The credit cards are kind of a pain to deal with. Apparently there is massive fraud in the region currently tho, and the card companies are even more nervous because of the continued revealings of massive losses of account details.
I'm finally feeling less than strung-out. The foodhere is actually quite good. A surprising amount of variety in the Russian cuisine. Pastries are extremely common, mostly stuffed. For stuffing there is all sorts of stuff - cabbage, meats, sausages, fruit fillings, cheese, just about anything you can think of.
Did you read my journal post about the cafeteria food? Yesterday they had two main dishes at the cafeteria: stuffed green peppers, and veal tongue. LOL. I had the peppers - quite like what we are used to when we get stuffed peppers at home. They offer boiled white rice, and a variety of potatoes as a side. The cafeteria also has boiled split barley as a side with every meal. Plain rolls are uncommon. Replacing them is a thinly sliced heavy bread very much like what we are used to as bread, but heavy and dense. Not bad heavy, just different. It's like an American loaf condensed into a quarter the size. But otherwise, white, rye, or pumpernickle - all the same. Prices are reasonable on food and wine. Moldovan wine is priced a bit like 2-buck chuck.
