Berlin to Odessa Day 20: Odessa (Одеса) Pt. 2
Our exit from Tiraspol was just as uneventful as our entry - we barely
made it within our 24 hour time limit, but the incredulous looks at our
bikes allowed us to be waved through without confrontation.
We had a very eventful morning consisting of a back-to-school party with our host and all 600 of her classmates in a forest in the south of Tiraspol.
Our host is a student in a University preparatory school - after they have passed their high school exams they go to one more year of high school to prepare for university elsewhere.
But first they get a full day of partying, not bad. As students, they learn Russian and English and have the option of taking either Moldovan or Ukrainian. Some students, like our host Susanna, had excellent English, while others seemed to have trouble with even the most basic vocabulary. But they were all part of the same class. But everyone was eager to try to teach us Russian.
The theme was fairy tales and everyone had dressed up as some fairy tale character - although there wasn't a huge amount of effort put into the costumes. A lot of them were Disney characters.
They performed dances to either top 40 American songs or Russian dancehall while narrating their supposed fairy tale journey to the forest of Tiraspol.
Then, all of the students disbanded in a very orderly fashion to head to the forest - about a 45 minute walk from the school. I couldn't imagine a field trip in the United States where the students would be permitted to go from A to B through a city by themselves. But it went off without a hitch. We went by bike and gave a lift to a couple of eager students. It was more of a test for us to see if we could could carry about 100 kilos (200 pounds) on the back of our bikes.
Yep.
The forest party took place in what looked like a summer camp with cabins, although we were outside the whole time.
We were allowed to participate on Susanna's class' team. She had asked the school director the day before if it was alright if some random American and Irish guys came to the party. The director was alright with it since it gives the students a good opportunity to practice their English.
Some of the games played were pretty standard relay races. For example races in huge shoes, racing while holding the person's leg in front of you, following a string on the ground holding binoculars,
or carrying an egg at the end of a spoon around a tree. Graham won that one.
There were also other challenges such as singing the school's fight song
or performing a military style sound-off and marching routine.
Every game was scored from 1-10. The races were not timed and they received a 10 if everybody participated.
Unfortunately we had to leave before the festivities concluded, due to wanting to adhere to our 24 hour time limit. Plus, it was further to the border than we expected, we made it about 1 minute after the time marked on our stay-passes. As reliable as they were on our entrance, our bikes provided enough of a distraction and we were not at all hassled at the border - in fact, we got out faster than it took us to get in.
And we were once more in the Ukraine, with Odessa in our sights!
We arrived in Odessa without a hitch.
Although once in the city, we had a little trouble finding a couchsurfer, the three I had lined up all bailed at the last minute. Good thing Graham had a backup! A very kind German woman named Friederike was able to host us last minute. She teaches German at a school here. The next morning it was a beautiful day. We wanted to send postcards to all of our wonderful hosts from the entire trip, but after an hour of searching, even in the most touristic part of town, we found no postcards (open business opportunity here). So we gave up and went to the beach.
Biking is cool for sure, but doing nothing all day on the beach after biking 2100 km, it was diving even deeper into my vacation where I've lost track of the day of the month, the week, and time. It's tough to be more relaxed.
We cooked a frittata for Friederike and talked late into the night.
made it within our 24 hour time limit, but the incredulous looks at our
bikes allowed us to be waved through without confrontation.
We had a very eventful morning consisting of a back-to-school party with our host and all 600 of her classmates in a forest in the south of Tiraspol.
Our host is a student in a University preparatory school - after they have passed their high school exams they go to one more year of high school to prepare for university elsewhere.
But first they get a full day of partying, not bad. As students, they learn Russian and English and have the option of taking either Moldovan or Ukrainian. Some students, like our host Susanna, had excellent English, while others seemed to have trouble with even the most basic vocabulary. But they were all part of the same class. But everyone was eager to try to teach us Russian.
The theme was fairy tales and everyone had dressed up as some fairy tale character - although there wasn't a huge amount of effort put into the costumes. A lot of them were Disney characters.
They performed dances to either top 40 American songs or Russian dancehall while narrating their supposed fairy tale journey to the forest of Tiraspol.
Then, all of the students disbanded in a very orderly fashion to head to the forest - about a 45 minute walk from the school. I couldn't imagine a field trip in the United States where the students would be permitted to go from A to B through a city by themselves. But it went off without a hitch. We went by bike and gave a lift to a couple of eager students. It was more of a test for us to see if we could could carry about 100 kilos (200 pounds) on the back of our bikes.
Yep.
The forest party took place in what looked like a summer camp with cabins, although we were outside the whole time.
We were allowed to participate on Susanna's class' team. She had asked the school director the day before if it was alright if some random American and Irish guys came to the party. The director was alright with it since it gives the students a good opportunity to practice their English.
Some of the games played were pretty standard relay races. For example races in huge shoes, racing while holding the person's leg in front of you, following a string on the ground holding binoculars,
or carrying an egg at the end of a spoon around a tree. Graham won that one.
There were also other challenges such as singing the school's fight song
or performing a military style sound-off and marching routine.
Every game was scored from 1-10. The races were not timed and they received a 10 if everybody participated.
Unfortunately we had to leave before the festivities concluded, due to wanting to adhere to our 24 hour time limit. Plus, it was further to the border than we expected, we made it about 1 minute after the time marked on our stay-passes. As reliable as they were on our entrance, our bikes provided enough of a distraction and we were not at all hassled at the border - in fact, we got out faster than it took us to get in.
And we were once more in the Ukraine, with Odessa in our sights!
We arrived in Odessa without a hitch.
Although once in the city, we had a little trouble finding a couchsurfer, the three I had lined up all bailed at the last minute. Good thing Graham had a backup! A very kind German woman named Friederike was able to host us last minute. She teaches German at a school here. The next morning it was a beautiful day. We wanted to send postcards to all of our wonderful hosts from the entire trip, but after an hour of searching, even in the most touristic part of town, we found no postcards (open business opportunity here). So we gave up and went to the beach.
Biking is cool for sure, but doing nothing all day on the beach after biking 2100 km, it was diving even deeper into my vacation where I've lost track of the day of the month, the week, and time. It's tough to be more relaxed.
We cooked a frittata for Friederike and talked late into the night.
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