MONDAY 29th JUNE 2009 (FERRY TICKETS & OTEL ZIRCA)

MONDAY 29th JUNE 2009

Big day today. We needed to get all documentation together in order to catch the ferry to Istanbul tonight. The ferry only sails once a week.

We had been given a sheet of information (in English) that told us the ferry office was in YELISAVETYNSKA Street which is on the northern end of the city fringe. YELISAVETYNSKA Street, by the way, is written in English for your benefit. The street signs themselves are written in Russian which posses another difficulty for us. I can read Russian but I am no quicker at it even after a months practice, but it does help in these situations! When we finally found the office (we did start early) we were told to go to the Port. That's funny, the Port gave us this address. And so, back to the Port it was... We did get to see many more street scenes as a result. The buildings are so old and often in decay. Grape vines grow up the walls and with the tree-lined streets and cobble-stoned roads it was all a picture.

Once there Paul lined up where ferry tickets are purchased but there were many people in front of him. Meanwhile I'd found an 'info buro' and discovered the customs offices were 2 floors down. We decided to investigate our motorcycle paperwork BEFORE purchasing ferry tickets.

We gave the customs officers all our relevant documentation and after much umm-ing and arrhh-ing, phone calls and looking puzzled we were told to wait. This was NOT unexpected...!!!

By now its lunch-time and I had to go back to our hotel and pack our bags as we were meant to be out of our room by midday. I was able to negotiate with the receptionist (via the computers translation program) to wait in our room till Paul returned, otherwise I'm sitting out on the street with the bike in the heat - something I wasn't looking forward to.

Paul stayed with customs and was eventually told that we DON'T have the correct paperwork to export the bike! First off, we need a 'Declaration to Export' (we knew that) and secondly, and more importantly we need some Government Department to advise as to the 'Historical Value and Cultural Significance' of the bike. WHAT...!!! You can all guess what Paul had to say about THAT...!!! But....we had to be nice...we don't have these documents - YET. And then we learn that it's a PUBLIC HOLIDAY and the relevant offices are closed. We are not sailing on tonight's boat! Bugger - it only sails once a week!

Paul returned at 2.30pm, a big frown on his face, we packed and left the hotel and then the search began for another place to stay. Where we had stayed was too expensive, the receptionist spoke no English (zilch) and we didn't like the feel of the place - it was absolutely beautiful, full of antiquities but sterile and without a human element. It would have been perfect for an old staid couple with no personality...!!! That's not us.

We were told of a hotel called ZIRCA and went in search. We were given the area but as usual, after parking up and Paul searching on foot, he eventually found it in a different location! I stayed with the bike while Paul went in to check it out. It looked okay on the outside and it was close to many things of interest. He came out laughing and said "we're in" but the next problem was finding a secure place for the bike. We've been advised not to leave it on the street but everyone here says "leave it on the street, it will be okay, this is Odessa". We'd rather the safer option, judging by the fact that EVERYONE lives behind tall fences and gates and everything is locked or security coded.

Paul went off in search and again I stayed with the bike and luggage. It seemed like hours before he returned, maybe because I was so tired I could hardly stay awake. The longer he was gone the more concerned I was that he was having a difficult time finding somewhere. He eventually returned and sat down beside me and didn't say a word. I never said anything either...!!!

After a good 10 minutes he eventually said..."I can't speak yet"! We sat longer and eventually he started to yak again. This is all a result of the humidity, tiredness, problems in finding anything, the language difficulties and the bureaucracy crap we have to deal with. Paul had something to eat and drink and soon felt on top of it all again and said he'd found a secure underground car-park. Good, that means we can now move our stuff into the room. We didn't want to pay and then discover there was no-where for the bike!

Paul had been up to check out the rooms and laughed when he said he had a choice of two - one very small and one bigger. He checked out the small room and when he tried to open the door it would only open half way as it hit the bed - and that was the room, a bed between four walls. He then checked the 'bigger room' and found that to be okay. It was small but we had room for our gear, it had the all important fridge, it had air-conditioning and a bathroom. We didn't need any more than that. We were lucky, it also had a window. Most of the rooms are internal but after seeing some of them they had better 'views' than us because of the large palm-tree-beach scenes plastered on the walls!

We both immediately fell asleep and slept for about 2 hours. We then shifted the bike to the underground car-park which woke us up because we did what the locals do - we never wore our helmets. We only had to ride three blocks and then wander back - we didn't want to be carrying our bike gear. Paul was instructed NOT to go over one-mile-an-hour...!!! It is now dark, after 10pm and we wandered back in the warm evening breeze. We stopped in at an Italian Restaurant (of which there are hundreds) and enjoyed some pasta and salad. BUT, the evening was about to get a whole lot better when we found a little supermarket that sold MUESLI. Cereal seems to be non-existent here and we were missing our morning muesli immensely. The milk comes in little bags - for the life of me I can't work out the reasoning behind that. Once opened it is very hard to store. Everything else comes in plastic bottles or cartons - why doesn't milk?

Back to our room to work out the plan of attack for the coming days. We know documentation will take forever and we only have so many days left on our visa's - what would they do in the movies...???

UKRAINE loves us .... they don't want us to leave...!!!