The flea market in Odessa is like a good yeast dough. A short time after a good kneading, it grows, sprawls, leaves the banks and fills the streets and courtyards, climbs the walls with spreading garlands of second-hand clothes. It spreads tat and shlock on the sidewalks, is filled to the brim with “dead” items, which uncontrollably cling to the chance for a new life. It seems as though life does not notice them until it comes across a cute brooch in a cardboard box, or a leather briefcase with a worn handle, or an old accordion with yellowed keys. And then, the buyer and the seller have a choice: either meet at the price and farewell with a feeling of satisfaction, or uncompromisingly look for the best deal under the scorching rays of the ruthless Odessa sun.
This walk around the city is a little reckless. Maybe this is her charm and maybe this is what she echoes the spirit of those places through which she passes. One could say from bazaar to bazaar. From the Old Stables Market to the Old Bazaar Square. Both of them were built as bazaars by the young architect Torricelli, whom fate brought to Odessa at the beginning of the 19th century from Lugano. The first bazaar flourishes to this day. The second has long been gone. The first grows every Saturday and Sunday like a snowball and becomes the largest flea market in eastern Europe. The second one will please only a small tavern with a herring and a hodgepodge. And between them? Between them, the house is the apartment of the most famous Odessa citizen - Leonid Osipovich Utesov. Translated with Google Translate
