I spent two weeks in Odessa. One word I have for Odessa is: HOT!
Every day in August seems to be in the mid to upper 30s–36 or 38 degrees Celcius–and fairly high humidity. The dew point is often above a comfortable 15 C. It is not as hot and humid as Houston, Texas in the summer. But then every place in Houston has A/C running strong and you don’t walk around much outside during the summer. You drive in your air-conditioned pickup truck to your air-conditioned office and shop at the air-conditioned mall.
Not so in Odessa, Ukraine. Most places are not air-conditioned and the places that are it is very weak. I spent a lot of time at Macdonald’s because they had good A/C. Riding a tram to the beach at Arkedia was slow, crowded and hot.
Photo courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
So I decided I had to escape the heat. I just could not function there in August. I looked on some weather maps and saw that Krakow, Poland was at least 10 degrees cooler than Odessa.
So I bought a ticket for the overnight train. I cost about 950 Griven and the trips takes about 24 hours. First, it goes overnight through Ternopil to Lviv in western Ukraine (Lvov in Russian). It crosses the border into Poland at Przmysl and then through Turnow and on to Krakow. It actually terminates in Wroclaw if you want to go there. I think some of the cars also go on to Warsaw or Prague. Our wagon was Polish, which is a different from Ukrainian wagons. No lace curtains on the windows and no Samovar for making chai (tea), like on traditional Ukrainian trains.
No Ferry from Odessa to Bulgarian or Turkey
My original plan was to take a ferry from Odessa to Varna or someplace in Bulgaria. But unfortunately, Odessa-Varna line on UkrFerry was shut down last year due to the financial crisis. Also the Odessa-Istanbul line has be discontinued this past July for the same reason. Bummer! Right on the Black Sea, yet apparently no regular way to travel by sea.
Photo courtesy of Amazing Travel Photos
Maybe you could hitch a ride on a freighter. There were also river cruise ships that went from Kiev to Nesebar and Istanbul, but they were sold out. All the boats disembark from the Morskoy Vokxal which is at the base of the famous Potempkin Steps.
The stairway or steps were made famous in the silent film “Battleship Potempkin” by the great Russian director Sergei Eisenstein. Any film buff will want to walk up and down the Potempkin Steps a few times. There is also a bez platna (free) funicular that goes up next to the steps. On the steps you can have your picture taken with a falcon, crocodile, or other dangerous animal!
If you want to go from Odessa to Bulgaria, the only choice is to fly or take a bus which takes about 20 hours. The bus goes through Chisanau in Moldava and passes through Transdnitria which I have been told is a problem for travelers.
