Odessa Travel

«Cities, there are everywhere, but each city is known for something» as it is sung in a popular Odessa song. From modesty we will not continue - in Odessa every child knows how the song goes on further, even if the melody is not yet familiar to a child. The casual visitor, either leaving on the platform of the Odessa station or having just arrived to the waiting room of the Odessa airport, will shrug the shoulders in puzzlement: «Well, and where it is, this well-known Odessa of yours?» «All is not so simple», - an inhabitant of Odessa will throw you back a line like this and will quote the unforgettable Saint-Exupery: «the Main thing - you will not see with eyes». To argue with classics is always difficult, and in this case especially because the author is absolutely right.

Catherine II founded the city of Odessa in 1794. Then the Russian empress decided that the port on Black sea was necessary for the country as an expansion of communications with Europe. Once on the same place of today's Odessa was the Ancient Greek settlement, then there lived the Crimean Tatars. They were replaced by the osman Turks. The Turks had a base in a fortress of Hadzhibej, which in 1789 was grasped by the Russian armies. On one of the legends, the first mayor Duke De Rishele who faithfully served Russia, but had grown up in France, decided to construct a new city, which would become more beautiful than Paris. From the first days of its existence the city promised to be as beautiful as St. Petersburg. Therefore Odessa became known as the Southern Palmira. Odessa is known for the cultural traditions and beautiful architecture. Inhabitants of Odessa are proud of that many artists, writers and scientists lived in their city: Mechnikov, Pies, Mendeleyev, Pushkin and Bunin.

Odessa - a seaport at northwest coast of the Black sea and the capital of humour. It is one of the greatest cities of Ukraine, the southern gate of the state. The biography of Odessa is saturated with historical events, which are found in the almost 1400 street names, pedestrian lanes, the

Parkways and the history lives with the cultural monuments. In a short space of time the city became not only "a southern window of Ukraine to Europe" with the remarkable harbour on the Black sea, but also a considerable cultural centre. The city has seven theatres, a philharmonic society, a circus, an opera and a ballet theatre.

The inhabitants of Odessa say «Odessa is a city which is necessary to see with your feet"». Not literally, of course, but it means that it is better to travel across Odessa on foot.

The most interesting of the pedestrian routes - showing all the beautuful features of the city -

is a route through the historical city centre. When traveling on city centre it is possible to see the Arabian Cultural Center, the Odessa Regional State Philharmonic society, A museum of western and eastern art, the Greek area, the Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Cathedral, The Deribasovsky street, the Odessa opera theatre, the Seaport among other well-known sights.

Every year a hundred thousand foreign tourists visit the city. But it is necessary to not only see Odessa, but also to hear, inhale, feel and taste it. Odessa is more than the railway station and the airport, or the seaside parkway and the Deribasovsky street - to be exact. Odessa is filled with Odessa stories, brilliant phrases, ingenious poems, hooligan songs, original humour, a courageous press, the unexpected jokes and also the popular books. And one quick look at Odessa is simply not enough for this city.