Tasmania, Day 4

March 9, 2013

Hobart has a wonderful market, the Salamanca Market, which is held every Saturday from some time in October through May.  In many ways this is an old traditional market, where most of the booths and stands and tables sell locally grown produce or locally made products.

 

But being 2013, the items are now hand-made jewelry and ceramics, knit and woven and hand-sewn clothing, beautiful wooden kitchen implements, on and on.  Plus organically grown berries, home-baked goodies, gorgeous flowers, baby toys, plush animals.  Very few schlock or chotchkes (or however you spell that).  

 

And of course friendly people – the older man who asked me if I knew where he could find a pharmacy, and when I directed him to the market he asked where I was from, saying I didn’t sound American, I had “music in my voice.”  (I’m thinking it must be a Caribbean calypso beat in there.)  The umbrella seller who greeted me, over a microphone, and tried to sell me a brolly, but agreed that my rain jacket hood was enough.  The ladies who chatted with me under their tent when the rain came pouring down, and when I helped moved their clothing out of the rain, told me “you are legend!”  Plus the florist who chatted with me as I took photos of the gorgeous floral arrangements, and thanked me for liking them so much even though I didn’t buy a thing.


 

I also really liked the hat vendor who grouped the 

hats so artistically, they almost looked like floral 

arrangements themselves!
  And of course I had to take a few photos of plush toy Tasmanian devils, just in case these are the only ones we see.

It was a wonderful market, complete with musicians at odd intervals – accordianists playing a tango, a few classical trios or quartets, the requisite bagpipes.  And a few rock’n’roll pop musicians.  Because you need a bit of music between tastes of food and bargaining with vendors and meeting new friends.