During our stay in Odessa we spent one day touring the areas around the city, including the catacombs and a WWII battlefield.

Odessa Catacombs

Odessa is famous for it’s catacombs. There are about 3000 km of tunnels running underneath the city. It is said that the tunnels began during the original building of the city when people were digging for rock to build their structures with. Many houses used to have entrances to the tunnels, but the Soviet regime ordered all of the entrances closed. In WWII, the partisans (a group of Soviet underground resistance) made the catacombs their home, generally only coming out at night. Because of this, the Soviet government preserved the catacombs to memorialize the heroic partisan efforts.

This is the only entrance to the catacombs today, or so we are told. Today, you are required to enter the catacombs only with a guide.

The “tour” of the catacombs only takes you for maybe 1/2 of a mile. On display, they have miscellaneous partisan paraphernalia from when the group of partisans actually inhabited these catacombs.

The tour ends with an exit at the partisan museum (as shown in the Ukrainian sign).

Inside the museum, there are a bunch of signs on display showing Soviet propaganda. I found these signs very interesting.

You can watch this video to get a deeper understanding of the history of the catacombs!

Battery 411
Getting to Battery 411 was another adventure in Ukrainian public transportation. Not only were we once again stuck on a super-stuffed minibus hotter than a Turkey on Thanksgiving, we also got charged twice for the same bus. Yep, that’s right. That’s Ukraine for ya! Here’s a picture of the minibus station near Battery 411.

What is Battery 411? Battery 411 is a battlefield from WWII just outside of Odessa. Odessa was an important scene during WWII and is known for the “Siege of Odessa“. At the time of this battle in 1941, the Soviet Russian forces were battling the German Fascist forces. The Romanians, German allies, invaded Ukraine and a battle was fought for 73 days until Odessa was sieged by the Germans. This is when the partisans (mentioned in the catacombs section above) went into hiding, trying to break Odessa free of the Fascists. Eventually, the siege ended in 1944 and was once again Soviet territory.

Remnants of trenches used in WWII.

Battery 411 displays planes, boats, cannons, and tanks used in WWII.

Cannons

Tanks

Here’s a video showing pictures from the battle of Odessa.

Ukrainian Language

I always enjoy learning what I can about new languages. Visiting countries like Ukraine, Bulgaria, and Russia is fun because you have to learn a new alphabet based on Cyrillic. Once you learn the alphabet, however, it’s amazing what you can understand. Many words are still the same in our language as they are in Ukrainian!

This says “supermarket”

“Pharmacia”

“Optica” – Store for prescription glasses, etc.

Above the advertisements reads “Odessa”. The advertisement to the left of the camera reads “Super Credit”.

Trains

Trains were our primary mode of transportation through Ukraine. Here is a picture of the Odessa train station. The word on top is pronounced “vokzal”, the Ukrainian word for train station.

Typical train. The sign on the train it says it’s the restaurant car.

Sign stating which two cities this train travels between. This particular train goes between Odessa and Simferopol.

On every train we had a sleeper car as our transport was usually through the night.

Typical scenery from the train – flat. Ukraine was the Soviet Union’s “breadbasket”.

The train station in Simferopol

This concludes the Odessa part of my trip. But, still more pictures to come from Yalta and other parts of the Crimea!

Odessa is one of the major cultural cities in Ukraine. Located on the coast of the Black Sea, for a number of years it was a “free port”. As a result, Odessa has attracted immigrants of all sorts from many different countries making Odessa of the more culturally diverse cities in Ukraine. On a side note, it’s also known to be the city in Ukraine with the most people infected with HIV.

Odessa is a city undergoing major reconstruction. The Opera House has been beautifully redone.

The Yalaternynyska Plaza.

Another scenic street in Odessa.

A statue of Ivan Franko, a famous Ukrainian poet.

The statue of Pushkin, a famous Russian writer, is also being redone, along with most of the historical sights in the city.

Just around the corner, you’ll find the streets that have not yet been reconstructed. They are still beautiful in their own way.

The Potemkin Stairs are one of the most popular sights in Odessa.

The city garden is also popular. At night, people gather to listen to music play (recorded) with a fountain light show. During the day, people line up for photos at the statues.

Our hotel was built in the late 1800’s.

Our room (2 bedrooms and a living room) reflected the architecture at the turn of the century, a nice contrast to the Soviet cement monstrosities. However, the bathtub once again looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months.

Behind our hotel was an enclosed arcade with the architecture still beautifully in-tact.

Odessa is also known as a popular destination for beaches. The beaches lie just along the coast to the south of the city. We spent a day exploring the beaches of Arkadia. We ventured out to Arkadia using public transportation- an electric train with no air conditioning on a hot blistering day, so stuffed with people that having one more person in there would cause the whole thing to explode. I reeked of other people’s sweat when I got off the thing at the end of the line in Arkadia.

Arkadia is full of amusement-park style things and restaurants at the entrance of the beach.

The beaches are pretty nice.

The tour books painted a dreary picture of of the Arkadia beaches, with visions of garbage floating in the water and piles of litter on the shores. The Arkadia beaches have been cleaned up in recent years. However, bits of litter are still piled with the sand.

This past July I had the opportunity to travel to Ukraine. With my move being just before and after this trip, the Thrillhead Blog ceasing to exist, having to set up a new blog here, finding a new job, and working a ton, I have not been able to do a trip report on the Ukraine in a timely manner. Finally, things have settled down this week for me, and I’ve begun sorting through my Ukraine photos! And now I am ready to share some of my photos from this trip!

Summary of trip

My trip began on Friday July 18. I left Colorado at some insane hour like 4 am. I traveled all day (or night- the time change makes that blurry) and arrived in Kiev Saturday night. My dad and his former student Sonja had been traveling across Russia for the better part of the summer, beginning in Vladivostok and traveling east. During different parts of the trip, various people joined them. My time to join them was in the Ukraine.

Sonja has a particular interest in Ukraine. Her grandparents on her fathers side immigrated from the Ukraine to the US and she grew up very aware of her heritage. She was eager to explore the homeland of her grandparents.

Here is the overall plan of our trip

Sunday July 20- Spent day in Kiev, took night train to Odessa

Monday July 21- Explored Odessa

Tuesday July 22- Arkadia beach near Odessa

Wednesday July 23- Odessa Catacombs, Battery 411, night train to Simferopol

Thursday July 24- Arrived in Simferopol, took mini-bus to Yalta, explored Yalta

Friday July 25- Guide took us to explore Crimea beach, Sudok fortress, and then Bachchysaray

Saturday July 26- Explored Khan’s palace in Bachchysaray. Guide led us on a 10 mile hike to a monastery and cave-town.

Sunday July 27- Hiked with guide to Grand Canyon. Drove to Yalta.

Monday July 28- Hired driver to take us from Yalta to Sevastopol. On the way we visited Livadia Palace, Swallow’s Nest, Alupka (Alupkinsky Palace Museum), and Balaklava submarine base. Stayed in Sevestopol.

Tuesday July 29- Train all day and night to Kiev.

Wenesday July 30- Arrived in Kiev. Explored Kiev.

Thursday July 31- Spent morning in Kiev. Took plane Thursday night back to US.

Language
Ukrainians not only speak a different language, they use a different alphabet. Their language and alphabet is similar to the Cyrillic seen in Russia and Bulgaria. Thankfully, my former travels to Russia and Bulgaria have left me well-acquainted with this alphabet. Because of the different alphabet, translations to the English language are difficult. You’ll find that many cities and sights will have their names spelled several different ways. However, their pronunciation is pretty much the same, despite differences in spelling.

Kiev Pictures
Today’s heart of Kiev thrives in the area of vul Kreshchatyk- a street synonymous with shopping and grand European-style buildings.

The Dnieper River runs through Kiev. Once a radioactive threat due to the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, it has since then become much cleaner and it is common to find people swimming in it.

Notice Ukrainians taking pictures of one another…. In Russian and Ukrainian culture, it’s very popular for people (locals and tourists alike) to take pictures at memorials, churches, statues, and fountains. People will literally line up to have their turn for a photo opportunity. I swear, they are worse than the Japanese with their cameras!

Volodymyrska Hirka-Park offers beautiful war memorials (memorials commemorating WWII are all over Ukraine since many Ukrainians died in this war and it had a huge impact on their country) soviet statues, and scenic views of Kiev.

The hydropark is a popular spot for locals and tourists alike.

St. Michael’s Monastery is one of the most beautiful sights in Kiev. It’s blue color is one of the most vibrant things in the city.

St. Sofia’s Church, also called Sofiiskii Sobor or St. Sophie Church, is just down the road from St. Michael’s. The photos below feature the bell tower.

St. Andrew’s Cathedral (Andriivska Tserkva) is hard to miss on the famous shopping street, Andriivskii Uzviz (Andrew’s Alleyway).

The aforementioned alley is a tourist’s dream. The stands went on for something like a half a mile!

Our hotel, Hotel Slavutich, offered great views.

But, it’s cleanliness left much to be desired. Typical of most Ukrainian hotels, the bathtub had not been cleaned for months.

After seeing the statue from afar, we decided to go see it. Called Rodina Mat’ (Mother Nation) it is the central figure in the National Museum about the History of the Great Patriotic War (that would be WWII to us- the Soviets called it the Patriotic War).

The statue was surrounded by Soviet statues and WWII relics.

Kievo-Pecherska Lavra (the caves monastery) is the size of a college campus. It’s located in one of the oldest parts of Kiev and is one of the most famous sights to see in the city.

Kiev is an interesting place to explore…..
Like Moscow, they have a very efficient subway whose tunnels leading below the ground seem to never end.

Post-boxes are easy to find, but post-cards are not. Many locals don’t even know what a post-card is.

Once the third biggest city in Russia, Kiev is making a name for itself as one of the up and coming places in Eastern Europe.