While walking to the Langerone beach through the Shevchenko park during the day, we thought that it would be nice to visit the park at night. The park is pretty during the day, but it is beautiful at night.
T.G.Shevchenko central culture and recreation park was originally called Alexander’s park in honor of emperor Alexander II. Famous writers such as Zhukovskiy, Gogol, Ostrovskiy, Dostoyevskiy, Chekhov, Akhmatova strolled around this park in their day.
The park is not far from the city center and it is adjacent to the Odessa Port Terminal. It is a good place to relax, to take a nice walk, or to watch the ships crossing the Black Sea at the Port Terminal. Here is the park entrance at night.
We decided to take a walk to Shevchenko park from the Odessa railway station, where we searched for souvenirs sold everywhere around the train station.
Odessa has several stations but all international and long-distance domestic services arrive at Odessa Glavnaya, located in the central part of the city and easily reached by bus and tram. It is an impressive station and certainly worth a visit even if you are not there to catch a train.
The railway station was built in the second half of the 19th century. It was damaged badly during World War II and was rebuilt later, after the war. There is a sculpture over the main entrance representing soldiers and workers and an inscription Glory to the Hero-City. The railway station has a spacious lobby with booking offices, a cafeteria and kiosks on the first floor and waiting rooms on the second floor.
It is impossible not to notice the beautiful five-dome religious building with unusual decoration and mosaics, St. Panteleimon Cathedral and Monastery, which is located across the street from the railway station. This cathedral was established next to the train station as a stop over for Russian pilgrims traveling to Holy places – Mount Athos, Constantinople and Jerusalem in the late 19 century.
The growing popularity of the place resulted in its enlargement to a three-story cathedral, two floors – to shelter pilgrims, and the third floor – for the church. Having survived the atheism of Soviet time, the Cathedral reopened in the 90-s, and in 1995 it was converted into a monastery. Currently the cathedral is undergoing renovation.
On the way to park Shevchenko we passed the Odessa Music Comedy theater and took some pictures under the Mermaid and the Dolphin monument.
An amusement park is always a fun place to go. Odessa’s Luna Park has various rides and attractions for every age and taste. It is free to enter, but you need to buy tickets for the rides.
The park’s fun atmosphere invites all who enjoy spending a few hours with family or friends and finding out what the Luna Park has to offer.
The Ferris Wheel right at the entrance takes the visitors 45 meters up and provides some of the best views of Odessa. This is the largest Ferris Wheel in Ukraine.
The most extreme attraction there is called Bomber. If you really want to an adrenaline rush, try it! We couldn’t pass it up and we did enjoy the thrill of the ride.
Dave and Julia had a lot of fun playing air hockey.
We all had a great time in the park, mostly because of our wonderful company.
