Dark pearl. What awaits tourists in Odessa

In my life I happened to be in Odessa a couple of times. And then only passing through. But this year I decided to relax a couple of days so favored by many in the city by the sea.

To say that he was disappointed, impossible. But, obviously, I was waiting for the “pearl of the sea” as a center for summer tourism of the country a few more.

More at the entrance to Odessa reminded me of a city under siege. Dug and covered the streets and buildings with fading facades, which are still many and in the center. It would seem that, if not the facades, gives Odessa a special charm? What, if not in the famous Odessa yards, come to see tourists? In the end, in Venice the millions of tourists arrive in exactly the same way.

But, alas, the old facades of Venice is far from the collapsing building in Odessa. If in Venice it is about maintaining a certain image of antiquity, in Odessa — it is about desolation. You can’t rent the offices on the first floor and absolutely not think about the upper floors. You can’t wait for the old house crumble to hoist in its place another luxury building.

Yes, new buildings in the center of Odessa look much better than in Kyiv, they are trying to fit into the old architecture, the stone marble and implementing good engineering solutions on the inside. But the flavor of Odessa it will not save.

“In Odessa the main thing — to bring the city more tourists, herded them all to make room in a couple of streets, to charge restaurants a fee for summer Playground”

Of course, from the time when Odessa began to flood tourists, city officials have other concerns to accommodate, feed and entertain. The city is literally suffocating from the huge number of restaurants and bars that evening flooded the newcomers, many of whom are foreigners. Of course, most of them coming to look at Odessa beauty, but solely according to the program of dating tourism. And for them, catering to full service. At least $5 thousand a month restaurateurs allocate space for the outdoor area. The street on which they are located, covered and not dug.

But if you move just a couple of meters from designed for tourists institutions, and you are immersed in absolute darkness. By nightfall, most of the streets, squares and parks of Odessa even in the height of tourist season normally is not covered. And if, according to the Odessa, in residential areas this issue has always been, the center of the city only recently appeared in the darkness.

Journalists, who visited Yugoslavia and Lebanon after the war, say that there was even street lighting. In Odessa in the high season of the famous Gogol street, Bridge of lovers, the Cathedral square and other resorts nights immersed in darkness. And when you consider that the tourist season in Odessa mass repairing roads, walk the city at night generally turns into extreme.

However, the day to move around the center of Odessa, not easier. My taxi ride from Catherine street to Market, and it’s the center of the city, took half an hour! “Probably the day I’m in the center of Odessa before the end of the season will not go, — the taxi driver complains. — Move on it is now just unrealistic.”

But in Turkey, where the tourist season is not much longer than in Odessa, taboo on any construction work there all season. And nothing of the road once in the resorts built, and not like ours. And hotels a few thousand on the coasts of “expelled”. And infrastructure provided. And even the historic city centres manage to maintain.

But where can I go to this Odessa? Here the main thing — to bring the city more tourists, herded them all to make room in a couple of streets, to charge restaurants a fee for summer playgrounds. That’s just want to ask the officials: where is the money from tourists? The money earned from Odessa beaches-hotels-restaurants? Yes, the city is beautiful. But the credit is not yours. It’s beautiful you get. And your task now is in the pursuit of short-term profit not to turn this beauty into ruins.

I hope that by next holiday season, Ukrainian pearl of the sea brighten. In all senses.