SUNDAY 5th JULY 2009 (ODESSA MARKET)

SUNDAY 5th JULY 2009

I guess today could be deemed a 'normal' weekend day - a chance for us to get our breath. Lazy morning then out for a wander. Within minutes we found a cafe full of old motorcycles hanging from the walls - an original R71 BMW, WLA's, Indians and a single cylinder BeeEm (our day was shaping up well - it seems like a life-time since we've done anything motorcycling).

From here we walked to the markets to check out the 'other side' of life. At one end of town there is extreme wealth and everything you see in the glossy magazines, be it hair, fashion, shoes, cars, whatever, it is being flaunted for all to see.

Stella Artois costs 90 cents a half litre bottle and cigarettes cost $1.20 a packet. Restaurants are cheap to eat at (thank goodness).

Paul can't quite come at drinking from the plastic litre bottle of 'warm' beer that seems to be attached to hundreds of people's arms. Perhaps this is a genetic mutation?

At the other end of town the withered old sellers are trying to sell their prawns which have been sitting in the sun for a week! The fish market is DISGUSTING. The lucky one's here have their own scales, the rest sell their goods in plastic cups. It seems there are no social services when you see a 90 year old trying to sell her bunch of parsley or cherries or sunflower seeds (whatever it is that they can pick from their garden). The same people sit on the same street corners ALL day, EVERY day. Fabulous faces, I wanted to photograph them all but felt unless I gave them my life-savings I felt it was an intrusion into their miserable private life.

As for bikes in this city the only thing we've seen are 'newish' Japanese sports bikes (doing 200 kilometers an hour in town!), the BIG Japo cruisers with LOUD straight out pipes (would make a Harley shrink!) and thousands of Fred Gassits on scooters (no rego, no helmets, no shoes). In fact, it's rare to see helmets at all. The big bikes are definitely a 'rich boys' fashion statement. Some we've spoken to never ride outside of the city parameters...!!! Can you imagine...we can't!

How ironical that no care is taken in relation to personal safety and cars can drive up the footpath, dodge pedestrians and park ANYWHERE but because we didn't carry a 2-inch by 2-inch piece of paper we got stung big-time for being 'the-worst-kind-of-citizen-on-the-planet'...!!! I'm not even going to mention the paper-shuffle...!!!

In the beautiful balmy evening we wandered about and ended back at our favourite restaurant - MARIO's - for dinner. Considering the butterfly's are beginning to wake up, the nerves are beginning to twitch and the fingers constantly tapping the table-top we didn't suffer indigestion!

Tomorrow's D-Day. We are leaving Ukraine, with or without our HORS.

We don't even know if we can get the bike on the ferry (it only sails once a week). We don't know if WE can get on the ferry. Ticket office only opens on Mondays! No wonder our guts have become the breeding ground for ALL butterfly's on the planet...!!!