Let me fix an error from yesterday - the Bajram celebration  - the names I left out were Abraham and his son Issac, who turned into ram at the last moment after Abraham said he would kill him.

Anyway, today we went to the vegetable market, it was not full, as all the vendors were not there because Bajram is a 2 day holiday, but we were able to by fresh carrots, potatoes, mushrooms, pistachios, and the girls' favorite, tiny tangerines - about the size of a golf ball.  You buy everything by the kilo or half kilo (bala kilo).  Everything is grown locally, and it's organic - the national (& Europeon standard).  But I don't think "organic" is a big deal here, as that's just the way it's always been done - no chemicals or pesticides added.   The money used here is the km (some refer to it as the marc).  It is some how tied to the Euro, but it's too complicated for me to get.  Anyway, the exchange rate is about 75%, so 10km would be about $7.50 American.  But the food here is relatively inexpensive - a kilo of the little tangerines was 2 km, so about 1.60, and a kilo is 2.2 pounds - pretty darn good deal!!

Then we shopped a little in old town, we saw lots of cool little shops; rug vendors, hammered metals, pastry shops, some upscale clothing and shoe stores (including a Nike store!).  There is so much to look at, the shops are tiny so there are a ton of them.  We also saw some Roma people (gypsies) on the street begging and we gave one of the older ladies our leftovers from our lunch.  

Again, we had a yummy lunch - although Skylar only had "pom frit" - good 'ole American french fries for lunch. But Arthur had celevipa (sp?) sausages with ymmy pita, and I had kelpe - dumpling type things filled with meat in a tomato sauce of sorts and served with sour cream.  Sooo yummy!

But as we were all freezing to death (-6* C), we're home now.  It gets dark here very early - 4:40ish - it feels night we're in for the night and that I should have my jammies in already!

Arthur, the dedicated Steelers fan, got up to watch them play at 2:30 am last night.  I think him and I are still suffering from a little jet lag, we can't seem to got on track yet.  The girls seem to be doing just fine.

I promise to post photos later tonight - Arthur got some cool ones of some of the neat things, including the mosques, Catholic churches, Eastern Orthodox churches, etc.

love you to all!

m