I remembered that over on Ushakova, between Kulika and the train station, on the right hand side of the street, there used to be a place that sold all sorts of stuff. It was a Soviet-style store - kind of a dark place with everything behind the counter and sales help who liked to stand and do their nails instead of help the customer. There was also a candy store in that general location. It's been so long since I've been on that block of Ushakova that I had no idea if either were still around.
It's kind of strange, in a way - I've been on Ushakova on both ends of that section of the block many times in recent months - just never all the way.
So, Mel and I decided to walk over to the coffee shop via a slightly longer route. We walked over to the 'big bus stop', crossed under the street and walked down Zhalezna Darozhni (which is probably a really bad transliteration of that streets' name, actually - so let's just call it ZhDeh Street! It means Iron Road, or Railroad, or so I've been told.) As we walked, Mel watched a pigeon fly up from the ground to the top of the building we were walking beside. He pointed up and said, "Does that make you feel confident?"
And I admit that, no, the roof line on this building did not inspire confidence in me at all. I wondered how long it had been since the last piece fell off and what were the chances a piece would fall off as we walked under it?Along the way we passed one of our old favorite cafes, which is no longer a favorite because they changed from a Georgian (former Soviet Republic of, not the State of) Cafe, to this:
The food used to be really good here, but somehow I just don't trust sushi in Ukraine. The second time I went to a Chinese place here I got a really, really, really bad case of food poisoning. Yes, I know that sushi is not Chinese - but, well, it's from over there on that side of the world and good grief - that fish is raw! (gag gag I have a hard time eating most cooked fish...) (СУШИ БАР = Sushi Bar)We turned the corner and walked down the right hand side of the street, looking across at all of the stores on the left hand side. Sure enough, way down the street there was the candy store, still there looking the same as it did 10 years ago, candy made right here in Kherson at the Goolivar Candy Factory (that's what we call it because they sell a chocolate covered waffle cookie called Goolivar, like Gulliver in Gulliver's Travels you know - they used to be really tasty).
A nice young man accosted us, as we walked, holding two red CD covers in his hand, asking us if we wanted to buy some sort of cell phone service. Mel said he didn't understand, in Russian, and we kept walking. The guy shouted after us, "English? Ukrainian? English?" but we kept walking. This happens a lot, you see - there must be a dozen different cell phone companies trying to get you to change from one service to another, or maybe it's just 3 or 4 and just feels like 50?
We kept walking and lo, and behold, the store I wanted was still there! After all these years! Which is unusual here. Stores come and go at an alarming rate. But maybe this is a government store, and that's why it's still hanging around? I don't know. We saw it across the street, apparently still working because there were all sorts of advertisements on the windows - huge photos of dishes and stuff. I was happy and asked Mel if we should cross the street now. But he asked me if I really wanted to go into that nice little coffee shop with a mop? Well, no, not really...
So, we went to get coffee, or cocoa in my case, and a croissant. And it was good.
We sat and chatted about this and that for awhile. (Side note: it is so nice to be able to go on impromptu dates with my husband, to not have to worry about babysitters or when the kids will get home from school, etc. It is so nice to be just 'us' at this age. We had our 3 kids so fast after marriage, 9 months after the wedding there was Kara, that we never had time to be just 'we two'.) We sat beside the window because a young man was sitting in my favorite spot doing business on his cell phone, but it turned out really nice, even tho I was sitting beside the heater and was too hot. Mel pointed this woman out to me, commenting on how 'lemony' her expression was and how she seemed to not really want to be selling flowers at all. The spring flowers were beautiful, tho.
I took this photo by setting the camera on a plate on top of my cocoa cup and using a non-flash setting through the window, so it might be a bit blurry.After our date, we walked back up the street and crossed over. I took this photo of one of the buildings because I thought the balconies were pretty. So much remont is being done that the beautiful old things are disappearing very quickly. I understand why, but it's sad in some ways.
We went into the store and sure enough, it didn't look like it has change one iota in the past 10 years. Still the same counters, still the same dirty looking cement/stone floor, still the same feeling of being in a cave, still the same rude sales people behind the counter. BUT there was the mop I wanted! I couldn't remember the word for 'mop' and one of the sales clerks was busy being in the way of trying to see the name of the item written on it's price tag, there behind the counter, safely out of the reach of the public who might want to stash it under their clothing and shoplift it out of there. (Boy does that give me hilarious mental images.)
I asked Mel - what is that word for mop in Russian, and in with an exasperated sigh, he said, "I don't know!" Then he looked over the sales clerks shoulder, read the name and said it to me. I promptly mangled the word totally in my mind. I walked back over to the cash register and when that sales clerk had finished what she was doing, I told her I wanted the "shamumblemumble" and pointed 'over there'. She looked at me in unbelief and I just looked back at her like a deer in the headlights. She walked over toward where I had pointed and then she pointed at the mop and I nodded and said, "Da, shamumblemumble" and I smiled at her and laughed. And you know what? She smiled back at me and laughed, too. I bought my mop. Actually Mel paid for it - I just proudly carried it the mile and more back home.
As we walked on up the street, me with mop in hand, we again met the young man selling cell phone stuff. Why was he on this side of the street now? I don't know, but he was with another guy. He tried to stop us again and again we said no and again he asked where we were from. I answered "America" this time and he said something or other as we walked away. I have a sneaky feeling he was cussing us out, but have no real proof of that, just the tone of his voice. Poor young man - life must be very difficult for him trying to sell cell phone stuff to foreigners carry mops.
As we walked back home, we came upon this old woman, carrying two very heavy bags of prodookti (what a nice word - products, could be fresh veggies and fruit or it could be canned stuff or it could be meat, doesn't matter, it's products). She walked really slow and to get a photo of her I had to actually stop and take a photo of a cat sitting in a school yard to let her get far enough ahead of us to take a good photo of her.
And finally, the last two photos of the day. Construction has basically come to a standstill on these two buildings, we think due to the severe economic crisis going on here. We haven't seen anyone working on the least finished building for 2 or 3 weeks and before that, there must have been 100 men working 12 or more hours a day on it. So sad. I hope it gets finished! The newer building also seems at a standstill. Two offices on the first floor have lights at night, but none of the apartments above seem to be finished at all.
Spring is here!!! Not only did these little blue flowers show up late last week, but yesterday I also saw my first yellow crocus blooming in someones yard. Hear a happy sigh.
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