Flea Markets all over the island.  I love them. In my life time I have found the most extraordinary things on flea markets I still have and treasure today, things of yesterday, a fairy tale book I cherished as a child and thought it would be lost in the ravines of my childhood memories, an old teapot made of tin, a candle holder of pure silver …they said…, a Japanese water colour, so lovely, a set of art nouveau spoons. I have been on such markets all over the world, the atmosphere is the same everywhere, a place where I would think the leagues of witches and sorcerers would meet because there are things offered that have seen many decades and many weird situations and that were witness to all sorts of emotional roller coaster even as far as crime….you never know…I mean I have felt it….Once, it was in Barcelona, on a huge flea market in the centre of the old city, I bought some silver cutlery, and I was so thrilled about the atmosphere that I took my small camera out of my bag and raised it to my eyes…..you should have seen the reaction…there was a sort of freezing all of a sudden, the vendors of the nearby stalls all stared at me and a wave of suspicion confronted me, I thought they would get at me and take my camera; I took the camera down, smiled nervously and left as fast as I could. Wow, that was close.

I believe that flea markets are as old as methuselah, in hard times the only place where you could get things, but they have lost none of its attractiveness, even today with all the luxury in our daily life; for many young or not so well to do people it is the only choice, for others it is sports to hunt for the unexpected,  to make a snatch, to discover something precious the value of which the vendor does not know.

I remember the times when people went across country with their handcart, or by bicycle with a trailer, later by car to collect old stuff people kept in their lofts, from furniture to grandma’s cutlery, old toys, costumes, even recipe books, old shoes, broken mirrors… they even went for hundreds of kilometers to talk people into selling their old family inheritance to them. It became a fashion to go over public rubbish dumps with rubber boots and gloves, and it is unbelievable what treasures they often found. We had a friend who had the conservative profession of a lawyer but his fascination was to explore the rubbish dumps and thus his court yard was full of pieces he then was working on and so many beauties were discovered under layers of paint.

Usually a flea market is a place where you can rent a table, or a space for a table where you lay our your collections for sale. One of the first sort of flea markets was at the old Pegasus Restaurant, right next to the Lemar supermarket in Karaoğlanoğlu; it was always on Fridays, men enjoyed their drinks at the bar while the family went exploring. It was an important news exchange place and many ladies brought their preserves, marmalades, cakes, pies and other homemade wares, even cheese. The second one became the one at the Carpenters’ Restaurant and then came Lambousa; the last mentioned became bigger and bigger and local Turkish Cypriot and Turkish people took part in and it became a true flea market with a wide range of used and new goods.

The idea spread and people realized how nice it is to meet friends at such a place and they opened up new ones east of Girne, and supermarkets smelt business and offered their space in front of their enterprise, to make it more comfortable for people who lived that end.

I am still visiting the Lambousa place from time to time as it is near my home and I know the people. There is the KAR stand with a huge variety of used books, there is Ulli and Larissa with their CD stand, especially German speaking people find their wishes met here; then there is Hüseyin Gürzap, the frame maker and his artist wife with her whirling dervishes and Cypriot doors. There is the fine artist Sheila Davis with her beautiful paintings of North Cyprus; she did small ones for sale on the market to make them more affordable for the visitors. There is the German bakery from Catalköy with freshly baked brown bread and cakes, and house wives offering their delicious pies and tartes, marmalade and preserves. Jewellery, handmade art and craft, pots and plants, second hand clothes. At one stand you can get waffles and pancakes freshly made.

Why do people do this, getting a table and sell all kind of goods? I did it once in my life when we were selling our house to go roaming the wide seas with our sailing boat and I got a taste of it.

It is a sort of antidote to the consumer society, it makes one proud on both sides of the table, to have something to offer and on the other hand to look out for something and suddenly find it; a kind of bond, a  place of communication. I know of people who have furnished their house just with second hand objects they have found on flea markets or at auctions. It is a philosophy and it spreads more and more around the world. It finds my total appreciation.