Baraholka

For some time I have been chastised by the sisters at church for not wearing warm enough shoes (specifically boots, which I left in the States). Two weeks ago we were walking down the street to the church building and one of the members of our branch drove by. When Sveta got out of her vehicle she began fussing at me about my shoes and I explained I was going to go shopping, but hadn't yet. She told me she would take me to the Baraholka that week, and we scheduled a date.

The Baraholka is kind of like a bazaar. But not. It is pretty much the size of a small city (I kid you not) and you can find anything your heart desires. It took a little time to find the area where shoes are, but we did and it probably took about an hour after that to find a pair of boots that I liked... we walked from "booth" to "booth" checking out the merchandise, trying on a few pairs, walking walking walking... but we were eventually successful in finding a nice pair of boots and even managed to bargain the price down.

The "merchants" are pretty aggressive, so when you walk into their "booth" they really don't want you to leave without buying something. Of course leaving is one way of bargaining a price down (and they know that), so at one point we had a merchant follow us to other booths, often with a pair of shoes, to try and get us to come back and buy from him. One of the most interesting sales tactics I saw was actually from the guy (I should probably say kid, he was maybe 16 years old) who sold us my boots. To demonstrate the quality of the leather he clicked a lighter and brought the flame to the boots--then showed that it didn't damage the leather in any way. It was pretty neat to see that, but I promise it's not what sold me/us.

On our way out Sveta and I decided we wanted to stop at a booth and tried to call after Chris, but couldn't find him. We kept calling after him and eventually we saw him come out of another booth--he was shopping too. I tried on a couple skirts, a few shirts and sweaters and ended up buying a skirt and sweater vest-ish thing. (I'm pretty sure the sweater vest-ish thing is not a blast from the ugly 80's past, I just don't know how else to describe it.)

This is a picture of me with the woman who sold me the skirt and sweater. This is her "booth" with all her merchandise. On the lower right you can see that there are torso dummies (?) modeling skirts. The bare-skinned torso on the right lost it's skirt to me. =)


When you look at the picture you should notice there is a yellow sign, behind which is a gold cloth. This is a curtain. If you want to try on clothes they pull the curtain for you and you try on clothes. Please note, we are wearing our winter coats, hats, scarves, etc. Why on earth is that, you ask? Well, you see, the Baraholka (and most bazaars for that matter) is pretty much outside. There may be a tin roof (and in this area there was) but the main floor is simply ground. Pretty much all of the booths have a wooden platform that you step onto, and the platform is often covered with a carpet or something.

But I digress. You see, I had to actually try on the clothes in order to know if they 1-fit and 2-looked good on me. This meant that I shared that little curtained space with another girl trying on clothes (yes, I am completely serious) and was extremely cold and more exposed to the elements than I would normally choose to be. My feet were freezing. Conveniently, I was provided with a small carpet (similar to the kind I sat on in elementary school) to stand on while dressing and looking in the mirror.

It was a fun trip and quite the adventure. I am sold on the Baraholka and pretty excited for my next visit! =)