Thursday is market day in Famagusta. The other centres have different days. Nicosia used to have a permanent covered market open daily. Well, still does but it’s changed. Some time between the time we went there with Darryl and Donna in 2017 and our previous visit, which could have been two or three years earlier, the market stopped being where you could buy carrots and potatoes and almonds from mostly open stalls and became small Mostly enclosed boutiques with jewellery and non-local clothing and such. More attractive in a way, but hard not to regret the loss of the old. And, of course, no longer full of old women in long skirts buying onions and fruit.
The weekly market in Famagusta has everything - well, nearly. Couldn’t find the old man who sold batteries in with bits of minor hardware. But local fruit and veg, a bit of home baking, dried and fresh olives, eggs in flats of 30, still wet helim (halloumi) cheese, dried fruit, sacks of nuts (quite likely to be from California rather than Cyprus or Turkey), inexpensive clothing, handmade jewellery, towels and linen. And outside the trucks selling fish and the one with ice cream, as well as a garden area with plants and young trees. You probably couldn’t live by buying things only at the market, but you could come close.
