A Visit To The Central Market
Last night I got a Skype-in call from Claire and I must say that her news certainly put everything in perspective. There are lucky people and there are unlucky people, especially when it comes to health, and I am definitely one of the lucky ones, and Claire is definitely one of the unlucky ones. Just before I left for the Ukraine she went through a horrible experience with back surgery and awful complications that, without exaggeration almost killed her. Now I learned that about a week ago, while she was bending over to pick something up from the floor, she lost her balance, fell and broke the C-2 vertebra in her neck!! The only good news in this story is that she did not sever or injure her spinal cord and is able to move her arms and legs just fine, but she has to stay immobilized in some sort of horrible neck brace 24/7 for possibly 12 weeks! I can't even imagine how awful this must be - let alone the pain. When I fractured L4-5 in my back in Africa I thought I would die from the pain (or maybe I just wanted to die, to end the pain!). This has got to be a lot worse. All this brings home that I really do have to learn to look at my life and my "problems" from a different vantage point. No more moping around and spending the whole day shut up in the apartment.
So today we decided to go to the Central Market, Tsentralny Rynok, something I've been avoiding because I hate crowded mob scenes, and I especially hate flea markets - I just get overwhelmed with all the "stuff" and am never able to differentiate between the junk and the jewels. I didn't bring my passport or a lot of money, or even my backpack - I just carried one plastic carrybag and about 300 Hryvna in my pocket. Ed did the same - no passport, no wallet, just some Hryvnas. I had read that the market was rife with pickpockets (in fact Ed's office, which will be located near by, is not going to be taking cases from the district in which it, and the market, is located because they are worried that they will just be flooded with petty theft cases from the market).
We started out toward Shumskaya (the market is just west of the Cathedral that's on the "wrong" side of the Kharkov River (Blagoveschensky). I stayed off our usual streets and we found ourselves walking down a charming, curving tree lined street leading to the river. Ed, of course, resisted - he wanted to stick to the road most traveled, but I insisted. Well it turned out to be a wonderful street - not only lined with trees, but with books stalls, and also a few "tchatchke" stalls (Ed's favorite) and, best of all, one of the stalls had English books - books like The Canterbury Tales, Dr. Zhivago, a lot of Dick Francis, and some other things that looked interesting. The sellers are there every day, except Monday, from 10 to 3. This street will definitely be revisited. We found one guy who had lots of interesting old postcards and banners, and he spoke perfect French, so I was able to communicate with him fairly well. Then we passed another guy who had some great "dog" pins - I got one for the "Young People's Dog Club" (in Ukrainian or Russian) - the dog doesn't look like Belle (I think it's a German Shepherd), but at least it's a dog!!! This man even spoke English pretty well, so I'll definitely go back there.
We got to the banks of the river, and there was a section of the market to our right. We went in, but the only things that were being sold there were CDs, DVDs, stationery and office supplies, picture frames, greeting cards, books, and the like. We "did" this section and then walked toward the bridge to go over the river to the main section of the market. There were lots of people, but it was by no means a mob scene. Quite civilized - no pushing or shoving, and the stalls were orderly and formed wide aisles that were easy to walk through. It seems to be organized in sections - there's the "shoe section," the "children's section," the "nuts and dried fruits section," the "grocery and dry goods section," the "egg section," the "fresh fish and meat section," the "flower and garden section," etc. We stopped before when we got to the "clothing section" and skipped that and whatever else followed. In the dry goods section I got a supply of Alpine Fresh Tide (my last box had come from Target) and "scrub" soap for the shower, but, although I looked everywhere, I couldn't find the brand of toilet paper that I had gotten at Target that is really great - just like home. The next level of TP here is the quality of paper towel - I'm not kidding - and then below that is the "think wrapping paper" variety.
The produce is gorgeous, and a lot cheaper than it is in the markets we usually go to(much better quality too). We couldn't resist and bought 4 ears of corn (I haven't seen any fresh corn in the markets), delicious salted peanuts for Ed and sesame coated almonds for me, 2 fabulous peaches, 2 fantastic nectarines, and a beautiful melon - I forget the name of it, but it's very sweet and I think it's either a Chanterel, or it's from Israel (probably the latter since Israel is pretty easy to get to from here). Of course we stopped for the obligatory perogy. We couldn't figure out how to ask for meat - well, actually, I thought I had asked for meat, but we ended up getting one filled with apricot jam!! So we got another one - a different type (greasier and deep fried - I of course loved this - rather than the type that is doughy and bready on the outside) and this one was filled with meat. (We had decided to get the most expensive one on the theory that this was most likely to be meat filled, and in fact that was correct.) 
We polished it all off with a glass of Kvas, which you buy from a truck on the street. Kvas is a brewed wheat drink that tastes a little bit like a Shandy - a mixture of beer and ginger ale or lemonade. I think it would be delicious with sausage, but then the great beer here is wonderful with sausage, so why get Kvas?
When we got back home Ed got a call from Gennady - the office furniture will be delivered tomorrow and the office will open on Thursday!! Ed is still concerned that they will begin taking cases the very week that we will be in Moscow and Riga and Vilnius, but we both agreed that what will be, will be. They don't have an English speaking assistant for the office yet, and it looks like they won't be able to find one. They've been advertising for one for a week and no one has even applied! Ed is suggesting that they just hire a translator for a couple of hours each day so that he can communicate with the lawyers on a daily basis.
Ed was very disappointed to see that only three photos made it into the blog today. Surely, he said the photo of the "shoe section" or the "egg section" should be included! So I am including the egg section here. Now he's complaining that the picture of the egg section is too small and should be the same size as the other photos!
I had a long Skype-in conversation with Dian today - she had a great suggestion: She told me to see if I could arrange for Ukrainian or Russian conversation lessons twice a week - that way I would have someone to talk to besides Ed, and maybe even someone to go around with and learn how to order in restaurants, how to shop for things I have been reluctant to try because I have no idea what they could be, and just generally learn about different places and things to do in Kharkiv. I immediately looked up the University of Kharkov (the second largest university in Ukraine - only Kyiv is bigger) and emailed to see if this could be arranged. I hope I get a reply - this is something I think I would really profit from in many ways. One of the biggest obstacles here is the lack of any contact information for Kharkiv on the internet. There is tons of information for Kyiv - things to do, places to rent, things to see, places to eat, etc., etc. But there is virtually nothing at all for Kharkiv. So far I think my blog is the best guide to the city on the net!!
So today we decided to go to the Central Market, Tsentralny Rynok, something I've been avoiding because I hate crowded mob scenes, and I especially hate flea markets - I just get overwhelmed with all the "stuff" and am never able to differentiate between the junk and the jewels. I didn't bring my passport or a lot of money, or even my backpack - I just carried one plastic carrybag and about 300 Hryvna in my pocket. Ed did the same - no passport, no wallet, just some Hryvnas. I had read that the market was rife with pickpockets (in fact Ed's office, which will be located near by, is not going to be taking cases from the district in which it, and the market, is located because they are worried that they will just be flooded with petty theft cases from the market).
We started out toward Shumskaya (the market is just west of the Cathedral that's on the "wrong" side of the Kharkov River (Blagoveschensky). I stayed off our usual streets and we found ourselves walking down a charming, curving tree lined street leading to the river. Ed, of course, resisted - he wanted to stick to the road most traveled, but I insisted. Well it turned out to be a wonderful street - not only lined with trees, but with books stalls, and also a few "tchatchke" stalls (Ed's favorite) and, best of all, one of the stalls had English books - books like The Canterbury Tales, Dr. Zhivago, a lot of Dick Francis, and some other things that looked interesting. The sellers are there every day, except Monday, from 10 to 3. This street will definitely be revisited. We found one guy who had lots of interesting old postcards and banners, and he spoke perfect French, so I was able to communicate with him fairly well. Then we passed another guy who had some great "dog" pins - I got one for the "Young People's Dog Club" (in Ukrainian or Russian) - the dog doesn't look like Belle (I think it's a German Shepherd), but at least it's a dog!!! This man even spoke English pretty well, so I'll definitely go back there.We got to the banks of the river, and there was a section of the market to our right. We went in, but the only things that were being sold there were CDs, DVDs, stationery and office supplies, picture frames, greeting cards, books, and the like. We "did" this section and then walked toward the bridge to go over the river to the main section of the market. There were lots of people, but it was by no means a mob scene. Quite civilized - no pushing or shoving, and the stalls were orderly and formed wide aisles that were easy to walk through. It seems to be organized in sections - there's the "shoe section," the "children's section," the "nuts and dried fruits section," the "grocery and dry goods section," the "egg section," the "fresh fish and meat section," the "flower and garden section," etc. We stopped before when we got to the "clothing section" and skipped that and whatever else followed. In the dry goods section I got a supply of Alpine Fresh Tide (my last box had come from Target) and "scrub" soap for the shower, but, although I looked everywhere, I couldn't find the brand of toilet paper that I had gotten at Target that is really great - just like home. The next level of TP here is the quality of paper towel - I'm not kidding - and then below that is the "think wrapping paper" variety.
The produce is gorgeous, and a lot cheaper than it is in the markets we usually go to(much better quality too). We couldn't resist and bought 4 ears of corn (I haven't seen any fresh corn in the markets), delicious salted peanuts for Ed and sesame coated almonds for me, 2 fabulous peaches, 2 fantastic nectarines, and a beautiful melon - I forget the name of it, but it's very sweet and I think it's either a Chanterel, or it's from Israel (probably the latter since Israel is pretty easy to get to from here). Of course we stopped for the obligatory perogy. We couldn't figure out how to ask for meat - well, actually, I thought I had asked for meat, but we ended up getting one filled with apricot jam!! So we got another one - a different type (greasier and deep fried - I of course loved this - rather than the type that is doughy and bready on the outside) and this one was filled with meat. (We had decided to get the most expensive one on the theory that this was most likely to be meat filled, and in fact that was correct.) 
We polished it all off with a glass of Kvas, which you buy from a truck on the street. Kvas is a brewed wheat drink that tastes a little bit like a Shandy - a mixture of beer and ginger ale or lemonade. I think it would be delicious with sausage, but then the great beer here is wonderful with sausage, so why get Kvas?When we got back home Ed got a call from Gennady - the office furniture will be delivered tomorrow and the office will open on Thursday!! Ed is still concerned that they will begin taking cases the very week that we will be in Moscow and Riga and Vilnius, but we both agreed that what will be, will be. They don't have an English speaking assistant for the office yet, and it looks like they won't be able to find one. They've been advertising for one for a week and no one has even applied! Ed is suggesting that they just hire a translator for a couple of hours each day so that he can communicate with the lawyers on a daily basis.
Ed was very disappointed to see that only three photos made it into the blog today. Surely, he said the photo of the "shoe section" or the "egg section" should be included! So I am including the egg section here. Now he's complaining that the picture of the egg section is too small and should be the same size as the other photos!I had a long Skype-in conversation with Dian today - she had a great suggestion: She told me to see if I could arrange for Ukrainian or Russian conversation lessons twice a week - that way I would have someone to talk to besides Ed, and maybe even someone to go around with and learn how to order in restaurants, how to shop for things I have been reluctant to try because I have no idea what they could be, and just generally learn about different places and things to do in Kharkiv. I immediately looked up the University of Kharkov (the second largest university in Ukraine - only Kyiv is bigger) and emailed to see if this could be arranged. I hope I get a reply - this is something I think I would really profit from in many ways. One of the biggest obstacles here is the lack of any contact information for Kharkiv on the internet. There is tons of information for Kyiv - things to do, places to rent, things to see, places to eat, etc., etc. But there is virtually nothing at all for Kharkiv. So far I think my blog is the best guide to the city on the net!!
posted by Susan Spivak at 1:45 PM
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