CHAPTER VII
RIO DE JANEIRO
Frankfurt. It was still very early. I looked at my watch, it was 10:50. We had all arrived. The taxi stopped. We had arrived in the very center of Frankfurt am Main. It was the largest and busiest part of the city. A huge and wide street several dozen kilometers long.
Here you could see the old part of German architecture from the 15th-16th centuries, and if you went further, you could see a cascade of skyscrapers. It is important to understand that Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany. Endless shops, various bars, restaurants with different European cuisines, night clubs. Here you could also buy yourself an expensive Swiss watch for $100,000 or a diamond ring for your beloved woman for $500,000.
A huge number of tourists. All sorts of events. Musicians playing various instruments in the street. Very noisy. Lots of taxis coming and going. An endless and huge stream of cars, which was impossible to stop or even park anywhere.
Although it was still very early, the city was waking up and gradually coming to life. 11:00 am. Lena and I still had time to run around the shops and do some shopping. To pass the crowds of people and lines in the shops. To drink coffee and just get to the Frankfurt Zoo.
Lena and I walked for some time along this endless street. We went into one shop, then into another. We walked for some more time. We found a large clothing store on two floors. A boutique. Exclusive. All women’s clothes in one copy from the new summer collection. I don’t remember the name exactly, something European, Italy or maybe it was France. Lena entered the store, and I remained standing at the entrance to the store. I took out my phone, and then sat down on a bench that stood nearby. I thought that if she didn’t like the clothes, she should have already left. Another 15 minutes passed, but she still didn’t leave the store.
Women take a long time to choose and select clothes, which definitely takes a lot of time. In the end, I opened the store door and went in myself. A woman was standing next to the entrance and greeted me in German. I said in Russian: “Good afternoon.” In response, I heard in Russian: “Good afternoon.” Expensive stores usually had salespeople who knew two or three languages and there were no problems with communication. I went to the very back of the store on the first floor, and then saw fitting rooms in the booths in one of which Lena was.
I slightly moved the curtain in the fitting booth and found myself inside with Lena. She was just taking off a dress, one of the dresses she was trying on. I looked at the hanger and thought: “A lot. We will definitely spend a lot of time here. There are seven, no eight dresses on the hanger that still needed to be tried on.” All of this was a huge summer collection of women’s clothing. You could easily spend the whole day here. I thought that all of this would take a lot of time and asked Lena what she wanted to buy, what she was looking for? Lena answered that she wanted to buy two dresses. One dress should be summer, which she could put on and wear right away, and the second dress should be strict for an important event. A business women’s suit, which should consist of a skirt and a women’s jacket. I immediately realized that this would be a difficult task and that I would need to somehow help her make this whole choice faster.
We were choosing a summer dress. We needed to find something light. Airy. Light. Summery. Lena tried on more light-colored dresses with a summer play of colors. At some point I stopped her. Len, wait. What’s the point of trying on them all in a row? It’s been 30 minutes already. Let’s try to look at them visually. I took about seven dresses that were hanging on hangers in the fitting room at once. Let’s try it like this. Let’s speed up the process. Stand straight. That’s it. Lena was standing in the fitting room wearing only transparent panties, and I was standing behind her, holding women’s dresses in my hands. This dress definitely didn’t fit, so I put it aside. There were two dresses in a very bright color with different color schemes. In reality, you could only go to a circus show in them. We put two more dresses aside. The fourth dress looked interesting, but it was so transparent that you could see all of the woman’s nakedness. Nine. No. It doesn’t fit.
Of this whole bunch of dresses, we liked only one dress. Here is the moment of truth. Maybe I am colorblind. Light coffee color. Very nice polka dots. Big polka dots. Both Lena and I liked the harmony of this color. Put it all on. Let’s see it in real life. This dress suited Lena perfectly. It emphasized her beautiful figure, waist and her slender legs. We left the fitting room so that Lena could walk in front of the large mirrors in the store in this dress, so that we could look at it and see it, but in a large space of the store. Wow, Lena, you look amazing! Goddess! We did it. We did it. It was already about 12:00 and we chose one dress. Damn it, we did it! The saleswoman took this dress to the checkout.
But this was only the beginning…
We returned back to the fitting room and after some time they brought us a new batch of summer women’s dresses. I had not yet had time to rest from the first batch of women’s dresses, and here was already the second batch of women’s dresses. It was necessary to do this work. German iron discipline and order. In the end, our choice with Lena stopped at an extravagant dress. Lena put on this dress and went out of the fitting room to the mirrors. Without a doubt, this dress perfectly suited her figure. Nothing stuck out anywhere. It felt like this dress was sewn to her order. The color was interesting, filled with summer colors. Interesting material. The carrot color smoothly turned into light nut. All this was in harmony in the sun’s rays. Now that’s definitely it. We were done with women’s dresses. Our choice was made. Of course, the most important thing is that Lena liked both dresses, and her eyes were shining. She was a little excited. Shopping is always pleasant. We were done with the dresses and they were waiting for us at the checkout. It remained to choose a women’s business suit for an important event, which required more careful attention to the details of this business suit. We returned back to the fitting room. Somewhere else we spent 30 minutes. Yes, but then a difficulty arose, Lena, she could not choose one of the two women’s business suits. A pause hung in the air. Lena, look how we will do it. Don’t think. Clear all thoughts from your head. Which one do you like better. Here is this black women’s business suit with white stripes and short sleeves or this women’s gray office business suit. There was one subtlety. The gray office women’s business suit was more for everyday work. Women wear such suits to work. Gray skirt. Gray women’s jacket with long sleeves. Fitted. Looks great. Personally, I liked the second option, since a black suit with these white stripes is definitely not a standard solution. An excellent combination of black and white. A more beautiful and individual thing. More sophisticated. I won’t make a mistake and, Lena, chose a black suit with these beautiful white stripes, which fit her perfectly and she looked impeccable in it. I clapped my hands. We take this one. The job is done. Women’s black business suit with white stripes and short sleeves goes to our women’s clothing collection. Another hour passed. Lena, weren’t you in a hurry to leave? I asked: “Have we bought everything? I began to think that perhaps women at this moment choose and buy women’s underwear, stockings… additional wardrobe.”
In the end, we went up to the second floor. The entire second floor was filled with women’s shoes. I have never seen so many different women’s shoes in my life. It was clear that we were no longer going to the zoo and would fight the store until our Victory!
Lena asked to choose a couple of pairs of sandals and a pair of women’s shoes with a short heel. I looked closely at her scream, which she ala Lena and asked the sales guy to bring us a few more options for women’s shoes in size 37. Lena had a very beautiful palm and a very petite female foot. Lena had no problems with shoe size. Shoe size 37.
The sales guy brought us many boxes of women’s shoes and was already bending down to help Lena put on her sandals. I came closer and said that we would try on the shoes ourselves and did not need help. There were a lot of boxes of women’s shoes to speed up the process. I opened the box of women’s shoes and put them on her bare feet in pairs. This sped up the process. Lena got up to walk around and look at her reflection in the mirror. The last box. We tried everything on. The job was done. I was really sweating. For three hours we tried on women’s dresses, women’s suits and women’s shoes. Exactly three hours had passed. That’s it, I clapped my hands. Lena tried on the last pair. I kissed her palm. That’s it! We did it! We went through this difficult path together! It was a Victory! We went down to the checkout.
Our shopping list. Prices in euros:
- Women’s dress number one - 400 euros;
- Women’s dress number two - 320 euros;
- Women’s business suit - 550 euros;
- Women’s sandals - 250 euros;
- Women’s shoes with a short heel - 230 euros.
Our check: 1750 euros!
It is important to understand that it was already mid-July. July 17. All this women’s clothing from the summer collection was 20-30 percent below its original cost. It is important to understand.
We went down to the checkout. Lena started looking for a credit card in her purse. At that moment I stopped her. Lena, don’t rush. Wait. You don’t need to pay right away. We came to a store that had a sign saying discounts (SALE). It says that they are having a special offer and they are giving discounts.
So my time has come to deal with the capitalist profiteers. We went to the checkout and I started talking to the saleswoman who spoke and understood Russian. She was a little older than us, 22-23 years old. She understood and spoke Russian quite well with an accent. I explained to her briefly the situation that we had chosen five expensive things and were ready to buy them all for 1250 euros. You throw us 500 euros and we take everything, and especially now it’s the end of the season, one way or another you will continue to reduce prices anyway. I understood well how this business works. Capitalists have always been greedy for money and they are always only interested in profit and sales. Sell more to get more money and profit. The young saleswoman smiled at me. I’ll try to persuade the senior manager of the store. The second saleswoman listened to her attentively and went off somewhere to make a call. Lena looked at me with surprised eyes, what’s going on?, but was silent! A few minutes later, the senior sales manager of this store returned. Yes, sir. Very politely, with a big smile on her face. You are making a large purchase in our store, and if you buy all five items. Okay. We can knock 350 euros off if that suits you.
I turned to Lena and asked her: “Are we okay with that, my dear? A 350 euro discount?”
Lena smiled and nodded her head. This was a very important moment, since Lena was ready to pay the full 1,750 euros. She would not have bargained, but here everything worked out so well for us. In total, according to the check, we came to 1,400 euros. While we were standing at the checkout and our things were being packed, I continued the conversation with the young saleswoman, who understood Russian.
I lied a little and told her that we came from Moscow. Novy Arbat. Tverskaya. I asked her how she knew Russian so well? The salesgirl replied that she had studied at Moscow State University. I see. Excellent. So, you have discounts here and, perhaps, some other promotions or some kind of promotion, when you make your first purchase in your store, then do you perhaps give some kind of gift to customers?
It turned out that I guessed right, but you had to fill out a form and leave your phone number, and with your first purchase the store gives an exclusive card and German perfume as a gift. Excellent. I thought that you were supposed to tell us all this and give us women’s perfume, but this was a hardened capitalist world, where everything had to be knocked out by the power of your words and personal interest. They probably thought in the store that if Lena and I look young, then it would be easy to rip us off and squeeze out extra money. No. None of these numbers will work with me. This is business and I know how to do business!
In the end, I managed to get a discount of 350 euros. A card from the store. Expensive women’s German perfume. Everything that could be taken from the capitalist profiteers!
My size 58 T-shirt may have also played an important role, on which was written: “USA. AREA-51”. It was 15:00 in the afternoon in the store we were the only customers. Perhaps there were some other customers, but I did not notice any lively and stormy trade.
Friends, you should understand well that when you buy branded clothes: 1. DOLCE AND GABBANA; 2. BURBERRY; 3. ARMANI; 4. VERSACE; 5. RALPH LAUREN; 6. DIOR; PRADA; 7. CHANEL; 8. HERMES; 9. LOUIS VUITTON; 10. GUCCI; 11. OSCAR DE LA RENTA etc. 50 percent of the price is the price for the name or brand of the given product!
We left home at 11:00, and it was already almost 15:00. I was very thirsty and wanted to eat something meat. I checked all our shopping bags again. The German women’s perfume was in place. Lena swiped her credit card at the checkout and paid for everything. I collected all our bags. I told our dear saleswomen, Aufiedersein, and we left the store. We did it. We did it together. It was a victory! We were in a great mood and high spirits. In some ways, I was even happier than Lena when we bought everything and had no problems with the payment.
At that moment, Vanessa called that she and Stefan would arrive at 17:00 and that we could meet at the bar where David “Zur Schoenen Mullerin” was working as a bartender today.
We walked down the street and it was clear that there were significantly more people. Crowds of tourists ran past us, and somewhere in the distance live music or a whole orchestra was playing, but we walked along the street in search of a free taxi. We turned into an alley and went out onto the opposite street. We crossed the road. We got into a taxi and went back to the house where my aunt and uncle lived “Goethestraße and Schillerstraße”.
Good weather. A wonderful day. The sun was shining high. There were no clouds, but it was absolutely blue and clear. We entered the house, but there was no one on the first floor. Uncle had gone somewhere, and aunty was watching TV and some of her favorite series on the second floor. Lena and I went to my room, but we did not stop. Lena changed her clothes. She looked gorgeous in her new dress. The new sandals looked great on her feet.
We put all the things we had bought from the store in the closet and went down to the kitchen. While we were gone, my aunt had managed to cook spaghetti and beef in sauce. It looked great and was very tasty. I cut some more vegetables for us. Cucumber. Tomato. Radish. I took a chilled liter bottle of clean water from the refrigerator. I turned on the kettle.
After some time, we were ready to go meet our friends. We called a taxi and disappeared on the roads of the big city of Frankfurt.
To be continued…