Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Odessa, Ukraine

No morning excursion for us today, how wonderful it was being able to have a leisurely breakfast listening to a brass band playing a welcome/send off for the morning excursion folks (at the buses on the dock). We opted to give ourselves a break and have only an afternoon tour, The Highlights of Odessa.

MV Discovery


This is a view of M/V Discovery from the top of the steps in Odessa. Discovery is a very British ship registered in Hamilton, Bermuda. The passengers are mainly Brits, Scots, Welsh, Australian, New Zealanders, Canadians, and Americans it is not a 'melting pot' but rather the Brits and their Colonials. the port lectures have been very interesting and there is also a historian giving lectures; one on Islam, another on Obama (why?), and tonight the Crusades. We haven't heard too much complaining from the Brits, it has been the Aussie who have been painful.


Highlights of Odessa




We were very surprised by the beauty of Odessa and the wealth. The wealth visible by the cars on the road such as Lexus, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi and others. Of course there are still some very old rattling Lada's to remind us of Soviet times. Major reconstruction has been undertaken and there are some magnificent buildings in Odessa. There are wide tree-lined boulevards and many parks and gardens.


As in the other cities we have visited on this trip the Russian Orthodox Church has been recently restored and was a stop on our tour.

Sailing to Costanza, Romania tonight .....

2 comments:

  1. Hey Luiiiiiiiiiiiiiza.... I have been crunching numbers of kiddos seen and screened etc and am about to go turn them in and just happened to get on here and catch up with y'all
    sounds FABULOUS....breathe in some salt ocean/sea air for me PLEASE.....we miss ya'll.
    Chris even WON at a game of MT the other night!

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  2. Anonymous12:11 PM CDT

    Odessa sounds very nice....probably nothing like the Odessa that I know! I don't think southern Ukraine and West Texas have much in common!

    It's usually the Americans and the Brits that complain....unusual for Aussies.

    Enjoying your posts, and am traveling along with you. Is the food good? Of course, I would be interested in the food! Love, Dawnie

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