Alisha goes to the market

Vienna has a lot of open-air markets, the most famous of which is called the Naschmarkt. Brian had plans today that didn't involve me, so I decided it would be a good time for a thorough exploration of the Naschmarkt. The Naschmarkt is open daily -- except Sundays when everything is closed -- but on Saturday a lot of local farmers bring in their crops so the options are more varied. And occasionally (maybe once a month), there is also a flea market where you can find anything and everything you can imagine. Today happened to be the flea market day.

I arrived at the Naschmarkt fairly late in the day -- around 3:30 -- but everything was still open. I decided to hit the food section first and then go back to the flea market if there was time. Here are a few photos of the produce stalls.

I was on a mission to find brown sugar, vanilla and coconut flakes (for Amanda). I've read that both brown sugar and vanilla can be found at some Asian shops and there are several shops located in or around Naschmarkt. In the end, the only thing I found from my list was the coconut flakes. However, I did find some Arm & Hammer baking soda and molasses. I mentioned in an earlier post that I couldn't find baking soda here, but later I found it at my usual grocery store. And later that day I found it again in my kitchen cabinet. I guess I did have baking soda when I wanted to make the cookies after all. I bought the A&H anyways because it was less expensive than what's in grocery store. I plan on using the molasses to make brown sugar, so maybe I was successful in my brown sugar mission after all.

By the time I was finished with all of the food stalls, everything was starting to close down. The vendors were calling out "Corn, 3 for 1 euro; radishes, 1 euro" -- except, of course, in German -- so I stopped and picked up some corn and pears. I would have loved to buy more fruit, but we already had apples and peaches at home and we just don't go through that much fruit. So here are my purchases.




I went ahead and walked through the flea market even though most of the people were starting to pack up their things. I don't think I can describe the flea market accurately. There were three rows with vendors on each side. They were selling everything: clothes, records, crystal (or glass), framed art, bike wheels, old pots and pans. Here are a few photos I snapped.



This was actually a nice looking stall, compared to most. The shoes are in decent condition and they all appear to have a match. Plus, they're on a table. A lot of the stalls were just a blanket spread on the ground with everything thrown out on it.


You can't really tell what is being sold here, but you get an idea of how much stuff is out there. And the quality, or lack of -- see the stack of old magazines in the bottom center of this photo?

I didn't take any close up photos at the flea market because 1) it was awkward taking photos and 2) I wanted to show the chaotic nature of the place.

The only thing I was really interested in was old photos and postcards. Preferably ones with writing (and a date) on the back. I found two great old black and white postcards from Vienna, but I ended up not getting them. One of the things the phrase books don't tell you -- when you learn how to ask "how much is this" in German, you should hold off on using it until you're able to understand the response. The guy was putting away stuff and wasn't interested in me and the price that I think he gave me was way more than I wanted to pay. Later, I was looking through some more cards and asked the price (in English, this time) and the guy gave the typical European street vendor answer: "For you, I give you a good price." Despite his answer, I continued to look. I only found one photo I wanted and when I asked the price he shrugged and said I could take it. That is a good price! I'm not sure what I'll use it for, but something crafty.

I love this man's short pants! And the mother fixing her daughter's hair. It's great.

P.S. Somehow I managed to publish this post when I was only half-way through. So if you started reading before everything was published, sorry about that.

P.P.S. Does anyone have any experience with molasses? When I got the bottle home, it was leaking. I cleaned it up and then later found it leaking again. I removed the lid and it was kind of foamy. I decided to look online to see if that was normal. About half an hour later (I got distracted while online), I returned to the kitchen to find this --

I found online that "some foam" is normal. But this is a lot of foam! When I bought it, I thought it seemed awfully thick, even for molasses. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have kept shaking the bottle in the store. I ended up pouring some of it into another jar and it looks like it has stopped growing now. But still, this doesn't seem normal.