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Shopping
Next Diary
Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip
Shopping
Oct. 17, 1998
Here we are again. The theme for today's Diary is SHOPPING. Normally, I wouldn't consider this a topic worthy of much attention. "It's a girl thing." Not here. Shopping for food is a continuous process. We call it hunting and gathering. I've tried to put together some of our more colorful pictures. (These photos are from throughout our trip so the weather will be different. Actually, this reminds me that we've been here quite awhile now. "Summer" seems far away.)
During the week, we go to small markets called "gastronomes". Here is Marianne coming out of Maria's, one of our normal haunts..(Pict#1) (Russian lesson: "M" is "M". "P" is "R". "I" is "I". and "Backwards R" is something like "ia".) Here is a typical haul. (Pict #2). There's a couple reasons why we end up with just a little bit. First, we are always walking and there is a limit to how much we can carry. Second, and more important, the little markets just don't carry very much. There's lots of theses places but one Safeway would hold more than all of them put together. And what they carry one week will be different from what they carry the next. They even change in size. Maria's has been 50% larger than it is now but when their stock is low they just empty out one section of the store. We've been assured that they probably will be larger again. Someday.
On weekends, it's another story. Because we now have time to go to the open markets. These places are scattered throughout the city and range from scary to quite nice. In the fancy neighborhood, there's Beserovsky Market (Pict#3). It's all indoors and it has a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables that is not equalled in California. It may be a little less antiseptic than Dragger's (Los Altos insider info) but the fresh food is very impressive. It's expensive by Kyiv standards but less than Bay Area prices.
Our closest market is "Centralni" (Pict #4). It's kind of middle-of-the-road. Some inside and some outside. We've actually taken quite a few pictures here so tell me if you've seen too much. Here's Marianne buying potatoes. (Pict#5). This looks almost deserted compared to the crowds earlier in the day. It's really packed. We could also tell it was late because Marianne's friend here was only barely able to stand up. Friendly though. Nobody speaks English and our Russian is almost nonexistent but we manage to make friends at these markets just by laughing and trying to make ourselves friendly. Ukrainians seem generally friendly.
Meat. Ya' want meat, ya' got meat. At Baserovsky (Pict#6), things are relatively ordered. Note the fancy display cases and coolers. Oops, no coolers. No display cases either and this is the best market in town. But closer to home, it's even more interesting. (Pict#7) That's a cow part next to Marianne. I'm not sure what part. I don't even want to know. They keep all the various (and I DO mean VARIOUS) parts around just in case they're needed I guess. Four weeks ago we were going to become vegetarians. Today we're we're buying veal. (Pict#8)
Then there's the pickle ladies. Again, Baserovsky is fancy (Pict#9), Centralni (Pict#10) is not. That's Tanya serving Marianne "po kilograma" (about a pound) of good pickles for about one hryvna (30 cents US) She threw in a pickled apple. Once again, everything is just in open containers from home. People sample from various bowls and then we buy what's left. I think this is what Marianne and I talked about when we said we wanted to avoid getting stuck in our ways as we got older. We are unstuck in ways I wouldn't have imagined.
The best part really is the fruits and veggies. Here I am at Baserovsky (Pict#11). Everything's neat and orderly -- by our new standards anyway. Centralni is more chaotic. We've been to a couple other markets as well and they are even more chaotic or just bigger. The "old timers" say that, as winter comes along, the markets all shrink until only Baserovsky will have a good selection of fresh food. It'll be hard to see all this colorful and tasty food disappear.
Last of all comes the bag ladies. (Pict#12). This is the free market at its most primitive. On the streets leading into the markets, people line up to sell back yard produce, cigarettes, used books, or small household items. Or meat. People come into town on the busses with bags of meat and sell it by the chunk. We are NOT going to try this particular shopping.
If we had time for a dozen more shots, we could show all the other small shops and kiosks we pass daily. It seems that free enterprise has meant that half the people are selling small things to the other half. There are kiosks and stands everwhere with just a few different items per stand. CD's. Batteries. Flowers. Clothes. Snacks. Fruits and veggies. Magazines and books. Centralni market is surrounded by the biggest flea market I've ever seen with everything from old clothes to industrial tools.
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Originally sent October, 1998. Reformatted May 12, 2001
This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.