Saturday, July 23

We walk down to the market by the bus station which occupies a large outdoor area as well as the insides of a set of huge hangars, built to house Zepplins.

We start with a glass of Kvass, served from a huge barrel by a poker–faced young woman. Wikipedia defines kvass as “a fermented cereal-based low alcoholic beverage with a slightly cloudy appearance, light-brown colour and sweet-sour taste”. It also suggests that it bears a close relationship to Finnish kotikalja, something it describes somewhat snottily as “available in many work canteens, gas stations, and lower-end restaurants”.

I love both.

We buy pies, honey, breads, and some flowers and then walk back to the hotel. On the way we stop at the Rapsodija café where I photograph the small but perfect toilet.

Our plane gets delayed by 45 minutes but by 20:30 we find ourselves sitting at home again, surprised that the two bunches of flowers survived the journey completely intact.