Shopping Saturday

As we weren't going to visit Nathan we figured we'd do some of our planned shopping. I called JJ this morning but he was more excited about his sleepover he was hosting at Grandma's than to talk to me – guess that's ok! Then after a nice phone call from Craig @ home we left about noon. Our first stop was at the bookstore on the corner of Lenin/Karl Marks Sts. I found a whole bunch of coloring books and coloring books with stickers for Nathan – mostly for when we're at the apartment or on our way home but a few to leave with him Monday (the ones that have more Russian I'm leaving for him then!) He seems to like and ask for coloring books so hopefully they'll entertain him when we need them to. Then we went to the Beer House restaurant for lunch. This is where some families used to go after court for the celebratory meal. We understand now how the cost could add up! Our lunch was more than our celebration dinner at the Snowflake after court! Wow! It was good but nothing out of the ordinary, at least for us Germans! Brian had a brat with cheese and I had bockwurst (lamb) and we both had French fries. We also split a Greek Salad and a fried cheese appetizer. I had beer and Brian had a coke – it all added up! Good thing our dinner last night was the bargain… Guess that's how we do it – cheap, expensive, cheap, expensive… LOL

So then we stopped at another bookstore and got a few more coloring and souvenir books and also bought a Wall-E DVD in Russia. That's on the viewing schedule for tonight to make sure it works on our player before we buy more dvd's. Then we went back to the stationary store on the walking street to pick up paints and paintbrushes, again for when we have Nathan in the apartment. Then we had to figure out what to do. The weather today was unbelievable – it was 10c about 3pm! The snow and ice were melting and we were getting warm. I even didn't wear my long underwear today for the first time this trip! So we took a different path home and wound up near the WWII memorial by the river again – then we knew where we were. On the way we found an English sign that said "Irkutsk Souvenirs" so we stopped in. Well, it was a home goods type store and we found a measuring cup for WAY less than I paid last night – oh well, better to shop off Karl Marx St! I also picked up four smaller bowls for the apartment. We only have 4 bowls in total with 8 plates and the bowls are for soup/cereal… so when we have salad we either use them or use our plates… now we have options! LOL

We stopped for a soda at a "fast food type" restaurant. This is one of the chain where we had the horrible hamburgers the other day but not as busy. I ordered "adeen pepsi-light bolshoy" (one pepsi-light large" but she said "nyet pepsi-light" (no pepsi light) so I said "pepsi" – and we made our transaction… yeah! It seemed that this location wasn't as busy as the one on Karl Marxs so we'll stop back here for our "shi-shiek" (shish-ka-bobs) that we want to try yet!

No other stops but then back to the apartment to unload and rest our legs for a bit. We didn't have long to wait until it was time to leave to hear the Russian music at the Sunshine Café. It was already playing when we got there and it was nice but really not as entertaining as the guys were last week. Now we're Russian Folk Music critics! LOL We had some drinks and light eats and enjoyed it tho. The one gal working had been there before so we found out her name this time – it's Claudia. And the manager type lady who keeps us informed on what's happening there is Elena.

We stopped at the "blue door café" on the way back as I had the munchies. A customer there helped us order even tho the lady and we communicate fairly well. I had a schnitzel and salad and Brian an apple fritter. We both had tea. Then I HAD to get a fritter too J

Then back to the apartment and soon we'll be watching Wall-E in Russian and heading to sleep. Brian's determined to wake up at 2am so we can IM into Sophia's birthday party so we'll see how that goes! Maybe "see" some of you soon!