Leningrad region. Autumn. Country house. We barbecued with our friends and sat cozy by the fireplace. Long time no see, we started chatting. Five in the morning. It’s too late to go to bed.
— Shouldn’t we have some coffee and fish?
Great idea! We get into the car and after 2 hours we are already at
Lappeenrante. Fish shops are still closed, but the market in the city center is already living its morning life. We sit down at an outdoor table in a small cafe. Hot coffee, a sandwich with salted fish and, of course, a warm Karelian pie with rice or potatoes, and on top – a thin slice of ham with a tear, melted cheese and a boiled, finely chopped egg. Great!
And there’s so much on the market stalls! It smells like homemade hot bread, pies, cookies. Here they smoke the fish. Bright shiny apples warm their red sides in the morning sun. Potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes. And here are the mysterious mushrooms – truffles, black and wrinkled. You should definitely touch and smell them. Warm and velvety to the touch, and they seem to smell like roasted chestnuts. And familiar foxes too, please! And of course – flea rows! Here you have to go slowly and carefully. For just 1-2 euros you can buy wonderful, beautiful things, without which you simply don’t understand how you lived before!
We decided that we wouldn’t go shopping: we had no money, and we didn’t need anything. Let’s just take a walk. We go down to the river. The autumn beach is deserted. And a little further, in the forest, look! Mushrooms! White! Yes, so strong and beautiful that it’s a pity to tear them off! And there’s more! And there! And where to put it? And you can’t take it out… Nothing! We’ll put it in our jackets and hide it, maybe we’ll get lucky.
But no, we won’t go to the shops. Well, maybe only one. Buy a piece of butter. And tea. Well, since we came in, why not buy some cheese? Well, a little sausage. And the coffee seems to be running out. You need to take vitamins (they are good here),
everyone takes it, okay, let them be. Finnish red caviar (lightly salted and tender) – there are like a couple of cans in the freezer at home, but there will be holidays, but I need to take it to the children. Pork in a net – bakes in five minutes, I’ll take it. Well, perhaps you and your friends need some mint chocolate. Oh yes! Winter is coming soon. I almost forgot – 5 liters of windshield washer for the car (at a temperature of -50. Well, so what if this doesn’t exist in St. Petersburg? But it’s the best!) So what else? Well, yes, washing powder, fabric softener and, of course, the well-known dishwashing detergent! A true St. Petersburg resident will never wash dishes with a product not purchased in Finland. This is simply indecent! Well, of course, FISH! Salmon, salmon, black shiny eel, fatty halibut, some small fish and something else, God knows what its name is. Raw and salty, with pepper and garlic, hot and cold smoked… First you need to try everything: this one, and that one, and a little bit more of that one. It’s so delicious it’s impossible to choose! That’s why you buy both this one and this one!
And then there’s lunch! Right in the store. Finnish soup! You pour it yourself. As much as you want! Large pieces of red fish in pink cream and islands of potatoes. Don’t look away! And also salad and all kinds of fish. And venison goulash. Ugh! It is no longer possible to breathe. All! Home!
But then it turns out that the store is having a promotion: toilet paper for almost nothing (either 100 rolls in a pack, or 200). Well, how can you not take it?! We took everything!
When a customs officer at the border tried to open the trunk, packages of toilet paper rained down on him. He got scared and began to close the trunk door, but due to the amount of things stuffed in, it did not close. However, the same picture was in every car. But, of course, no one found or took away the porcini mushrooms. And we brought them and cooked the soup and fried them!
But the man in the Mercedes was still detained at the border. Because when they opened his trunk…. it was empty! At all! Only a small piece of meat lay lonely in the corner. He was told threateningly that the food could not be exported! And they took it away. And another act was drawn up. Well, it’s true – he’s kind of strange!
When traveling, pay for purchases with a OneTwoTrip loyalty card, and up to 10% of the order amount on OneTwoTrip, as well as up to 2% of any purchases paid for with the card, will be returned to your account.
Author: Lyudmila Dobychina
