These Little Piggies Went To Market

Today, Kathleen and I went to an open-air market on Athenas Street between the Monastiraki and Omonia metro stops (i.e. different than the one near our house).  I had discovered it Tuesday on my way to buy my baglama, but hadn't had time to stop.  But my jaw had dropped when I saw the area where meat/fish are sold--it was a passageway with vendors on both sides, and which appeared to go on for a city block.  Today, we discovered that it is even more impressive.  You can get an idea, but only an idea from the photo.  

The meat/fish market is actually in the shape of a "U," each side being a full city block long!  Except for sausages it is all fresh meat (otherwise no cured, smoked, packaged meat of any kind).  Beef, pork, lamb, chicken, every cut and organ you can imagine. 









Here's tripe and pigs feet on the right.  A little later, we discovered the produce part of the market, which was much smaller, but still extensive, and with very good prices (e.g. nice broccoli for 60 euro-cents per kilo; so about $0.40/lb or less).  Now some things are more expensive or unavailable.  For instance, we get pretty nice green beans year-round in Berkeley ($1.70-$2.00/lb maybe).  But we've only seen very small quantities of them here, and quite pricey when we have seen them.




Walking along the street that the fish/meat and produce markets are next to, we see block after block of merchants selling everything--nuts/seeds, dried beans, sweets, clothes, knick-knacks.  We went into one shop (see photo) that had two floors of every sort of small object we could imagine (glassware, dishes, lamps, books, bedding, instruments, vases, brass, carpets, textiles, photos, frames, 45rpm records, a gramophone!, statuary--"tchotchkes" galore, Kathleen calls it, but I'm not sure of the spelling!).

                                                                                                                                                                                       At another point, we saw a shop (see photo below) that sold containers for olive oil--yep, that was pretty much the sum total of what they did.  But, these containers (beautiful stainless steel) seem to be for those who MAKE (and then, I assume, store) their own olive oil.  The containers varied in price from about 60 to about 100 euros.  (By the way, given my farm background, my instantaneous thought was: "milk containers."--LOL)

We had walked for about 3 hours and had a lot of packages, so we decided to take a taxi home (see picture).  Our driver was quite a talker, and as soon as he realized I spoke a little Greek, he was off running.  I only got about 5-10% of what he said, but one thing was clear--he was upset at the cheaters who do business without issuing/collecting receipts.  (Given the 23% VAT, you can imagine that the vendor and customer can each save about 10-15% if they agree that the transaction is "off-the-books.")