Athens, Greece: Day Four

Posted by Kanga.

We began our day by stopping in at a little grill restaurant (psistaria) next door. They didn’t speak English, but we managed to order the above. Quite fantastic, I must say. (7.60 Euros/$9.97 – the Cokes were 3 Euros – ouch!) The sandwiches are flat bread with pork, tomatoes, potatoes, and yogurt/cucumber sauce.

We went to a shoe store so that I could buy a pair of shoes. The ones I wore yesterday will need days to fully dry out and my sandals won’t be sufficient on the next rainy day. I sat in the park for a few minutes enjoying the pigeons.

Then we walked to the nearest farmers market. It was very crowded and stretched over many blocks of the street. (DaddyBird estimates 1/2 kilometre.)

The wares were amazing. Beautiful eggs, tomatoes, potatoes, huge cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, onions, garlic, olives, olive oil, and more.

We bought more than we could carry, so DaddyBird had to go in search of shopping carts and bought two.

Here are our purchases: eggs, cauliflower, olive oil, mushrooms, garlic, cucumbers, celery, dried figs, purple broccoli, tomatoes, carrots, onions, potatoes, cherry tomatoes, and leeks. We did not keep a count of all the prices, but the big tomatoes were 1.50 Euro and 2 cucumbers were 1 Euro. All the prices were very reasonable. The eggs were 0.15 each = 4.50 Euro/$5.90, although DaddyBird thinks he got more change back, so there may have been a discount for taking the whole flat.

Just so you can see how big the cauliflower is…

This cauliflower weighed in at 4 kilo (8.82 pounds) and cost 2 Euros/$2.62.

How Not to House Hunt

Posted by Kanga.

Trips to Fujairah for house hunting have begun. There are currently two routes. The Sharjah-Kalba road is the route of choice. There is less traffic and an interesting variation of scenery.

Our first trip involved absolutely no actual viewing of rental housing, because we had not prepared and contacted real estate agencies ahead of time. So, we decided to make the most of our day. We went to the Fujairah Museum which has some nice displays of artifacts from ancient settlements.

I don’t know why I continue to be surprised by proof of the impact of America on the region, but locally minted coins with American presidents or Apollo astronauts on them always catch me off guard.

There were several postage stamps depicting Charles de Gaulle. This one also has John F. Kennedy.

As usual, there were signs that some things never change.

On our second trip we visited the central souk (market). There is an amazing display of lovely vegetables. That box of ripe tomatoes is priced 10 AED ($2.70). Yes, the BOX.

We did eventually look at three apartments in a new building on the east end of town. The living rooms and bedrooms were large. The kitchens varied. The maid’s rooms, however, were astonishing. The first one was so small and poorly arranged that it would not be possible to get a small bed into it.  How a human is supposed to live in there, I don’t know.

The apartment/villa hunt will continue.