Odessa, Ukraine, June 24, 2014 (Tuesday)

Two-hour bus trip to Belgorod-Dnestrovskiy, a small town just 30 miles east of Odessa. It is host to a huge ancient fortress (formerly Akkerman fortress) overlooking the Black Sea. Dating from the 5th century BC, if not earlier, the largely still intact outer and inner walls of the fortress were built over several centuries and offered refuge to the inhabitants of Belgorod. when faced with the many invaders who attempted their luck from the Mongols to the Turks (Ottomans) and many others. Belgorod is among the 10 known (and Unesco listed) places on earth that have been continuously settled by mankind since antiquity.

The nearby town itself is a largely unexciting dusty settlement which strangely boasts some very modern fashion shops that would not be out of place in Paris or Madrid. The small fruit bazaar looked more intriguing to me, however. The bananas were pretty good.

Back in Odessa, the Voice of America in Washington, DC, conducted a skype interview with me about Russian-Armenian relations and increasing Russian influence In the Caucasus and Ukraine. Despite my initial skepticism, both the sound and video connection worked very well and the interview went on for almost 40 minutes. VoA did a very professional job I thought.

On the way to dinner afterwards we paid a visit to the hugely impressive and rather ornate Opera house built by two Viennese architects in the mid-19th century on the model of the Vienna opera house. No performance was scheduled as we had already found out the day before. Still, when getting closer there clearly was the sound of music coming out of the main auditorium though the posted schedule still remained silent about it. It was sold out we were informed by one of the ushers who spoke a bit of English, no tickets remained.

Yet, strangely enough a few minutes later with the help of some visiting Ukrainian girls from Kiev we managed to learn that just one ticket had remained unsold and for the price of 120 Ukrainian currency the lady at the door would be able to admit the two of us.

Shortly afterwards we found ourselves ushered to an upstairs box which gave us a grand view of the whole of the opera house beneath us. The whole interior seemed to have been refurbished recently to the highest standards. The music (an evening of clips of famous films set to music performed by a symphony orchestra) was not too bad either. Needless to say there were still plenty of seats available. I have no idea why one usher told us that it was sold out and the other one had made a great spiel about selling us the allegedly one remaining ticket to admit us. Still, interesting evening though we missed more than half of the performance by the time we got seated.

Strolling about the city center after the opera, we went to the "Hausbrauerei" for a meal. Somewhat amusingly the waiters were all decked out in what they must have perceived as Bavarian outfits. The food, however, was delicious though a bit pricey.