October 11, 2015

 

 

Shortest Blog Post Ever

It rained.  That should be the end of it but just for normality we’ll add a couple details.  It really rained.

Late morning we forced ourselves to get out heading down to check out the end of the marathon.  The runners, the athletic supporters, the vendors and we were all cold drowned rats.  The temp is in the high 40’s (mid 80’s we understand in Minneapolis today) which may be a good running temperature but most folks appear to be in some ring of hell.  There were a couple 5’3” Kenyans who seemed OK with it all. 

We try to accomplish something on our touring agenda as we seek out indoor options.  The indoor portion of the market is closing as we arrive so we dry out there for a bit.  We found another sort of indoor mall block in the middle of the shopping district but that lasts about 15 minutes.

We had discussed trying to stay down at least until mid-afternoon to have an early dinner but decide we may as well just head back for a reading day.  We grab a couple cold beers, a bag of pretzels, and a small pack of cheese to go with the crackers in our room.  At least we’re warm and dry.

At dinner time we check with a lady at the front desk for a closer dinner option.  She suggests a brew pub about halfway towards downtown which we accept as a reasonable compromise.  The place is packed.  Our harried greeter/waiter hustles us off to a table next to a family group of 14 and eventually tosses a couple English menus on the table.  We make sure we are ready to order food and drink when he returns.  John has the smoked pig knuckle with baked beans and potatoes and Mary has a goulash with bread and we try a couple of the house beers.  The food appears remarkably fast—scoop and serve items—and the beers are good.  We don’t see any other touristos which makes it feel like a fun gathering of locals on a rainy Sunday night. 

We’re generally happy we braved it but are plenty cold and wet when we get back to the room.  We watch a few minutes of the “Russia Today” network and are told about the wonderful successes of the Russian military in single-handedly defeating ISIS in Syria in spite of the interference of the Americans.  Who knew?

What did we learn today?  We should have left this blog at, “it rained.”