Pictures from the capital

I thought I would have more time to blog this week, but honestly, we've been taking advantage of having down time in a major Eastern European city...which means we have been walking and walking and walking all over the historic district. Unfortunately, since Alex's country (like most EE countries) forbids associating information about the adoptive child with the name of the country, I'm somewhat restricted in what I can write. I am hoping to start a separate blog about our travels, but for now, here are a few pictures especially for other Reece's Rainbow adoptive families who might be traveling after us.

Here is a picture of the door leading to our apartment:

Interesting, huh? You put a sort of magnet key thing on the side of the door, open it up, and you see this:

See that narrow little box on the left there, the one with the button on the side? That would be the ELEVATOR. Extremely small and extremely basic, but apparently functional. Probably dates from the '50s or '60s. We took it once, to haul up the luggage. After that we just preferred hoofing it up the six flights of stairs. Then there's this double-door arrangement; you open the deadbolt on this sort of steel safe-like door, and then there's the more decorative inner door behind it. And behind that...a pretty decent little one-bedroom apartment, complete with a little kitchenette and small balcony. I didn't take any pictures because really, it's pretty nondescript. Think of a mid-range hotel room.

Actually, I guess I lied, because here is a picture of Susan with Nico, a member of the local rr team who helped set us up in the apartment. He picked us up from the airport, helped us change our money, brought us to the apartment, and took us grocery shopping at the local mini-market.

Here is a bad picture of the local mini-market. It's an upscale place with an organic deli attached. We've had mixed experiences there. On the one hand, we made a lot of basic mistakes, like getting in the wrong line (only one cash register takes credit cards) and handing money directly rather than leaving it on the money plate provided on the counter (a widespread expectation in this country -- unless you're dealing with an outdoor vendor, you never hand money directly to someone; you put it down, then they pick it up, and place the change back on the plate). There's the usual difficulty with the language barrier. And this afternoon we were followed very closely by a security guy -- as in, he was two steps behind us the entire time we were shopping, and looking directly at us. On the other hand, the shop women have been largely cordial, and a couple have been very helpful. One woman took us all over the store finding different things we had written on a list in Russian, giggling the whole time; the other shop women looked on, amused. Another woman helped us load minutes on our phone card from the electronic kiosk. She didn't know any English, but between my very limited russian and her enthusiastic gestures, we figured it out.

Speaking of food, we visited a certain buffet restaurant that turned out to be very good. Normally I hear "buffet" and run the other way, but this place advertised traditional cuisine, and it delivered. All of the food was excellently prepared, and the ambiance was nice, too. The price was also very good; each of the meals pictured below ran $11 - $13 -- total, for two people, including drinks.

This was one of the meals we had for Susan's birthday celebration:

Our apartment building is on the immediate right, above the Gemma. It's on a very long, somewhat steep hill.

And finally...here is some of the food we bought on a recent grocery trip. A large bottle of water, a box of pineapple/banana/orange juice, four yogurt drinks, and two yogurts, all for about $12.