The Market in Pécs

One of my favorite places in Pécs is the market where I shop for fruits, vegetables, chicken, sausages and flowers.   The large indoor space is a bustling concrete floored hall, furnished with simple tables where a variety of small vendors lay out their produce and products.  The market in Pécs is open every day.  Unlike the supermarket where you pick out all your food and pay at a central location, here you pay each individual seller for his/her products.  It is, at first, daunting to the English speaking tourist.  But I have found everyone friendly, helpful and patient.  I either pick out what I want and hand it to them – or in the case of chicken and meat – point.   Paying can be the most challenging.  This is made easier when the vendor has a calculator and can show me the numbers or can write down the numbers for me.   I love looking at all the fresh produce and have found everything tastes great from the apples to tomatoes to fresh figs.  The fruit and vegetables vendors occupy the middle of the hallway.  The meat and poultry shops are on one side of the building, while fast food grills selling a variety of breads and cooked sausages and meats are on another.  Along one wall are the women who sell sauerkraut and various pickled products.  There is section where people sell flowers, beautiful flower arrangements, and plants.  And there is small section for mushroom sellers.  I am amazed at the large variety of mushrooms sold here – I have never seen some of these mushrooms before.  Going to the market makes me aware of what is in season.  Although you can find some vendors who sell bananas – obviously not a fresh Hungarian product. – the market offerings differ with the passing months.  I remember the first time I saw a fresh fig in the market – wow, my favorite fruit.  And in the coming weeks there were lots of people selling fresh figs.  Then, only one or two.  And finally my last fig purchase was a pathetic looking lot in a small plastic margarine tub sold by an old woman.  Still they were tasty.  This week I see lots of squashes, pumpkins, fresh spinach, and for the first time Brussel sprouts.  So you can pretty much tell what is in season, though you can still buy fruit and veggies that must be shipped in.  Some of the folks who sit in the market selling their wares have only a meager offering in front of them.   These older ladies might have only a dozen or so pears, a couple bags of walnuts, maybe a few dozen eggs to sell.  Others have a much larger variety.  I go to the market with a list and walk around the hallway first to look at the offerings.  Who has the nicest looking apples?  I buy only from the women, not the men vendors.  And I try to buy from the old ladies that only have a few things if they are selling something I want.  It is just such a great experience:  all of the products displayed, the smells, the sounds.  So I buy most of my food items here.  This is a look at the market from my camera tucked into my shirt pocket as I walked around and stopped to buy.