Today we tell you about our trip to Odessa in Ukraine in 2008, which we did together with Peter's son Billie and his cousin Pontus. We are looking through old photos and realise that we have done a lot of trips that we have barely written about, as we did them before we started the blog. Our trip to Ukraine in the summer of 2008 is one of them. Today we take you to Odessa on the Black Sea.
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Why go on a sun holiday to Ukraine?
We planned a sun holiday for the summer of 2008, together with Peter's youngest son Billie (12 years old) and his cousin Pontus (13 years old). When it came to choosing a holiday destination, we wanted to think a little "outside the box".
We asked Billie to look at the map book and suggest a country with a coastline at the appropriate latitude. Billie studied the map book carefully and then exclaimed hopefully "Somalia!". Now we suddenly didn't want to think outside the box ... for some reason. "Well, maybe something else?"
"What about Ukraine?", Billie suggested. We looked at the map book and realised that Ukraine had a coastline on the Black Sea, including the Crimean peninsula. You swim in the Black Sea in Bulgaria, for example, so why not in Ukraine? We googled some more and realised that there were holiday hotels in Yalta. And so it was decided, we would go on a sun holiday to Ukraine!
Booking tickets
We booked flight tickets from Stockholm to Odessa, via Riga, without any problems. We also managed to book hotels both in Odessa, for a few nights, and in Yalta on the Crimean peninsula for the rest of the time. But how would we get between Odessa and Yalta? We saw that there were trains, but we couldn't book online, partly because the booking sites were only available in Russian and Ukrainian.
If we were travelling alone we might have taken a chance, but now we had two children with us, so we wanted to know that the trip would work. We called the travel agency Bas International (who previously helped us book the Trans-Siberian Railway) and they were very kind and helpful. Now everything was ready for departure!
Beaches in Odessa
We landed in Odessa in the middle of the night and took a taxi to our hotel in the centre of the city. The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and what do you think happened? I met an old Swedish friend who was in Ukraine on some kind of music exchange. Small world you know!
Right after breakfast we went straight down to the beach, and this beach I will never forget! The beach itself was an ordinary fine sandy beach, but what an atmosphere! There were DJs in a booth and the music pumped out over the beach and all the young people. English did not work very well, but pointing and gesticulating always works, so we had no problems.
Catacombs of Odessa
While in Odessa, we also took the opportunity to see the catacombs. Odessa's catacombs are considered to be the world's longest tunnel system, with about 250 kilometres of tunnels. Construction of the tunnels started in the 19th century, to extract building materials. During the Second World War, the tunnels were used to protect the local population from the German occupiers.
That there are tunnels under just the whole The city is of course a construction problem, and to prevent buildings from falling into the underground, there are rules about how high buildings can be. Today you can take tours down the tunnels with a guide, but only a small part of the tunnel system is actually open. 250 miles of pitch-black tunnels are not harmless, and there are many stories of people getting lost down here and never coming out again. Best to stay with the guide, in other words!
Moving towards Yalta on the Crimean peninsula
After the visit to Odessa, it was time for us to move on by train to Yalta and the Crimean peninsula. This was about time before The Crimean crisis, when travelling here was easy. You can read more about our sun holidays on the Crimean peninsula.
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Ninny says:
So fun to read about and see pictures from a country you (I) do not know much about and probably will never visit! Looking forward to the continuation...!
03 February 2018 - 9:09
Helena says:
Glad you liked the post, we liked Ukraine! 🙂
03 February 2018 - 11:28
Ama de casa says:
Cool place to go - and fun selection method 🙂 The tunnel system seems undeniably very exciting!
Looking forward to the rest 🙂
03 February 2018 - 9:44
Helena says:
This selection method is very good when you don't want to get stuck in old patterns. It is especially good to ask a younger person without too many preconceived ideas to make suggestions 🙂.
03 February 2018 - 11:29
Lena in Wales says:
Thanks for nice reading about interesting destination, where I have never been.
Wishing you a nice weekend!
03 February 2018 - 10:05
Helena says:
Thank you very much! Have a nice weekend Lena!
03 February 2018 - 11:29
Liniz Travel says:
What an exciting trip! I also want to do some more unusual trips. I am keen on Montenegro and Albania but do not really get support here at home.....
Hugs
03 February 2018 - 10:21
Helena says:
I'm sorry you don't get sympathy ... Albania and Montenegro are great countries!
03 February 2018 - 11:29
Johnny Friskilä says:
I think we were in Odessa the same year, although I went in the autumn. Or was it 2009? I'll have to check my photos. However, I never went to Crimea, which I obviously regret now, but I went to Transnistria/Moldavia/Romania. A friend of mine was working in Bucharest at the time, and in Moldova there was the country's annual wine festival. I also remember booking Ukrainian train tickets online. The website was not in Russian then, only in Ukrainian, and I got a Ukrainian friend to help me.
03 February 2018 - 10:39
Helena says:
Nice that we were in Odessa at about the same time! Too bad you missed Crimea, but you managed to see a lot of other interesting things instead! To be completely honest, I do not remember for sure if the website was in both Ukrainian and Russian (although I thought so), mostly remember that it was Russian / Ukrainian letters that I could not read ...
03 February 2018 - 11:31
Marina says:
Excited about quirky destinations! Have you been back any time after that? It would be interesting to know what has happened since you were there, it can happen a lot in 10 years...or nothing at all....
03 February 2018 - 10:51
Helena says:
We have been to Kiev twice later, but we have never been back to Odessa unfortunately.
03 February 2018 - 11:40
Role o Carina says:
Looks nice, our neighbour is from Ukraine, they were there last summer!
But we will probably never travel there 🙂
Take care.....
03 February 2018 - 12:07
Helena says:
Nice to show a little from your neighbour's home country then! 🙂 Nice weekend!
04 February 2018 - 10:57
Britt-Marie Lundgren says:
Always fun to hear about different destinations. These have not been on my wish list but many other places and states over there such as. Georgia and Transylvania.
03 February 2018 - 13:29
Helena says:
We are also very keen on Georgia, and Transylvania sounds exciting! 🙂
04 February 2018 - 10:58
Ruth in Virginia says:
It was 1987 or 1988. Don and I were travelling with SAGA, an English company,
to Crimea and Uzbekistan. The group met in London; flew to Sevastopol.
Arrived at midnight. A man in the group had been hit by a luggage cart in London and needed medical attention, so we waited for him. Were bussed to Yalta; served dinner about 1.30am (boiled fish and boiled potatoes; Russia was in VERY bad shape at that time).
After the meal, the tour leader stood up together with the hotel manager.
Message to us:
"We´re sorry to have to tell you that there are no rooms available,
but you can sit in the bar and order anything you want. Rooms will be
available tomorrow." Some of us laughed; thought it was a joke but no! One advantage was that we got to see a wonderful pink sunrise against the white cliffs.
We also got a free sightseeing on the Black Sea. Great entertainment by the Russian Navy in a theatre as well - Interesting excursion to the Black Sea.
the magnificent building where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met.
Later I learnt that it was a group from Hungary that had refused to take the
to move out of their rooms.
Flights from Sevastopol to Tashkent and other locations.
03 February 2018 - 17:22
Helena says:
Wow, so interesting!!! What an experience! Tough to not get a hotel room though...!!!! Thanks for sharing this story Ruth! Uzbekistan is on our bucket list!
04 February 2018 - 11:00
BP says:
Yes, better Ukraine than Somalia, so to speak. Glad you managed to get to Odessa and Yalta before the crisis. Today I would probably not dare to go to Ukraine. I remember that my sister and brother-in-law were in the Crimean Peninsula in the 1990s. They also liked the beaches, Odessa and Yalta.
03 February 2018 - 18:21
Helena says:
Haha, yes Ukraine felt like a better choice than Somalia 😉 It is perfectly possible to go to Kiev in Ukraine today, and certainly several other places. However, travelling to Crimea and some other areas is not recommended.
04 February 2018 - 11:03
BP says:
Commented before, but my comment seems to have ended up in your spam:-(
03 February 2018 - 20:41
Helena says:
Don't know why it ended up in the spam... but have found it! 🙂
04 February 2018 - 11:03
Elisabeth says:
What an exciting destination!
03 February 2018 - 23:32
Helena says:
Interesting to see places that not everyone travels to sometimes! 🙂
04 February 2018 - 11:04