so pretty, one of the highlights for sure!

Opera Theatre

We made our way down the famous steps into the Odessa port - the same steps my great grandparents walked down as they fled Ukraine for Canada. The port is very nice, and extremely busy! A spotted dolphins right beside the dock and said she has never in all her life seen them so close to land. On the way back I had to pay 20 cents for the privilege of using a squat toilet. My least favorite thing about this country!

Fancy fancy!