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On the market.
This entry was posted in Americas, Argentina and tagged Argentina, Bazaar, Billingsgate, Billingsgate Market, Buenos Aires, Chorsu Bazaar, Cusco, Dushanbe, Food, Green Market, Isfahan, Market, Osh Bazaar, People, People watching, Photography, San Miguel Market, Shopping, Souk, Street photography. Bookmark the permalink.
What a great ode to some of the best markets in the world! We are huge fans of markets anywhere and in fact , it is the FIRST place we go to when we arrive in a new town, city or country. Love that you grew up with warning signs from your grandma and that made a great intro to this post overall. Things could only look up from there on!
We know some of the markets that you mention and share your enthusiasm for Buenos Aires’s San Telmo. But of course Buenos Aires has great everything….!
Going to look at your write up of Isfahan and the bazaars of Almaty. We will toss into the mix the Pettah market in Colombo, Sri Lanka or the market in Essaouria, Morocco which is also a favorite of ours. But frankly, even in U.S. cities, farmers markets are the best place to get fresh produce and to feel the pulse of the place and the people.
Terrific post!
Peta
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Hi Peta, thanks for your nice and heartfelt comment! 🙂 Good to see some more market lovers out there.
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I will cherish this post forever for its refrrence to the Oort Cloud. Oort was on my dissertation committee!
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Hi Rich, sorry for the delay in replying! For some odd and inscrutable reason WordPress decided this comment was spam, which clearly it wasn’t! You knew Jan Oort?! How was he? I think he was meant to have bits of space named after him; I mean, Oort. Asimov would’ve approved of it.
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I tend to get intimidated by markets, especially in places where I can’t identify a lot of the goods. But I have to agree they are great sociological specimens, and I often go just for the ambling and viewing (and photography). Oh, and my grandmother and even my mother had similar admonitions: “That’s not gentlemanly/ladylike.”
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LADYLIKE! That’s the word! 😀 Thanks Lexi. Well, I have to say sometimes markets can be intimidating. The meat hall in the Dushanbe bazaar, in the heat of the summer, is enough to make you gag… but they sell buckets of raspberries for 50 eurocents, AND they give you the bucket!
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Fruits, veggies, nuts, spices – all good sections for me. The meats and sometimes the fish are often real gaggers!
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Great people shots, Fabrizio. Markets are the heart and soul of so many cities. Intimidating, but fascinating labyrinths.
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Thanks Julie! Hope the cold snap over in America hasn’t been too inconveniencing.
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We love markets, and like others have said it’s often the first place we go if not to buy food, but to see how the local people live and shop, and to photograph. Loved San Telmo, but a real standout in memory for me is the Luxor market. Had that same quality of most 3rd world markets – noisy crowded dirty alive – but somehow everything even moreso. It had the feel of being eons old without having changed except perhaps for some tarps overhead, and cell phones.
Wonderful post.
Alison
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Never been to Luxor, but it sounds enticing! Isfahan’s bazaar was a tad bit like that, just with added phone covers as you say Alison. Thanks for reading!
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You’ve described it well. Markets are the real deal, especially those chaotic ones where it’s mostly locals. You great a great vibe for human nature, local colour and smells, cheap good food, and you can just disappear and be immersed in it all. So many secrets to discover.
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Indeed, the most confusing the better!
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I echo everyone’s sentiment about traditional markets, although when things seem too familiar with what I see in my home country, like what I saw in Kochi, I tend to skip the market altogether. Speaking of that term you mentioned in the beginning of the post, that reminded me of what my mom used to tell me in Javanese when she saw people behaving non è da signori: ora miyayeni, which more or less means “not in a way a noble man would behave/do”. I’m not sure whether people in other parts of Indonesia have similar terms, but in the case of the Javanese it stems from the fact that it is a deeply hierarchical society.
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Incredible! Java and Italy, two cultures separated by 10 thousands kilometres and so much history have very similar expressions. That’s amazing!
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You know you’re in the presence of a serious traveler when the bucket list isn’t the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum of Rome, but rather a list of public markets, scattered across the globe. I lack your depth on that list, probably the closest I’ve been to the “real deal” is the San Pedro Market in Cusco. (Side note: I was just looking at my post on that market, and noticed in the comments you introducing yourself. Even traveling in the blogosphere the markets seem to draw you in!)
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Seriously? I don’t remember that as the start of me following your blog, Dave, but what nice coincidence! I’ve to say though, the Colosseum is something I’ve only ever seen from outside. Must get in there sometimes.
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