My experience in a flea market !

On a cold wintery day I caught a bus to the area where a flea market was to be held.My husband had grudgingly accompanied me as his idea of a Saturday morning was not shopping.So there I was guilty and uncertain about my plans .
In India ,my home land, there are no flea markets as such.I had read about flea markets in books and they had facinated me.I read once in a book that flea markets owe their name to the flea circuses that once were famous in fairs.Fleas are tick like insects that can be trained to do tricks !In Germany these markets are called "flu markt"

Upon reaching the venue,which was a huge open ground,I saw a crowd of people and rows and rows of stalls.The stalls had an amazing variety of things on sale,like clothes and bags from Paris.These stalls were mostly owned by Bangladeshis and Pakistanis.Having discovered that we spoke Hindi they were full of smiles and offered discounts!

Some stalls had things the owners wanted to dispose off as in second hand goods.these were mostly crockery ,crafts ,paintings,books and an assortment of oddities which even my husband found very interesting .Most of the stuff were in pretty good shape and quite inexpensive.
There were things that captured the essence of Europe like dutch delftware ,wooden shoes from Holland,landscapes of Italy and France on silk,large cowbells from Switzerland ,wooden cuckoo clocks and dainty crockery from England .

Bargaining comes naturally to me and I had a fun time getting stuff for cheap.I also discovered soon that my attempts at speaking German (with my stunted vocabulary)was rewarded in terms of discounts.I also noticed that some stalls with old toys were taken care of by children supervised by their parents.I gathered that the parents wanted the children to learn from the experience in terms of the art of selling and handling money.

Personally this was an opportunity got to know the vibe of the Germans in a relaxed atmoshere and i treasured it.There was a section with rides for the children and stalls selling icecream.Despite the cold,apparently people still love their icecreams in Germany and so do I!.So licking a delicious'erdberry eis' my husband and I headed back home and taking with us memories of an unexpectedly lovely day..