We arrived at Odessa Station early in the morning. We headed over to the Left Luggage Office and dropped our bags off there. I cant remember how much it was, but I presume it was pretty inexpensive. We had a couple of hours to kill before our tour started, so most of us headed over to the McDonalds just across the square. We had to navigate through what felt like an underground maze to get there. My tired, hungover brain just couldnt figure it out. I hadnt really slept on the train and had hoped that by drinking alcohol I would pass out, well it only worked for about 30 minutes and I had spent the rest of the train journey awake. Some food, free wifi, washing my face and brushing my teeth did help and it made me feel human again for a while.
Around 9 am, we met back up by the train station to start our Dark Odessa Tour. We met up with our guide and driver and piled into the minibus, which wasnt the most luxurious of vehicles. First, we drove around the streets near the train station and the guide pointed out some places of
interest, including a building that had recently had a fire in it. Part of the building in tact, while other parts were only a shell. The guide didnt know what had caused the fire, but I hope everyone made it out safely. After our drive around the city, we headed out towards the port area. We cam to a street that had once been filled with money, prostitutes, drugs, human trafficking etc, but now it was very much abandoned. There were little flashes of grandeur such as beautiful staircases, but the buildings were all decaying and crumbling. There was some great graffiti and street art in this area and I really enjoyed the walk along the street. The weird thing was on the next street over there were some really nice, modern looking buildings. Maybe rejuvenation hadnt made it that far yet, maybe in a few years time this street will look totally different.
We drove along the worst street in Odessa. The street is filled with potholes and our guide talked more about Odessa as we made our way along it. I was fading by this point, so closed my eyes and took a nap. When
I woke up we were still on the same street. I had been asleep for quite a while and I think it took us about an hour to reach the end of the street. Wed had to go so slow because of all the potholes. Our next stop was an old meat processing factory. The factory is abandoned but there were a couple of small businesses in the vicinity. The factory looked quite imposing with the large chimneys in front of it. We walked around the yard, which was filled with rubble and there were a few gravestones. Could people really be buried here? The guide told us that there werent any people buried there and that the grave stones were rejects from one of the small businesses. I felt like this would be a place for junkies to hang out in.
The last stop on the tour was the Memorial to the Heroic Defence of Odessa, which was a park/open air museum with lots of airplanes, a submarine and other military paraphernalia on display. We spent a while walking through the park, taking photos of the different things. It was quite interesting, I only wished it had been
a bit warmer. We drove back to the station and as we were dropped off there, our local guide started telling us about fire at the Trade Union House. If I remember correctly, our guide was very and painted them as the helpless victims. Later, one of our other guides told us, he had basically been talking shit and that was not how it went down. I know very little about the clashes that happened in Odessa in 2014 and really need to read up on it more, as well as what is going on in the Crimea. Thats more to go on my to read list then.
After the tour we had some free time and since we were hungry some of us headed off to find a restaurant for some lunch. We headed up the main street and came to a nice looking place called City Buffet. We headed in there, grabbed a table and made our way up to the buffet.
