Valentin had driven us past the shop (Coffee Life) earlier, but this time we were on our own and on foot. It took a while, and a few wrong turns, but we finally found the right place. Marina, the manager (owner?) was there, and she and the staff remembered Autumn fondly and asked about her. When I went into my backpack and told her I had something for her, she says, "Wait- is it peanut butter?" Yes- it was :) Autumn told us to bring her some, and she was so grateful. She was very very sweet, and told us that she would make us some borscht, and that we could stay all day every day in her coffee shop to use the internet.
We went from there all around the city. We found these underground mall type places, where there is a Metro station or just a crossing under a busy intersection, and a bunch of tiny stores line the hallways. You can find everything from lingerie to prepackaged snacks, bakeries, and meat and cheese shops. So funny. You need socks on the way home from work? No problem. Cigarettes? No problem? A chain of sausages? Okey-dokey! I guess it is the city's answer to a Walmart.
We were looking for somewhere to eat (it's WAY cheaper to eat out here than in the US. We usually have breakfast and lunch in the apartment, and then go out for dinner and still come in under our $20 allotment for food per day) and decided to see how this country does Mexican. "La Cucaracha" Mexican Bar and Grill also had a wi-fi connection, so that made it even more appealing. Even better was the fact that the menu was written in Russian...AND SPANISH! So, for the first time since being in region, we were able to read a menu (thank you, Sra Sprague at Countryside High School!).
Funny Mexican restaurant story: you know how they serve sour cream with everything here? Well, apparently not with fajitas or quesadillas!! So, Bryan tries to ask the waitress for some, and after some back and forth descriptions and pantomiming, she gets that lightbulb look on her face and left to go get it. Well, we waited and waited and waited, and still she didn't come back with the sour cream. So we ate our meals without it, which was totally fine. When she finally comes back to the table, she is carrying two huge ice cream sundaes!! It didn't even dawn on me why she was bringing them, until Bryan looked at me and said, "Um, I don't think this is sour cream." LOL!! They were good, but I think we've had our fill of ice cream for a while, as we had already found a gelato place earlier and had pre-dinner dessert...but you know, we couldn't be rude and NOT eat the sundaes she brought out. We ended up spending a little more than expected at La Cucaracha :)
More adventures tomorrow!
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