Odessa

A joke from Soviet times refers to a well-known presentation in Odessa that used the title: "Is there life on Mars?" After the speaker was finished, someone asked the question: "Now I know all about the red planet. But could you please tell us when there will be life in Odessa?" that was then, but now there is certainly life in Odessa. It is the third largest city in Ukraine, and famous for its citizens' sense of humour among other things.

A city of celebrities

Any Odessa doubters should take a walk during the afternoon or evening on the legendary Deribasovskaya street, which is mentioned in numerous stories, novels and songs. Now reserved for pedestrians, both locals and tourists love to spend time here on the terraces of its restaurants, pizzerias and coffee shops. Canny photographers are always eager to take shots of tourists after putting snakes or iguanas on their shoulders, or even a rabbit in their hands. If you are after a more original picture, then head for the corner of the city park and get your picture taken while sitting on the bronze chair erected to commemorate "The Twelve Chairs", a famous novel by Ilf and Petrov. The popular writers modeled 'Chernomorsk', the setting for their novel, based on Odessa. Other famous personalities who were born or lived in Odessa include the poet, Alexander Pushkin, writers Maxim Gorky and Isaak Babel, the Nobel Prize winning biologist, Iliya Mechnikov, the chemist, Dmitry Mendeleev, and Leonid Uthosov, the king of Russian jazz. In the downtown area, just as in Manhattan, the roads cross at strict right angles and there are street names for all of them. The city was founded officially at the end of the 18th century, upon the orders of Empress Catherine the Great, as a naval stronghold of Imperial Russia. The city's first mayor was Armand Richelieu, a French aristocrat who caught the eye of Empress Catherine II. A statue of him still stands on the hill above the harbour as it watches over the luxury passenger liners carrying tourists to and from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, as well as the cargo ships that are responsible for the majority of Ukraine's imports and exports.

Sailors' pubs and casinos

This international port has always attracted people of all nationalities. While the majority of the population, in this city of over a million inhabitants, are Ukrainian and Russian, one needs to take a close look at the city map to get a sense of its diversity. There are Greek, Jewish and Armenian streets, as well as the Moldavanka district. The presence of pleasure-seeking sailors is evident from the number of sailors' bars and casinos. In the passenger port stands a statue of a sailor's wife who is holding a child and waving farewell to her husband. The sailors who died in defence of this city during the Second World War are commemorated by the obelisk to an unknown sailor in Shevchenko Park. Odessa would not be a genuine seaside town without a dolphin show, which takes place near the sandy beach. I have seen many dolphin shows, from Florida to Eilat, Israel, but I have never seen anything that can compare to this one. The local trainers have taught these intelligent sea creatures some amazing things, such as having them glide on their noses along the water. It way genuine artistry!

A familiar flight of steps

If you are in search of more conventional art, then be sure to visit the Opera House. Here, almost the entire range of Russian and Western composers, from Tchaikovsky to Wagner, are featured on the program. While gazing at the ornate domed building decorated with statues, you may have déjavu. Something might feel very familiar. And so it should! It was designed by Ferdinand Feller and Herman Helmer, the architects responsible for the National Theatre and Vígszínház in Budapest, the Stadttheater and Volkstheater in Vienna, as well as the theatres in Augsburg, Prague, Brno, Zurich, Graz and Salzburg, all built at the turn of the twentieth century. Another symbol of Odessa - not so much architectural as historical - is the tall, wide, symmetrical Potemkin Steps. Sergei Eisenstein's famous silent motion picture, the Battleship Potemkin, commemorates the workers' uprising of 1905. There is a scene which hundreds of Odessan citizens were murdered on the great stone staircase, and it represents one of the most famous scenes in motion picture history. In the scene, the sailors steer the rebellious Russian battleship towards the shore, trusting the support of the citizens of Odessa. The citizens run down the steps to greet the sailors, but they are charged down by an army with fixed bayonets. The people flee in terror. And at that moment a pram is torn from someone's hands and starts rolling down the steps. Do you remember?

István Kulcsár