Outdoor Markets

Colorful and lively are a couple of ways to describe the markets in Europe. Virtually all the outdoor markets I visited had contrasting assortments of junk to jewels from artisan cheeses, dried fruit (dried coconut was my favorite), homemade wines, clothes, jewelry, exotic herbs TO fish heads on shaved ice, chickens hanging by their feet, fresh lard sold by the kilo, and some other things I thought were worth sharing.

Need a passport?Ukrainian passports found at one special market in Odessa.


Westerstraat market is one of Amsterdam's biggest open air markets. It had plenty of interesting finds. This historic market dating back to the 16th century is where major protests against the Nazis took place. Often the products found here are from local shops that recently went bankrupt. I found...

This classic:



A disturbing discovery:




Ironically, it was next to a statue of three figures bound to each other, a poignant tribute to the protest during the deportation of Jews.