It’s Saturday afternoon, time to do the weekly shop, not really a major chore in Turkey in spring time. Normally Nick goes to the market because he likes shopping and I like time to myself but with the sun shining after a few days of rain it was good to get out.
At this time of year before early morning shopping becomes a necessity because of the heat we can take our time and so we stopped to admire the aquaduct on the road to Selcuk and took a quick detour down to Pamucak beach to see how it had faired in the recent storms before turning back to Selcuk to do the shopping. I think it would probably be hard to find a prettier way to the shops!
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- Aquaduct near Ephesus from the Selcuk Aydin road
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- Aquaduct on the road to Selcuk
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- Pamucak beach flooded from the spring storms
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- Waves at Pamucak after the spring storms
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- Wading birds in the wetlands behind Pamucak
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- Storks arrived at Selcuk to nest
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- Strings of fresh sucuk outside our butcher at Selcuk market
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- One of the bric a brac stalls at Selcuk market on a Saturday
We shop at the street markets; they are a hundred times better than the supermarkets which still haven’t managed to change the shopping habits of eons here in Turkey. Street markets aren’t as confusing as they initially seem, as I told a Facebook friend when I first posted these photos online shopping at the market is the same as wending you way around Tesco, you have your familiar route, the stall holders have their usual pitches and it is just like a big sunny supermarket but with no tedious queue at the end, you still get the demon grannies with their trollies with the razor sharp wheels though!
I now find normal supermarkets weird, with their flat bright lighting and lack of human interaction they feel surreal and strange, you can’t see the sky, nobody tells you what’s good this week, nobody reminds you if you have forgotten one of your regular items and you can’t tell what time of day it is so you feel you are lost in some nightmare warehouse of high piled goods. And there is a distinct lack of storks 🙂
It’s tough living here but someone has to do it. lol x
Sitting in England and looking out to grey skies, I am not regarding a trip to Tesco with much enthusiasm. I would love to be able to go to market, but our local Blackbushe Market is just a collection of cheap junk and low quality clothing. It doesn’t hold a candle to Selcuk !! I realise how tough it must be to live the life out there on a permanent basis:- unfortunately I can only do it for a couple of weeks at a time (generally in September) Please keep up the info flow.
Bodrum now have a covered dedicated market area which has taken all the romance out of market shopping for me. I have to wait till I’m back in the village to enjoy Sunday markets in Mumcular where the stalls just take over the streets.
It’s weird when you have a covered market in a set place. I prefer the street markets, Sigacik has a brilliant one a Sunday with loads of home made stuff, it’s inside the old city walls and it gives it a great atmosphere, much more fun.
That’s enough to make even me enjoy shopping again, Karen. Though the smaller ones are steadily declining, I still enjoy the weekly markets in the little towns around our French cottage, even though our drive there isn’t quite so striking as yours. 🙂