Shopping in Europe – particularly Slavic countries…

People who know me know that I like to grocery shop – not clothing shop because I go to the tentmaker for all my clothes. I do the lion’s share of grocery shopping for our family, largely, I think, because I like to eat and to cook. So, for our holiday in Eastern Europe I talked Pat into getting a car rather than relying on public trains and buses, in part because we both like the independence it gives us, but also because this allows me to shop for my own groceries. Or so I thought….

Measurements in Europe are in the metric system – duh – I knew that. Currency is in Euros (at least so far) – duh again. Putting together kilograms and $1.32 dollars to the Euro while at the same time reading ingredients, or better said, not reading them because half the letters have little marks over them, taxes this rapidly aging brain. So, I am becoming one of those strange old dudes standing with a package in his hand in the middle of the grocery aisle with a puzzled expression on his face.

Yesterday I stood in the market staring at what I thought was a package of bacon – and, btw, I love bacon. Asking fellow shoppers what I was getting didn’t get me anywhere other than polite and quizzical smiles. When I got back to the apartment we are staying in – one which having the car made possible - and opened the package to fry the bacon, there were bones in it…. Like rib bones…. What is up with that. So I started to taste it until I decided I needed to figure out if it were smoked or precooked or whatever so I wouldn’t die from eating it, and then I encountered the little accent marks on the packaging. So I cut off the bones, fried the slices, and found out I had bought a piece of ham. It ended up being good but it sure wasn’t what my taste buds were anticipating.

So far, buying cheese is a complete guess. Buying wine is pretty easy – it’s inexpensive enough that if you buy bad wine which we haven't encountered yet, you can just move on to the next bottle! And buying beer is its own reward.  We haven’t tried buying shampoo or conditioner yet – that adventure awaits us. In another entry, Pat will talk about doing laundry.

The adventure continues.