Odesa is known throughout Russia and Ukraine as a glowing center of nightlife, of culture, of beaches, and of beauties. It sees more tourism than anywhere in the former Soviet Union – just as it has for countless decades. Everyone I know who’s been here has shared nothing but rave reviews; when I told a friend I’d be spending a few weeks in Budapest, his first words of advice were “make sure you grab a flight to Odesa. You won’t regret it.”
Odesa is and always has been the place to be seen; it’s crazy and cool, a culture of its own, described as everything from “the hotbed of Ukrainian hedonism” (Lonely Planet) to a place with “more colour, more spunk, more irreverence than any other Soviet city’ (Maurice Friedberg, How Things Were Done). Simon Sebag-Montefiore of The Independent says, ‘Odessans, from the city’s raffish gangsters to its lissom girls, are convinced that they are superior in culture and style to anyone in Moscow or London…And they are absolutely right.’ The colorful reviews go on and on. Continue reading »
