Dear bloggers,
Since we’ve been traveling
for a week now, visiting all these beautiful places and buildings, we decided
to take a step back and have a rest day.
While we were sitting on a terrace talking about our plans and what we were about to do next, the waiter heard our conversation and came up to us. He told us about the Seventh-Kilometer Market and that we should definately visit it.
Since we didn’t know how to
get there, the waiter offered to go with us and show us the way (I think that he
had a little crush on Annelien).
So here we were, the
Seventh-Kilometer Market, in Russian: Промрынок 7ой километр, Promrynok 7oi Kilometr. It is the biggest outdoor market in Europe,
located outside of Odessa.
On
the market you can find all kinds of inexpensive clothes, shoes and toys,
kitchenware, hardware and software, cosmetics, sporting goods,… Jeans for $9.
Turkish suits, marginally stylish, for $60. Dior, Chanel and Armani are all a
steal.
The
waiter told us that the market now has 16,000 traders or so and a central staff
of 1,200, making it the region's largest employer. An estimated 150,000
shoppers come each day.
While
we were walking around I saw this really nice dress for 4€, a real steal. So I
thought, I would pay the lady in Ukrainian Hryvnia (UAH). First you should know that 1
EUR is
10.85102 UAH, And 1 UAH is 100 kopiyok
(the symbol for this currency is ₴ since 2005 but most people still use the
abbreviation "грн."). I paid 119.361₴ which means 11€. It was only when we were already walking away that I
realized that I made a math error! However I don’t regret that I bought the
dress because I really like the dress and 11€ is still a steal in my point of
view…
At
the end of our visit, the waiter told us that the faith of the market depends on
the economy of Ukraine which means that as soon as the economy of Ukraine
develops normally, the necessity of the market will die. It made me think about
the consequences that this would mean for all the employees but I guess that we
can’t stop the economy.
If
you want to know more about this market you can check the site: www.7km.net. It’s the market’s own website!
I
hope that you found my story as interesting as me? I really enjoyed how this
day turned out into something we didn’t expect at all. After this I definitely can’t
wait to see more of Ukraine but we’ll have to hurry because we are almost
heading to Russia!
XO
XO
Audrey Vanderstraeten
Sources:
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