Saturday Market of Kavala
"When I'm in a city that's new to me, I try to go to the central market very early in my trip. I'll go at 6 a.m., when people are shopping for businesses. You get to see what people buy and really eat. There are usually food stands and trucks geared exclusively to locals. You get an idea of what a city or country is good at, because they're catering to local tastes. " - Anthony Bourdain The Greek market is of course an excellent place to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables - here you'll find what's in season and nothing else. A visit here always inspire me to cook something nice! Many of the vegetable and fruit sellers are farmers who sell their own crop, and often also their own home-made wine or tsipouro (a local liquor that resembles ouzo), jam or herbs for cooking or teas. But in the market you can also buy clothes, shoes, underwear, chickens, rabbits, plants, cds, belts, materials, jewelery, handbags..and you name it! Northern Greece has always been a center in Europe for textile production. Long before industry, here it was produced furs and silk - there's actually still silk production in this part of Greece. When I moved permanently to Greece in 1993 huge clothes brands like Hennes, Marks and Spencer and Levi's still had clothes made here. The market sellers would buy up stuff directly from the factory - usually clothes with some kind of flaw (like a size 20 being labeled size 16) - and you could do real bargains in the market. Today the textile industry has flagged out to China and, to some extend, to Bulgaria. You can still do great bargains, though, for instance buying jeans for a fraction of what they cost in the shops. Women should wear a shirt or dress when visiting the market, as you can always slip on a pair of trousers under your dress to see if it fits. It's worth looking through the huge piles of clothes or shoes, as this is where you'll usually find the great piece to a ridiculous price. Original music composed, arranged & perform by Ivan Jelenkovic (studio Furuna - Paris): facebook.com/ijelenkovic
