It is so fresh!

So many choices of olives!

I love the central market in Athens.  We started with the fruit and vegetable market, and then moved on to the more gorey bits...

Chromata kai Aromata:  colors and smells

Lamb heads

octopus and other cephalopods...

Various kinds of fish

some of my favorites... the little fish that you eat bones and all

These snails are wiggling!



pig feet... they seemed to be treated as leftover parts, sometimes tied to the butcher's block, but were still displayed, so someone buys them!

I am not sure who shops here.  It was full and VERY busy, mostly with men at the meat counters and old women in black pulling "granny carts" doing the shopping.  I didn't see any of the women on the metro afterwards, so I don't know if they live locally or are driven to Omonia in the center of Athens, or take taxis home... Food was cheaper even than in the laiki agora in our neighborhood, so clearly there is a reason to go to that trouble, not to mention the selection... did you see how many different types of olives were at the one stall?

After the produce market we visited the meat market, then the fish market, and the walked around until we found the nearby street that sells all the spices and beans and pulses, passing through several streets that sell cloth and sewing notions.  I know all cities used to work like this, where like businesses were located together, but I don't get the economics of it... great for the buyers, but for the sellers?  Clearly, based on the prices, the competition drives prices down.  So is it increased volume?

And it was a neighborhood of positively magical fertility... not just all that produce, but the vehicles and even the buildings are growing!

Selling live plants... basil is important not so much for cooking as for its symbolic and apotropaic qualities

I've seen "living walls" in the US... it is the cutting edge of environmentalism, but what on earth is one doing in central Athens?  It must be deliberately created, but Athens just isn't known for its environmentalism!