5 Aug 2018

Chapter Three: Odessa, oh Odessa

Kids, maybe don't do what I did. Don't leave for a backpacking trip after such life changing events.I will survive, of course, but still, maybe don't do it. 

Odessa, oh Odessa, a little marble ball of the Ukrainian coast. After two and a bit days in here I can say - I definitely like it. Sure, the beaches are bitterly overcrowded, in the evenings it looks just like main street in Palanga: music everywhere, people selling stuff, people buying stuff, walking around, but it has a lot of charm. It has this happiness in air that you cannot help but smile and enjoy your stroll through the little streets and boulevards. 

I went to the port to see a fantastic sunset with the cranes, I walked many many of their parks, it's amazing how much green this city has to offer, I read my book, I day dreamed and enjoyed being by myself. I even found a place with amazing suvlakis [pardon my spelling, not sure how to write Greek food name in Latin letters] for mere twelve DKK and it was almost as good as the one in the suburbs of Athens.

To people, I look local. They keep approaching me in Russian and Ukrainian and then look surprised when I struggle answering in what they think should be my native language. It's kind of funny really, considering how much effort local girls put into looking pretty and then there's me, in my trekking shoes, no make up, hair up and tight in a little bundle, but somehow I still look local. And those girls.. Ah, those beautiful insecure things [not things in a bad way], who need validation all the time from everyone. Must be so exhausting, but they still walk in high, sometimes super high heeled shoes, pretty dresses, lots of make up and artificial everything: nails, eyelashes, breasts, lips - I could go on. And that posing, for each picture, turning body sideways, putting one leg in front, arm over the non-existent tummy [to hide all possible imperfection caused by fat], it makes me laugh and at the same time sad - so much effort and in the end, they are still little insecure things who will do anything to get that needed validation. 


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Off Topic

I didn't know how to tell you. Still don't. I just did, you just don't know it yet. I just felt that I had to share it with you, because.. well, you know. Surely, it would have been much better over few hoegaardens in the tree, but now the tree is cut down and we are in different countries. And who knows when we will be in one again. Just keep the promise, will you? Only 27 years left. Or 28, we never decided who needs to turn 60. Who knows, maybe this time I will need to hold your hand for a change.

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