And that would be the European superstore chain- Re-AL...or whatever. There's one in Odessa. It's in the Riviera Mall- which is the first really big, full-size huge normal kind of mall I've been in here. It is the real deal. The Real Deal. Re-al De-al.
ok.
We went to see Anya and then walked out to the bus stop with her and caught a bus to the mall. And get this- the Riviera Mall has 3 different buses that it sends to various parts of the city, collects people and brings them to the mall...free of charge. Takes them back, too. heh. A mall with a free bus. Yikes. The inside was exactly like a normal mall... didn't start taking pix till we got to Real, though- the main anchor store (unless you count the building supply store at the other end...but it's hard for me to count that high...)
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| this prompted the photo shoot- fleece blankets... label says they are: soft and cuddly; colourfast and formstable. yeah- formstable. That is definitely a plus. And if, like me, you don't know what that means- google it. ;) Yeah- not a word. Not sure what word they were after... ;) |
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| loved the fleece blanket display, though- they were gorgeous and colorful and I wanted a blue, orange and green one... but left them all right there |
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| a small part of the cheese counter. Oh My. I left in a hurry! Danger Zone. |
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| (very blurry) shot of part of the produce section. Hands down the most beautiful produce I've seen in a supermarket here. And the place was busy. People are used to buying produce at the market- it's nearly always better there. But this stuff looked hard to beat. |
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| now we move on to Ukr specials... or at least I've never seen bulk frozen vegetables anywhere else. Do they do this in the States? |
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| loved the spice dept- chock-full of bulk spices of all kinds. Smelled wonderful! This is the bay leaves section... but there were boxes of everything under the sun... I think... ok- how do I know? Ok- I don't. But there were a lot of bulk spices there. A Lot. |
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| 25 kg of sugar? This is very common- a lot cheaper to buy sugar in large quantities and we do love sugar here. Oh Yes We Do! This pic also shows a bag of Cream of Wheat open- take as much as you want. There were all kinds of cereal grains, flour... just about anything you'd imagine needing... in 25 kg bags. |
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| you can tell you're in Ukr by the vast quantities of candy! I said we like sugar here... and we like candy, too. This is only part of the candy aisle- all wrapped chocolates, hard candy, jelly candy. No peppermint, though, or cinnamon. :( |
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| how do you know you're in Ukr? Open stock cookies of all sorts and kinds! A lot of them are not nearly as sweet as we're used to and much drier as well- but there are some really nice ones. Pictured are the 'Maria' cookies. A generic kind of mild cookie from way back- nearly flavorless but amazingly comforting. Might be like graham crackers in that they're ubiquitous and everybody knows them. I fell in love with them last winter when I had pancreatitis- they were 1 of the few things I could eat. |
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| a new one for me- open stock coffee beans! Not typical Ukr... unless you count bulk/open stock as being typical... which it is, I guess. It's called being economical. |
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| open stock green tea! Another first. |
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| more sugar- this time, open stock. |
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| ahh- here we are again- very typical- lots of cakes. |
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| Ponchykiy! Otherwise known as donuts- these were cherry or apricot jelly-filled. We went home with a bunch of them! ;) |
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| Finished the trip off with a stop at Gloria Jean's Coffee!!! Yes, it was good. Yes, it was familiar. Yes, they had cheesecake with graham cracker crust! |
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| see the graham cracker crust?! :) Big Fat Smiles! The very first time, EVER, I've had this in Europe! And Oh Boy- it was good! We got 3 things and split them: Cheesecake, Cherry Chocolate cake and a brownie. |
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| waiting in the parking lot for the bus... ahh- I shall miss you Riviera Mall, ReAL store... and I shall hope to be back sometime. |
Things we did not get pix of: Boxes of Crayola crayons in the Hallmark store (both were sighted the first time here by me, at least); boxes of Altoids Curiously strong mints on the counter at Gloria Jean's- another first ever. I haven't had this much fun shopping (when I didn't even buy anything- except the decaf coffee and treats at the end) since I-don't-know-when. :)
i think that's one of my favorite posts ever!! i loved following you through that mall and getting to take a look at all the open-bulk food etc. :)
ReplyDeletegotta love all the variety of candy and biscuits!!! funny though that you mention missing cinnamon or peppermint candy- here in Canada i miss not finding much other flavors than these 2...they're the most common!! goes for herbal teas too, unless you visit fancy tea stores ;)
oh, and those fleece blankets? they're greeeeat! i use one all the time! (and it's red on one side, green on the other- so you can just turn it over whenever you want a change of color!)
have a great Sunday...:)
Enjoyed the pix. I think of things being dingy and the selection sparse in those countries. It looks an adequate selection.
ReplyDeleteSorry I don't post more often! LOVED your post. How fun to discover more stuff at the store. But I wonder.. how do you take the pics? How can one be discrete taking them??
ReplyDeleteI would have bought the donuts too!
Formstable means that they'll keep their shape and won't shrink when washed.
ReplyDeleteI'm a Balderdash champ from way back you know.
Kristina- yes, having been in Europe awhile now and seeing the general candy stock here, I'm sure you do miss it there. It so much depends on what we grow up with. I love the candy you get in N Amer! ;) I do have a fleece blanket... it's just those looked so tempting!
ReplyDeleteGary- there is a lot of grime and grit around, a lot of dingy stuff... but then- this is for profit store not owned by any government- they're out to make stuff look good! And, all stores have much better selection than they did even 10 years ago.
Twi- I use my cell phone! And- I actually didn't buy the donuts- our friend bought them for her son's bday... I carried them, tho! And ate one, too! ;)
Duane- scrabble, too, proly, eh? Come to think of it, that probably is what they meant by that word...
that candy reminds me of the Brach's candy selections we used to have here, so fun to get whatever variety we wanted! Mom
ReplyDeleteMom- I like the Brach's selection better... but then, I grew up with that!
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