The\nbusy market scene assaulted all my senses. Colourful awnings flapped in the\nwarm, but welcome breeze. The intoxicating smell of local fruit and herbs\nfilled my nose. Stall holders chatted to local customers and shouted their\nwares. I could almost taste the wonderful, pungent street food. I ran my\nfingers along the beautiful fabrics and wished again that I had space in my\nsuitcase to take more stuff home with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With\nmy digital camera safely attached to my wrist by its strap I took image after\nimage of the lively, colourful scene, peppers piled high of every colour, huge\nmelons bursting with juicy flesh, chunky local pottery, robust and utilitarian.\nI couldn\u2019t use my iPhone to take photos as it was in Andy\u2019s backpack for\nsafekeeping. I had no bag with me nor pockets in my shorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andy\n\u2026\u2026\u2026 it suddenly dawned on me that I hadn\u2019t seen him for a while. I had left him\nin the shade looking at men\u2019s straw hats. He bought one every year when we went\non holiday. What happened to them in the intervening years was anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nlooked around. It was difficult to see through the throngs of locals and the\nfew tourists visiting the market. It was easy to tell the difference between\nthe two. Look at those pink shoulders! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nmarket seemed to be getting busier, the heat more oppressive. I was getting\njostled by busy locals intent on getting their daily fresh supplies. The women\ncarried huge, woven, straw baskets, which brushed against me. They certainly\nhad \u2018no time to stop and stare\u2019, (in the words of the poet William Henry Davies).\nThe tanned, muscly men, in their white vests exuded confidence, pushing me to\none side as I stood hesitantly in their way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I walked\nto the end of one of the rows of stalls to get out of the way and looked around.\nI couldn\u2019t see Andy \u2026 or any of the other, admittedly few, tourists that were\non our bus. I was beginning to get\nconcerned. Had I wandered too far away from Andy while I was enjoying looking\nat the stalls? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nlooked around for someone to ask for help. What could I say? Who might speak\nEnglish? I approached a middle aged couple who looked like tourists and asked\nif they could direct me to the bus stop. The confused look on their faces\nshowed me they were not English speaking tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\nwas the trouble with visiting places off the normal tourist track. We liked\nholidays with a local flavour that taught us about how the locals lived, not\nhotels full of holidaymakers barely leaving the complex. But that meant that not so many people around\nus spoke English. I started to sweat and could feel my pulse begin to race. We\nwere miles from our apartment, in the foothills of the mountains, in a small,\nremote village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\nthought back to when we arrived earlier that morning. We had got off the bus in\nthe shade of a beautiful little chapel and then made our way up narrow, hilly\nstreets to this village. I needed to make my way back there. We planned to move\non before lunch and my stomach was telling me that was not far away. But how?\nDownhill, obviously. But in which direction? Many of the little streets looked\nlike they went downwards. I looked at the photos on my camera, flicking back\nthrough all the images of the stalls and the produce. There it was! The little\nchapel with the bus next to it and Andy by the side of it! How I wished I had\nstayed with him and helped him choose a hat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\napproached an old lady selling lemons and showed her the photo. She took one\nlook at my worried face and spoke quickly to the young girl helping her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\ngirl took my hand and led me through the bustling market into the quiet, shady\nstreets that wound their way down the hill, until I could see the chapel, the\nwaiting bus \u2026. and Andy, wearing his new hat!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The busy market scene assaulted all my senses. Colourful awnings flapped in the warm, but welcome breeze. The intoxicating smell of local fruit and herbs filled my nose. Stall holders chatted to local customers and shouted their wares. I could almost taste the wonderful, pungent street food. I ran my fingers along the beautiful fabrics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-450","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Carol","author_link":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":null,"rttpg_excerpt":"The busy market scene assaulted all my senses. Colourful awnings flapped in the warm, but welcome breeze. The intoxicating smell of local fruit and herbs filled my nose. Stall holders chatted to local customers and shouted their wares. I could almost taste the wonderful, pungent street food. I ran my fingers along the beautiful fabrics…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/450\/revisions\/453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}