Midnight has long passed at the nightclub Ibiza on the shores of the Black Sea in Odessa. On an elevated platform, two black-leather-clad and muscle-toned young women are dancing to an electronic beat to the delight of alcohol-addled patrons hemmed into a bleached-white, terraced structure suggestive of an igloo or maybe an ant farm. The multicolored rays of a light show bounce off revelers. I watch while puffing on a fruit-flavored water pipe at a poolside bar. Iâ??m ready for bed, but hardier spirits can greet the dawn on a beach by the waterâ??s edge.
Itâ??s just another day in Odessa, said to possess the â??best nightlifeâ? in the world. Or so Iâ??m informed by an Australian expatriate owner of a Moscow nightclub, who makes it his business to know where the hot clubs are, from Singapore to Rio and places in between. He partakes of Ibiza with a buddyâ??a native Colombian financial type who lives (mostly) in New York City, has just returned from Moscow, and is headed for more recreation in Tuscanyâ??s verdant hillsides.
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