Let's Sleep In - Mar 4

We slept in the next morning as we did not need to meet Olga until 3:00. Not too late though as they were setting up for their End of Winter Festival just outside our window in front of the hotel and the noise woke us up.

Once the festival had started, we strolled out into the crowd. There were food and craft booths, two stages for performers, activities for the kids, a farmers market, and more.

It was a bright, relatively warm day and we enjoyed mingling with the locals, and feeling a connection.

One vendor was selling beautifully costumed little dolls, with burlap faces. We wanted to get one for Bethany, so Gayle asked the woman "skolka", which means "how much". She saw that we did not understand her reply, so she made a writing motion with her hand to draw the amount. This we understood and paid her in rubles. She placed the doll in a bag. We said thanks and were about to leave, then the women motioned for us to pick another doll. We thought she was just encouraging us to buy another. We were OK with that, so selected a second doll, which she bagged. When Gayle tried to pay she motioned that she did not want anymore money. So perhaps she felt sorry for us, because we did not bargain for the price of the first one; or maybe she just liked us. Either way it was a kind gesture.

Next we headed out into the neighborhood and stopped into the department store around the corner to explore, so we knew what was available in case something was needed on the next trip.

Back to La Veranda for lunch, ran into the girl from England again, then back to the hotel to wait for Olga and head off to Karachev.