Walking out of Sunday market with fresh, colourful bouquets of REAL flowers, juggling bags of fruits and freshly baked french baguettes jutting out of my shopping bag made me feel so CHIC - FRENCH CHIC!
It was a wonderful and exhilarating feeling to be standing there in the middle of the market square, immersing myself with the sights and sounds around me: the calls of haggling market vendors, the clicking of shoes upon old stone pavements, chattering of french and Flemish lingo all around me. On one slightly chilly Sunday morning there I was, bundled up in my warm spring jacket, neck cosily wrapped in a sky blue pashmina scarf and lastly my never-have-failed-me-before goodly worn black flats. I felt like the only thing missing from my outfit was a french barrette!
Carrying my camera around was a dead giveaway to the local folks that I was not one of them and it turned out to be a lovely experience: most people I encountered were friendly and welcoming. There was even a vendor who asked me to take a photo of him and his friend but his friend was shy! As you can see down here! LOL
To read about these blokes and a few other interesting stuff, click "read more"
at the bottom of the entry
The Sunday market was simply awesome! Located close to the "Arabic town" of Brussels, it's where everyone goes during the early mornings (on Sunday, obviously) to get really good, dirt cheap deals on household items and produce goods - I couldn't believe the amount of stuff I found there! If you feel like being a good sport and are up for it, I suggest that you spend a few good hours walking around. It won't be long until you pretty much find whatever it is worth finding!
Bags of spices for sale. Can you guys make out what these spices are?
The Belgians sure love their meats!
Aside from Germany, I've never seen a country obsessed with meat and cold cuts
available in a variety of sorts!
Something amusing, I thought was that at one point I came across rows of vendors selling women's underwear and bras like nobody's business! It was a hilarious sight seeing rows upon rows of tents set up, decorated with bras and underwears hanging everywhere about the tents - and people actually bought them! I don't blame them though since everything was so cheap!!
Rows upon rows of tents hanging underwear and bras for sale!
Some of a few things I saw: Strawberries, plenty were as large as the palm of my hands, sold by carts for merely 5 euros! Chocolates, belgian waffles, sweets and confectionaries were priced at 3 euros for 5 packages of your choice! Freshly baked french baguettes for 75cents EACH! How awesome is that??
Huge pumpkins for sale!
Imagine how much pumpkin soup you can make with one of these?!
It was a huge market and quite possibly much bigger than Victoria Market, Melbourne. As with any other Sunday markets, you can find fresh produce, fruits and other household junks (if you'd like to look at it that way, i.e. bags, shoes, dolls, etc) anywhere and everywhere. The market was SO big and beautifully disorganised (i.e. you'll find a chocolate vendor in the middle of the produce section or a fish vendor in the middle of the clothes and spice section) - but I guess that's what makes it exciting because you never know what you'll expect to find.
Fresh local farm-grown strawberries with some as big as your palm!
A cart of these were sold for a mere 5 euros... and it's a good thing because I LOVE strawberries!
The agricultural section was one of the best that I've encountered: tents upon tents of flowers, planted herbs, greeneries and what-cha-ma-call-its where there for cheap prices. There were so many variety of plants and flowers, no wonder the Europeans love buying fresh bouquets and flowers from the market: fresh, clean, BIG, colourful flowers.
A bumblebee joining in the fun at picking the best flowers!
The whole section had sweet floral smell lingering in the air. Flowers of sorts could be seen: freshly cut, potted plants ready to be placed in gardents at home, etc etc. Orchids, Roses, Pansies, Lilies, Daisies, Irises, Hyacinths, and so much more! I mean the ground was literally FULL of bring beautiful colours - it looked as if someone had just splashed colourful paint all over the floor!
One of the roses bought my parents for the new house
Mom ended up being a few bouquets for the new house (more on that and our hotel later) but I've made a private note to myself to come back later and buy a beautiful potted plant and flower to store in my room :)
The happy couple with their recently purchased fresh bouquets!
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