Where are Ron and Ellen?
Summer 2002
East to Odessa
Dear Family and Friends,
Following is a compilation of several shorter messages from Ron. On Monday night 2 Sept he took the overnight train from Kamyanets-Podilsky to Odessa. He has spent several days in Odessa, staying with Tatyana and her family; she is an astronomer whom I have known through the international astronomy library meetings. He also spent time with Alexey, a Ukrainian bicycler who was biking in the US while Ron and I were biking in Denmark. Alex and Ron had corresponded by email but had not met before Ron arrived in Odessa. Tomorrow Ron hopes to take a boat from Odessa to Yalta.
Love to all,
I am writing from Tatyana's home computer in her email program.
I arrived this morning by train. When it left last night at 7 pm, there was some confusion as to which train I was to take since the one leaving was going to Kiev and I wanted to go to Odessa, in the opposite direction. Seems that the car they put the Odessa passengers in just went to Kiev first and then the car was added to the train from Kiev to Odessa. I just slept through the process and arrived in Odessa this morning at 9:45 am. Tatyana had sent me some directions from the train station and with a little help I made it to her apartment about 13-14 km from the train station.
This train was quite different from the others I have ridden. I bought two tickets, one for me and one for Bike Friday. It worked fine since I bought two bottom seats. I put the folded up bike between the seat and the little table by the window, and then used the bungee cord to tie the bike to the table. I used the seat on the other side of the little table. There were no doors or curtains separating the compartments. Above both of my seats were two more bunks (how you get to the top one is still a mystery to me). But in my case, all four higher bunks were empty. On the other side of the aisle, there was a small table under the aisle window, and the table folded down making a bunk from the table and the two seats. And there were two bunks above. So, my general compartment could sleep 9 people. There was someone sleeping over the aisle table. When I purchased the tickets they tried to sell me two seats in different compartments saying that two seats in the same compartment were not available. But after some more discussion, and my decision to just take one if two were not together, they found two together. Seems like the whole compartment must have been available.
We are going to Tatyana's office shortly and I will take a couple pictures of her library for you.
For breakfast, or really lunch, I was served rice with carrots and meat (the name of which I did not understand) and tea made from mushrooms and black tea, which tasted very much like the thing we got from Eugene and continued in our icebox for quite a while [kambuca]. Also some fresh pear jam, as well as tea she brought back from China and some white cheese from Moldavia.
From Tatyana's 13th floor windows on two sides there is a great view of the Black Sea and a salt water lake. Their building, 16 floors high, towers over the area like a penthouse suite.
Tomorrow night I am taking Tatyana and Nickolai to the Opera. The tickets for the boat were sold out by the time I got there today to buy one. I will call tomorrow at 10 to see if there is an opening. But now I think I will have to go by train.
I am at Alexey's home using his computer and Internet connection. He has been wonderful. [Ron downloaded his digital camera and sent 100+ photos home as email attachments, so some of the photos will eventually turn up on our Web page -- after he gets home to sort and identify them.] Today we went for more than a 66K ride along the coast of Odessa and looked at the cabin I can use when I return from the Crimea.
Now I am back on Tatyana's computer using her email program to bring you up to date.
Yesterday Alexey met me at Tatyana's home, way out on the north side of Odessa, at 8:30 A.M. and we bicycled to downtown to buy Opera tickets, check on my boat ticket, and for him to pay his Internet account, then we went on along the coast to the south side of Odessa to where he has his cabin complex along the sea. It is on the inland side of the road but an easy walk to the beach, south of where all the tourist go. From Tatyana's to his beach house was 33K, so yesterday I rode over 70K just around Odessa.
There are two small cabins with two beds each, a kitchen building, a toilet building with outside sink, and a solar shower. I can stay there when I return from Crimea.
When I went to get my boat ticket to the Crimea, they said they were sold out, but to call again in the morning, and this morning they say they have a ticket, and I will go pay for it shortly. I bought tickets for the Opera for the 5th, but they appear to be for the 4th, yesterday, so we must also go get that straight or buy new ones. This trip would be quite a different experience if I could speak Russian or Ukrainian!
I don't know when I am going to have enough time and Internet access to make a report out of my various messages to you. If you want to cut and paste them together, and send out one, please go ahead. [Exactly what I did!]
The pictures will get better as you look at them. [The first set of photos Ron sent home were so blurry that it was difficult to figure out what the picture was.] The first ones before Kiev were better than the first ones I sent, since I tried to clean the lenses myself. But in Kiev I went to a camera store and they cleaned it using a magnifying glass with the proper tools and fluids. So the pictures taken after that in Kiev should be much better.
Today I may visit some museums and walk around Odessa just looking at whatever I may find, rather than have a mad social and logistics planning day.
I have begun to think about planning for my return. While I thought I had a month in Odessa and Crimea, I really don't. I had hoped to catch a boat to Constanta [Romania], and return to Munich from there, but there appears to be no boat. Now I am thinking of taking the train from Odessa to Munich, or Odessa to Kiev, then to Munich. With the flight out on Sept 30, I would need to be back in Munich on the 28th, and if it takes two days to get there from here, I would have to leave Odessa on the 26th, or perhaps the 25th to allow time for unplanned events. If I go to Crimea on the 6th and return after a week there, say the 14th, then I have only 11 days unplanned. I have considered bicycling to Romania along the Ukrainian coast, then taking a train to Constanta, then a train back to Munich, but I am worried about too many unknowns regarding train schedules, availability of seats and tickets from Romania. I would like to break the trip somewhere in the middle, but worry about some of the same logistics. So today I will start my inquires into trains from Odessa to Munich.
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Last updated: 22 September 2002