Hanging Out Wid Da Locals

July/August 2001

On the 2nd night in Odessa, Dan and I met a dutch guy who introduced us to Ira, Sergey and Natasha.  Ira was studying art, Sergey was an architect and Natasha was a singer.  We had some great times together going out for dinner, seeing the ballet (twice!) and clubbing.

Unfortunately, not many pictures of Sergey as he got really sick with a cold just after we met him.

Ira's First Exhibition

Ira's studying art at college.  Here are the photos of her first exhibition.

Spaced out artist and her work.  Mainly pencil and water colours.  All good.

"Huh?"

The picture that Dan bought.

Me and Dan - art aficionados.

Dan (getting the tongue out) and Natasha.

Natasha trying to stick her tongue out but she can't quite bring herself to do it.

A picture.

Another picture.

Me checking out the photos with the artists and groupies.  5"11' blond girl in background is a model. 

The girls.

Out with Natasha and Ira.

Natasha and Dan at the Pirate Ship restaurant and club.  Quite an amazing place as done up like a pirate ship from the outside, has multilevel seating on the inside for dinner, a dance floor and a pole where lovely tall models in bikinis' dance around while you're having dinner.  All good.

Natasha.

Me, Natasha and Ira.

Natasha and Ira in a taxi from my angle.  Ira clenches her nose at a bad smell that has just surfaced.  Natasha looks on and keeps a straight face "it wasn't me!"

Dan (and me) at our local.

Natasha at dinner at the local.

Natasha at the Opera and Ballet House.

At the ballet.  The performers were an all male company who danced on point and did a rather funny version of the Nutcracker, Swan Lake and something else combined.  The fact that the heroes were all small guys trying to lift six foot plus heroines (more guys dressed usp as girls) made it even funnier.

One strange thing I noticed was that the audience all clapped in time when applauding the performance.  With western audiences, all you here is a big cacophony of random claps. Weird.

View of all the night clubs from around the bay.  The large white space shuttle looking thing is Itaka.

Graffiti near the bus stop as we were dropping the girls off.

Last Night Out At Itaka With Ira and Natasha

Ira at dinner.

Natasha sporting her new haircut.  She got very offended when I said she looked like a boy.  Was just joking but it took her a while to forgive me.  It looks good.  Honest it does!

Dan, Ira and Me.

Ira and me.

Girls on the dance floor. 

Ira on the dance floor.

The moon over the bay.

Ira peering through a curtain.  My attempt at an arty shot.

Goodbyes

Ira and I at an authentic Ukrainian restaurant in the last few hours before we left Odessa.  We had been dying to try out the local cuisine for days but couldn't find anywhere decent.  We ignored this place as the staff were all dressed in kitsch national costumes.  The food was fantastic.  We were kicking ourselves. 

They also had this weird artist playing on the stereo.  He sounds like a Russian KGB man and sings Tom Jones (Sex Bomb) and Britney Spears (Opps, I did it again) songs.  Hilarious.

Love this photo.  It's a very serious, almost Victorian, I don't give a fuck look. 

Me loading up my backpack with Odessa Champagne.  Two of the four bottles later exploded in my bag as I was going through customs and soaked my whole bag.

Bye Bye

Links To The Other Pages

Party Time In Odessa, Around Town In Odessa, On The Beach In Odessa, Cool Shots