Market Day

Today is our last day in Odessa. Tonight we will get on the overnight train and head back to Kiev. Our paperwork arrived in Paris last night, and this morning, showed it was in transit – meaning, on its way to Kiev!

Our overnight train will arrive at 7:39 AM Sunday morning in Kiev. Kostya’s train arrives at 8 AM from his hometown, Gorlovka. We will go to our apartment, shower and then head out to church. We are excited to attend church here, even though it will be entirely in Russian! After church we’ll have the rest of the afternoon to enjoy Kiev, and then Monday morning we will hopefully be able to pick up our paperwork, attach Kostya’s translations, get it notarized and bring it to the NAC. With any luck, we’ll leave the NAC with our permission to visit the children, get train tickets for that night, and head to Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. This town of about 30,000 is a 2-hour bus ride from Odessa. If all of that goes as planned (which we are about batting 0 for luck thus far!), we’ll be able to visit the kids on Tuesday!

First thing this morning we headed out to the largest market in Ukraine, which is on the outskirts of Odessa. It is called 7-Kilometer market. We were there for about 3 hours and barely saw 10% of the market. While our Ukrainian friends say they much prefer our local mall for shopping, John and I would have to disagree. It was busy, hectic & crazy – but the selection, spirit and environment there was something to enjoy! Around the outside of the market, there are stalls to purchase fruit, vegetables, cheese and smoked fish and chicken. The interior of the market is really something to see.

There are rows upon rows of goods for sale – clothing, shoes, tools, curtains, household goods, children’s items, lighting, undergarments, furniture, rugs and more. There was even an aisle complete with wedding supplies – suits, wedding dresses, flowergirl and bridesmaid dresses, and accessories! The aisles are made from shipping containers placed side-by-side, open to the aisle. Each container is decorated as individual stores, complete with wood or linoleum flooring, lights, ceiling fans, and covered awnings. The containers are actually stacked two deep and two high, and many of the fancier “container stores” have, in the back of the container, ladder steps to the top container for employee access.

I took several pictures of the market – it was very difficult to capture the market accurately, but hopefully you can get an idea through these pictures.


This picture was taken while walking down one of the many rows of the market. The walkway is narrow, filled with vendors/distributors walking up and down with large handcarts full of merchandise, shoppers, and also individual salespeople selling drinks, homemade goods, and when it began raining - one-time raincovers!


A shop for the "unmentionables".


A shop just for women's shirts. The displays show each style they have at that particular shop and you ask for your particular size. Actually, usually the salespeople "size you up" and pull out the appropriate one for you.


This was one of many wedding shops. It offered wedding dresses, as well as various accessories for hair, and church decoration.


A traditional Ukrainian wedding accessory. The parents of the bride and groom bring bread and salt (the two words on the towel) to respresent prosperity and health. It is placed on this special towel displayed at the church during the wedding.


We found these traditional Ukrainian scarves at the market and bought some to bring home to friends (we were more thinking for table decorations). Lena and Nina decided to dress me up as a Ukrainian girl.


The back of the beautiful scarf.

So, that's it for today! Hope you enjoy the pictures! Have a great day and God bless!