Russian Adoption Diary: Trip 1/ Day 2

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Trip 1/ Day 2

We slept hard that first night. We got up early and were ready for our day at around 8 a.m. We headed off to find breakfast. It came with our hotel stay. We managed to find it, but didn't know what most of it was. We ended up finding some corn flakes and granola. Damon tried a sausage looking item, but said it was terrible! We then ventured back down to the marketplace. Most of the vendors were just setting up. We walked a long way back into it.

Almost all of the stores were identical. They either had a million pairs of jeans, a million pairs of shoes, a million undergarments, or a million shirts. Each store seemed to carry only one of these items, but had them in multiple. The vendors have to bring in their items every day and "set up store". In the evening, they put everything into boxes and took it back home.

On the first day, I had seen a beautiful porcelain doll that I wanted for my older daughter. She collects dolls. The doll had a traditional Russian dress on, a long red braid, and green eyes. My daughter has red hair and green eyes. I had tried to bargain with the lady, but felt she was really gouging me. I knew I really wanted it and would regret not getting it. So when we were in the market on the second day, I went by her booth again. A different lady was running it. Her starting price was the other lady's bottom price. I was able to bargain a little and bring the beautiful doll home to my daughter.

My oldest twin daugter loves Pooh bear. We found Pooh bear matroyshka dolls. They contained all of the characters, one inside the other- Pooh, Tigger, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, on down to Piglet. It was really cute. We got our son a Soviet era military hat.

After hanging in the market for a while, we went back to our room to await a phone call from our agency as to when they would pick us up. We received our call, went to find some lunch, and then packed up. We left the hotel at around 2 p.m. and drove to the airport. Our flight did not leave until 8:35 that night, so it was a long wait in the airport.

We finally boarded our plane and headed off for our region. The flight was about 2 hours long. The food was weird. I only ate the bread. Russians seem to have a great love of bread. We were given three or four different kinds of bread with every meal.

After deboarding the plane, outside, we were taken inside to a luggage carousel. There we met our translator. He told us the luggage carousel never works and we would probably have to go outside and get our luggage off of the truck. He was right. There is only one plane that flies in and out of this airport. It comes in at night and flies out in the morning.

We loaded in the van, along with our translator, driver, and 5 other people meeting their children. Shortly after leaving the airport, we saw police cars. As we passed, there was a dead body in the road. We still never heard the story on that one.

At about 11:45 p.m. that night we got checked in to our hotel and told when to be ready the next day. The other 2 families were going one way. We were told we were travelling to a small village about 2 hours away. They couldn't remember the name.

I am including a picture of the Russian marketplace. The picture was taken from our hotel room on the 24th floor.

posted by 6blessings @ 6:51 AM

4 Comments:

At 1:17 PM, Maggie said…

Why did I just start crying when I looked at that photo? I just came from Caroline's site (she's in Russia now). I guess I just want to be there, too.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. It's going to help me to know details like this.

The doll sounds beautiful, by the way.
At 7:41 AM, Jennefer said…

That is so neat that you got the doll for your daughter. I think I will be afraid to bargain with the Russians.

I am kind scared about the food there now. I do like bread, I guess I will be OK with that.

That is really creepy about the guy in the road. Not something you see everyday. It sounds like you had quite an experience.
At 10:19 PM, Rhonda said…

Neat story about the doll. It sounds like it was quite the trip! I love Russian food, but it might taste different in Russia than here...I am interested to find out.

Thanks for sharing.
At 11:26 PM, sandy said…

Kim, I am anxiously awaiting your next posting about your trip! And thanks for all the details! When you get a chance I'd be interested in hearing more about the food. It's one of two worries I have about the traveling, finding food I can eat (I'm lactose-intolerant) and riding in cars with no control! =) Take care.