9th August - 789 Meeting

Woke to windy morning, pretty well rested (had been sleeping on pebbles, not sand) and happy to finally be in the Ukraine. However, my mood was muted somewhat when I spyed a dead dolphin. I have since tentatively identified it as a common Harbour Porpoise (P. phocoena relicta), is listed as vulnerable. No surprise I guess with the level of fishing and pollution along the coast. Sad stuff, as I like dolphins and whales even more than I like donkeys. So we wandered off to the meeting place, bought some bread (a huge loaf), some yummy yogurt and a large bottle of fizzy water. Didn't quite break a euro! Cheap times! There was around 50 people scattered in a loose group. A bit later some signs were setup for discussion about topics ranging from intuitive travelling, train and boat hitching to alternative communities and border crossing experiences and advices. Was interesting and pretty informative. The person who sets it up talks about it and answers some questions and then people share what they know. No one is trying to change the world, just trying to make some practical changes. These meetings of like minded people who hitchhiked over 2000kms to get here are pretty cool I think. Was a relaxed day, some frisbee, charades and then some beer in the afternoon. Turned into a bit of a party. OK a lot of a party! Only realised how many of us there were when we all posed for a group photo in front of a monument! Was not easy to get everyone in place, much like herding cats. In the evening I went on an impromptu tour of Odessa with Matthijs, Oti and a Russian guide (to read street signs and such). Was great. Beautiful at night, with lots of people just milling around amicably with musicians spread over the place. There was pedestrian boulevard, which was lined on each side with huge trees, absolutely entwined in fairy lights of different colours. Amazing. Shortly after we returned to the group, about 30 of the people who wanted to go back to the beach were leaving to catch the last bus. So we grabbed our packs and joined them. To this day I am not sure how we actually fitted. You didn't really need to worry about falling over, as everyone was so tightly packed! It was a lot of fun! As we didn't know what our stop was, people started yelling out "Hey, is that Ukranian guy on here?". He was. It took about 5 minutes for everyone to exit the bus and we wavered it goodbye. After some adventures through holes in fences we arrived at the beach for a little party and a lot of sleep...

30 hitchhikers on a bus designed for 15