Thursday is market day in Famagusta. This is the third weekly market since their closure ended. We decided to give it a bit of time to establish procedures. Also, word had been that that there would be only food and none of the other bits and pieces. J keen to go and not bothered about needing to be early for the old people’s time. I less keen, thinking food delivered nearby anyway, heavy to carry home if we buy much, would like another Tshirt, etc. But we go.
ALL fake news. Clothing vendors, those with handbags, brass locks, jewellery, potato peelers, many etceteras all there. Almost everyone masked, sort of. No need to go one direction and not reverse. TONS of fruit and veg, halloumi, olives, fresh bread, nuts, dried fruit, eggs. Three fish wagons outside, each with huge sheltering umbrellas for shade and several species in large basins of ice. An ice cream truck, with most of the flavours more or less decipherable.
So, we get cherry tomatoes on the vine, full size tomatoes, sesame studded bread - really giant simit - two kilos of strawberries for 25 TRY (€3.28, £2.95, $5.00 CAD). Also five large halloumi (helim in Turkish) and a flat of eggs. The flat is really not necessary, as well as being somewhat fragile. It contains 30 medium eggs! But it costs 14 TRY, or twice what a half dozen would be at the shop. We’ve had the market eggs before and they were nice - and we don’t have to eat them all at once.
J looking for shoe laces. Fortunately easy to ask for without knowing the word as he need only point to the ones in his shoes. This results in a vendor nodding and returning with a large boot box full of laces. Various colours and all intertwined like a container of worms. Obviously no length labels. Vendor carries on with other business and eventually J comes up with a pair that may do. Five Turkish lira - a buck Canadian. And I get a sleeveless shirt. Not bad for people who didn’t need anything.
Strawberries, when we get them home, absolutely perfect. Not a single underripe or damaged one in the whole lot. Weak vinegar solution, rinse, dry, and into the fridge. Plenty of tasting along the way.
ALL fake news. Clothing vendors, those with handbags, brass locks, jewellery, potato peelers, many etceteras all there. Almost everyone masked, sort of. No need to go one direction and not reverse. TONS of fruit and veg, halloumi, olives, fresh bread, nuts, dried fruit, eggs. Three fish wagons outside, each with huge sheltering umbrellas for shade and several species in large basins of ice. An ice cream truck, with most of the flavours more or less decipherable.
So, we get cherry tomatoes on the vine, full size tomatoes, sesame studded bread - really giant simit - two kilos of strawberries for 25 TRY (€3.28, £2.95, $5.00 CAD). Also five large halloumi (helim in Turkish) and a flat of eggs. The flat is really not necessary, as well as being somewhat fragile. It contains 30 medium eggs! But it costs 14 TRY, or twice what a half dozen would be at the shop. We’ve had the market eggs before and they were nice - and we don’t have to eat them all at once.
J looking for shoe laces. Fortunately easy to ask for without knowing the word as he need only point to the ones in his shoes. This results in a vendor nodding and returning with a large boot box full of laces. Various colours and all intertwined like a container of worms. Obviously no length labels. Vendor carries on with other business and eventually J comes up with a pair that may do. Five Turkish lira - a buck Canadian. And I get a sleeveless shirt. Not bad for people who didn’t need anything.
Strawberries, when we get them home, absolutely perfect. Not a single underripe or damaged one in the whole lot. Weak vinegar solution, rinse, dry, and into the fridge. Plenty of tasting along the way.
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