Odessa Partisans’ Museum. Kherson. Travel to Crimea.
I don’t think there will be opportunities to go back in the unofficial quarries soon, so today I’m visiting the official museum and then leaving Odessa.
Most tourists go to the Partisans’ museum with an organised group excursion. Going there on my own implies finding the right microbus, asking (in Russian...) locals where is the entrance and why is it closed now. Please don’t say it is closed on Mondays. Well, no, I’m just too early, so I pay a visit to the overground monuments in the meanwhile.
Upon return, the entrance area is full with groups of tourists. There is no ticket office. I ask a group leader where I should buy my ticket. She tells me to just wait here, then join her group for the visit – for free. Actually, this museum is not really open to individual visitors. I was lucky.
The visit is a reconstitution of partisans’ life in the quarries, including defence, shooting practice, propaganda, kitchen, water well, dormitories, laudry, chapel, etc. The general atmosphere is very patriotic, with the inevitable meditation at the memorial.
There is little display about the quarry itself, just a few saws. But the tour was guided in Russian, so I missed a lot of information.
Well, it’s time to leave Odessa for Crimea. The plan is: travel by bus to Kherson and hope to catch a night train to Simferopol there.
The first part is easy. I’m in Kherson a 17:00. The bus station is far from the train station. I ask for the right trolleybus. A guy shows me a microbus, then decides to join in. Vadim stayed with me for hours, helping to get a train ticket and showing me around. I think he was just an open-minded guy interested in talking with a Western foreigner.
As expected, getting a train ticket on the spot is difficult. Trains are full. “Big problem”, Vadim keeps repeating. He recommends showing my French passport and it is successful: the lady finds a third-class ticket on the 01:47 train.
Well, now I have 8 hours to spend in Kherson. Vadim suggests visiting Catherine the Great’s church. He shows me the city’s few sights. We communicate with some English, Russian, French (there are so many French words in Russian, that it’s always worth trying in French)... and a lot of non-verbal communication :-)
Nothing extraordinary in Kherson, but the few sights make sense when explained by a local. For example, I would never have guessed that this monument is a memorial to the Kherson people who were sent to Chernobyl for cleaning and protection works after the disaster, and died.
At 21:00, Vadim leaves me at the train station. There are two waiting rooms. One is free; the other is safe. I pay 3 hrivnas to sleep a few hours in a cosy leather armchair without having to fear my luggage being stolen.
At 01:00, I wake up for the train. Catching a train in the middle of the night is a memorable experience.
The train is late and re-routed to an alternative platform. There is no other solution than getting on the Simferopol – Lviv train on platform 1, getting off on the other side to platform 2 and then getting on the right train on the next track. Everybody seems to find this normal.
Third-class carriages look like dorms. There are no compartments. There are bunks in the corridor. There is no safe place for my luggage, so I can’t sleep. That is what Vadim recommended : “Don’t sleep. Read book”. When the stewardess comes in to propose bedsheets, I make myself understood with signs: “I don’t want to sleep, because I am affraid that somebody steals my luggage”. The nice girl finds me a lower bunk bed, with a luggage compartment under. It’s absolutely safe: the door to the luggage compartment is the bed itself.
I sleep sooo well!
Most tourists go to the Partisans’ museum with an organised group excursion. Going there on my own implies finding the right microbus, asking (in Russian...) locals where is the entrance and why is it closed now. Please don’t say it is closed on Mondays. Well, no, I’m just too early, so I pay a visit to the overground monuments in the meanwhile.
Upon return, the entrance area is full with groups of tourists. There is no ticket office. I ask a group leader where I should buy my ticket. She tells me to just wait here, then join her group for the visit – for free. Actually, this museum is not really open to individual visitors. I was lucky.
The visit is a reconstitution of partisans’ life in the quarries, including defence, shooting practice, propaganda, kitchen, water well, dormitories, laudry, chapel, etc. The general atmosphere is very patriotic, with the inevitable meditation at the memorial.
There is little display about the quarry itself, just a few saws. But the tour was guided in Russian, so I missed a lot of information.
Well, it’s time to leave Odessa for Crimea. The plan is: travel by bus to Kherson and hope to catch a night train to Simferopol there.
The first part is easy. I’m in Kherson a 17:00. The bus station is far from the train station. I ask for the right trolleybus. A guy shows me a microbus, then decides to join in. Vadim stayed with me for hours, helping to get a train ticket and showing me around. I think he was just an open-minded guy interested in talking with a Western foreigner.
As expected, getting a train ticket on the spot is difficult. Trains are full. “Big problem”, Vadim keeps repeating. He recommends showing my French passport and it is successful: the lady finds a third-class ticket on the 01:47 train.
Well, now I have 8 hours to spend in Kherson. Vadim suggests visiting Catherine the Great’s church. He shows me the city’s few sights. We communicate with some English, Russian, French (there are so many French words in Russian, that it’s always worth trying in French)... and a lot of non-verbal communication :-)
Nothing extraordinary in Kherson, but the few sights make sense when explained by a local. For example, I would never have guessed that this monument is a memorial to the Kherson people who were sent to Chernobyl for cleaning and protection works after the disaster, and died.
At 21:00, Vadim leaves me at the train station. There are two waiting rooms. One is free; the other is safe. I pay 3 hrivnas to sleep a few hours in a cosy leather armchair without having to fear my luggage being stolen.
At 01:00, I wake up for the train. Catching a train in the middle of the night is a memorable experience.
The train is late and re-routed to an alternative platform. There is no other solution than getting on the Simferopol – Lviv train on platform 1, getting off on the other side to platform 2 and then getting on the right train on the next track. Everybody seems to find this normal.
Third-class carriages look like dorms. There are no compartments. There are bunks in the corridor. There is no safe place for my luggage, so I can’t sleep. That is what Vadim recommended : “Don’t sleep. Read book”. When the stewardess comes in to propose bedsheets, I make myself understood with signs: “I don’t want to sleep, because I am affraid that somebody steals my luggage”. The nice girl finds me a lower bunk bed, with a luggage compartment under. It’s absolutely safe: the door to the luggage compartment is the bed itself.
I sleep sooo well!
posted by Juliette at 00:00
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