When we landed in Odesa, we were met by the guy from Unitours travel. He was right there with a big sign. He took us to the train station and gave us our tickets and explained how to get on the train and he also showed us how we could store our luggage at the station so we could walk around Odesa.
The luggage storage place was packed and we didn’t have hryvny yet, so I watched the luggage and Natalia whipped over to the money exchange in the train station to get some hryvny. The luggage people were quite amused that Natalia spoke Ukrainian and not Russian and wanted to know where she learned it.
After ditching our luggage, next thing on the agenda was to find a toilet. There was a pay toilet at the train station and it was clean, although the squatting type. After that, we walked around the city for a couple of hours.
We had dinner in a quaint Ukrainian restaurant in the main part of town – Lasynka – we had green borcht – which was amazing! And perch Odessa style, which was really delicious as well. Green borscht is made with sorrel, egg, potato.The perch was HUGE, and was served over top sliced fried potatoes and cooked thin onions. It was topped with what they call mayonnaise but what tasted more like crème fresh.
We walked back towards the train station, stopping on the way to get water and also to send email at an internet cafe. It began to rain and we didn’t have anything to do but wait for the train for several hours so we went to a little lunch place and had water. Everyone else was drinking beer. It was a clean and new lunch place – and that’s what really was striking – so many new businesses serving everything and selling everything. Tons of western products, lots of food venders everywhere. People looking prosperous. Buildings being renovated.
When it was finally time to stand on the train platform, we were two of hundreds. This is the last holiday weekend and a very busy time. Had we not preordered our train tickets we woudn’t have got them.
The first class compartment was surprisingly nice and clean with comfortable pillows, sheets and blanket and even towels. The bathroom was strange. We were dying for a good wash but couldn’t do that there. The sink was tiny and with a strange push device to get the water. But the toilet was a sit down and clean.
The lulling of the train made for good sleeping.
Here’s our train:
