In English and non-smoking!

привет, my friend!

Yesterday I had dinner at a place called Coffee House (кофи хаус in Russian) -- like a Fran's Cafe in Sao Paulo or a Starbucks that also serves sandwiches and salads... and alcohol.

Dinner was good, but ordering in Russian with the help of my Oxford dictionary was quite challenging. There were also three guys chain smoking at a nearby table (2 feet away), and I had to put my Febreeze into action as soon as I got back to the hotel.

Since Coffee House is just 3 blocks away and yesterday's dinner was decent, I decided to come back today for dinner. As soon as I entered the place, a sort of maitre'd woman approached me and asked me something in Russian. I told her my usual Russian phrase of "I don't understand Russian", and she asked me in English "Smoking or no smoking". I got a table at a non-smoking section. Brilliant!

As I was sitting down, she brought me a menu which was written in English! I ordered the same as I had yesterday, but this time I actually knew what I was eating. Brilliant!

I think I will come back tomorrow for more English and non-smoking.

пока!