Pestilog

Market Day

I mentioned this huge market that is right by the train station in an earlier post. I went down there today to take some pictures. I would say that it was successful. I came home with a kilo of pickles, dried parsimmons, and a whole kilo of white figs. Plus a ton of pictures that I am really excited about. The produce at this market was so beautiful. It looked like God himself breathed on this food. But a lot I couldn't bear to buy because I know that I'm not in my own kitchen and I don't have all the staples that are needed to prepare them well.

Anyway, here are some of the shots that I took there on the digital camera, the last one taken by Joanna, my adventure partner for the day. She is from upstate NY, and staying in my hostel as well.













The woman in this last shot was so wonderful. She, like many other women at the market, was selling picked cabbage and cucumbers out of huge plastic 70 gallon barrels. I asked her if I could take her picture (I got it on the Canon), and she blushed and laughed and said, "You want to take a picture of an old babushka like me?"

I also met a vendor who was selling pomegranates. He pulled me over, and told me to take his picture, then posed nobly behind his piles of fruit. I snapped a few, and then he asked if he could give me his address, so that I could send him a copy, to put up by his stand. I told him that I wouldnt have pictures for probably two weeks, but he said that that was great, so, hey, I hope they turned out ok!

After the market, we wandered around to the sea and passed a spring carnival that was open in the park between the station and the northern beaches. They even had a full on Strongest Man contest in the middle of the thing. I really wanted to get some pictures of it, but the crowds were so big that we couldn't muscle our way to the front.





It was also funny to realize that all of the carnival attractions were from Mexico. And I mean REALLY from Mecixo--made to be marketed and used IN Mexico





Please note that one is called "Mexican Casino" and the other one, the rooster, is saying "Ki-ki-ri-ki"

Honestly. It kills me. And I thought Romania was bad for bottom feeding.

In the evening I met up with a local girl named Vera, who took me to the pier out past the Potemkin stairs, and then took me for a beer with some of her friends from the university. They were really nice girls, all about 20, studying English at the university here in Odessa. They looked so Ukrainian. Big frilly fancy shiny skirts and tops and earrings and shoes that lace up to the knee with rhinestones and tons of buckles and flare. We talked for an hour and a half about getting married while they smoked skinny cigarettes and drank champagne at the bar. It was so rad.

Oh, and I also found out that football season has started here. The local team Chornomorets (чорноморец--it means, like, Black-Sea-ites) has a home stadium just up the street from me. They had a home game today, and another one next saturday, against the Kiev Arsenal. I am going with colors flying.

Nate would be so proud of me....

Labels: odessa, photography, photos, thin justification for my existace, travel, ukraine

posted by Veruka2 @ 9:18 PM