Odessa ... where seamen and tourists come and go in large numbers (111Cong.Rec.)

A few Fridays this summer, TJ and I worked half-days. Obviously, we wanted to take advantage of the "long" weekend, so on our first half-Friday, we took a road trip to Odesa. It's a six-hour drive, so even though we left mid-day, it was getting dark as we arrived at our accommodations near the train station. Actually, we could've traveled by train, even with Sage, but it's an overnight trip, so we would've lost one night in the Black Sea port.

Our apartment was in a building across the street from Kulykove Pole Square, once a military demonstration field. In front of the abandoned regional Soviet Communist Party headquarters is a makeshift monument to Euromaidan victims (top left). From the center of the square, you can see the domes of St. Panteleimon's Monastery, dedicated to a famous martyr and healer (top right). The next morning, on our way to check out Privoz Market, TJ bought a cup of kvass as a donation to the church (bottom). 

 

The market was a bit too mad with people, especially in 90-degree heat, so we escaped to the Old Town, which looks like it is straight out of Europe (top). Indeed, Odesa considers itself a cultured seaside resort. Some say the productions at the National Opera and Ballet Theater (bottom left) are better than those in Kyiv. There are multiple statues of Alexander Pushkin, including one in front of the museum dedicated to him on the street dedicated to him (bottom right).

At the end of the same road is a monument to Pushkin, which seems like a bit of overkill considering the writer wrote only part of "Eugene Onegin" during his one-year stay in the city. If you continue past the monument, the promenade leads you to the top of Potemkin Stairs, the site of the famous scene in Battleship Potemkin (top left). Many people walk down the steps then cram into a small funicular to get back up to the top (top right). Even when I saw the magnitude of the feat from the Sea Port (bottom left), I still decided I preferred walking to being packed in like a sardine. There were relatively fewer people at the port terminal, where you could see infrastructure for both luxury yachts and cargo ships (bottom right). 

From the sea, we wandered back into the city, so we could stroll down pedestrian Deribasovskaya Street (left). It was still early in the day, so most of its restaurants and cafes were empty. Even the tables in the cool and refreshing City Garden were vacant (right). It was tempting to stop as we perused the book market in the park, but because of our limited time, we pressed on. 

Our pick for lunch was City Food Market, a newly opened indoor collection of street-food vendors (left). We chose Chernomorka for its inexpensive oysters and Black Sea shrimp (right). We were hoping to wash them down with some pints from Odd Brew, but its bar didn't open until 5, so I had a smoothie and TJ tried some Ukrainian wine.

We weren't too upset because our ultimate destination for the day, and for our trip, was the Odesa Beer Festival. Shortly after entering the event, we were corralled into a speech by the president of the Ukrainian Beer League (left), but we decided rather quickly that the scene was more happening out by the beer taps. As we snacked on grilled octopus and fried fish, we decided that some of our favorite tastes of the day came from local brewer Beer Mood (right).

We stayed so long that by the time we headed across the street and down to Dolphin Beach, the sun was setting and the moon was rising (top left). I certainly preferred its comparative calm (top right) to the commercial atmosphere at Arcadia Beach, which we visited the next morning (middle). The sand and water were both swarmed with people (bottom left), so we opted to just soak in the atmosphere with some suds (bottom right).

 

Before we headed out for our return ride, we made a final pit stop at Kompot, where TJ ordered a kompot to drink alongside his okroshka (left). It was hard not to nap during the ride home after downing a plate of potatoes and cutlets, but luckily, at a gas station, there was not one, but two, packs of puppies to perk me up (right).