Friday 28 September 2007

Ukrainian Shopping

I kept my eyes open for yarn shops, but I didn't see any and, as I mentioned in a previous post, the natural yarns were grey and white. There were no brightly coloured wools. However, shopping really wasn't a problem.

On Tuesday afternoon, we headed up to what my colleague calls the CD market, but it sells so much more. I can't remember the name of this area but it's like Camden Market and then some. The stalls stretch for about a mile at least - we didn't cover a tenth of it. There is a roaring trade in MP3s and the traders flog entire back catalogues of various artists on one or two discs. Expect to pay about a quid a disc. It's interesting to see what travels and what doesn't.

I wasn't at all surprised to see ABBA, U2, Queen and Led Zeppelin; though Uriah Heap, Erasure and the Pet Shops Boys were a little more surprising. There were endless copies of Avril Lavigne albums, but the band that really surprised me was London Beat...
London Beat.



Also, at this market was a good number of jigsaw stalls and I picked these two for my niece for a fiver. The Winnie the Pooh puzzle was £4 - I'd expect to pay about £10 or £15 for it
here. The smaller puzzle depicts a traditional Ukrainian fairy tale and set me back £1.

Down on Andryivskiy, there were a number of stalls selling Christmas tree decorations.




Ukraine
celebrates on the 7th January and St Nicholas also delivers to them. During the Soviet Era, St Nick was replaced with a more Communist-friendly variation.



The Ukrainians are also big on Christmas penguins. I felt right at home. :-)

Of course I bought a doll - the Ukrainians call them Matrushka Dolls (whereas the Russians refer to them as Babushka Dolls). This gorgeous blue one contains ten little dolls and I think Lois - who is always playing with my Mam's dolls - will love her. (I'm trying to wean Lois off pink).



St Nicholas here, is also a Christmas decoration container, and when you open him up, there is a bunch of lovely wooden tree hanging toys. You can also buy beautiful Christmas tree decoration holders and I was very torn between St Nick and the tree. Why didn't I just buy both? They were only a fiver each.



Oh well, I'll just have to go back - shame, eh? ;-)

4 comments:

Cinders said...

Hi Fiona, thanks for your kind comments about my blog. I've enjoyed reading your descriptions of Kiev. all that food sounds yummy.

Lucy said...

I visited Kiev many years ago - we spent 3 weeks driving around this part of the USSR - the Ukraine was not independent back then. My cousin was married to a Ukrainian man for many years but he sadly passed away a few years ago - he was a lovely person. I love their craft work!

Linda said...

The decorations are lovely. I like the dolls.

Kai said...

Aww I love all the pressies and the dolls are absolutely fantastic. I remember mum and dad used to have a Babushka doll. My favourite of their 'ornaments'