Day 5, June 12, the Friendly Fran

Because we have a three-day weekend ahead of us, we'd saved starting to get out and walk around, go to the indoor market, etc., until today. It's actually been rainy so we were totally fine yesterday after court with coming back to the hotel room and crashing a bit.

Today dawned bright and sunny and warmer than it has been - windy, too. We hit the hotel breakfast buffet (included in our room price - it has some cereal, juice, coffee, tea, bread, sliced meats and cheese, some fruit and typically a few hot things like hot dog-style sausages and an egg casserole-type thing) and then headed out. In December we'd walked to a pedestrian mall and found a mall-like building that includes an indoor grocery market.

We were excited to discover that there was more merchandise than in December. We were scoping out food to buy when we have custody - milk, bread, fresh fruit, yogurt, etc. We found all that, then went back to start going through aisle by aisle, starting, of course with the vodka aisle.

I love being in a country that has a whole aisle just for vodka.

We were a few rows in when a woman approached us and spoke English, saying she'd heard us speaking it. Her name is Fran and she's here studying Russian. She was wonderful! We told her about the adoption and she offered to have coffee with us or get together when we are here next; she gave us her local number and even told us she thought the education program she is here with could give us a few hours of Russian lessons to help us better communciate with the girls. She also clued us in to an outdoor market nearby that we never would have discovered on our own.

After buying some snacks at the market (we purchased neither the caviar- nor the crab-flavored Lays but did buy some Russian chocolate, chips, fresh baked bread, cheese and sodas, which were not to be found in the market when we were there in December; we will head back on another day to stock up on vodka and other stuff to take home) and then headed in the direction of the outdoor market.

It was only a few blocks from the indoor market and we were glad to go, because it certainly gave us some local flavor and atmosphere! Some of the stuff was like at a flea market - odds and ends and old books, etc. There were also live animals (dogs, cats, chicks, geese, fish, turtles) and then some areas that appeared to have new items like rugs, etc. We didn't purchase anything along that route but enjoyed it. The trip to and from the outdoor market took us along the Volga River, which was nice to see via a pedestrian route and not from the back of our agency rep's van.

Now we're back in the room chilling and just enjoying the breeze coming in the window and the sounds of Tver. It's a holiday weekend here so we're not sure if the atmosphere is different at all.

A view of the Volga.

A glimpse of the Tver outdoor market.

Goose in a bag.

Chicken, anyone?

A pretty mosaic on the side of a building,

on our walk back to the hotel.