Day Six: Odessa, Ukraine

Our Odessa City Highlights tour started through the central downtown to Gogol Street, lined by stylish, early 19th-century buildings designed by Italian, French and Russian architects, historical monuments and picturesque squares. Our first stop was the top of the Potemkin Steps, descending 455 feet to the waterfront. We walked along picturesque Primorsky Boulevard, as majestic 100-year-old trees led us to the Pushkin Monument--dedicated to the Russian poet who spent thirteen months exiled in Odessa. The group passed City Hall and a cannon salvaged from the British frigate, Tiger, which sank during the Crimean War. The Opera House was built in 1884 in Hapsburg Baroque style. We then proceeded to the main city's square, with a statue to Lenin recalling Soviet times, and St Panteleimon Church with its five onion domes. Finally, Shevchenko Park and Deribasovskaya Street, the city's main shopping area. We shopped in the open air handicraft market in the City Garden for souvenir items including a Fedoskino lacquer box, and matrioshka dolls.

Speaking to our tour guide, an Odessa University professor, it appears that the population is divided between their present independence and the security of the former USSR. Present times are hard. They only have hot running water three months out of the year. In a country where more than half of the year is bitingly cold, this can be difficult.

Odessa has the feel of a cultural, university town. One faced with a challenging transition. Like the two 12-year old boys playing flawless classical violin for tips on the street corner, the city is adapting to the times.