Tuesdays & Fridays - Market Day

It has been a long day. Went to Gorlitz this morning and spent whole day there. Anyway, I would be showing some of the views of Leipzig's market which are set every Tuesdays and Fridays, from 8am-5pm. These photos were taken on the first day that we reached Leipzig, during our mini tour by Katya and Neil.

It's very hard to communicate with the people around in Leipzig, especially the older ones. Some of them speak and understand very little English, but most of them totally speak none other than Deutsch. Sometimes you ask something in English, and they would blabber away in Deutsch. It's as good as a Mat Salleh stopping by asking you something in English, and you 'rembat' them with loads of BM. That's another thing which is weird here. They don't care you don't speak their language.

We are smart enough to gently approach the younger ones with a simple opening, 'Hello, do you speak English?' If they do, only then we would proceed with questions. We dare not try to be a smart ass, trying to open the little 'useful' simple phrases books to begin a conversation with, as you will never understand any of their replies.

We commonly use 'Hallo' (Hello), 'Gooten Morgen' (Good morning), 'Danke' (Thank you) and 'Tchuss' (Sounds more like "juice" when they pronounce it) for goodbye. 'Ya' is yes and 'Nein' is no. Middle fingers are universal I suppose. Haven't gotten any of them yet. Hehehe..

Back to the market scene, here we go:

A little stall selling various types of cheese. Too many for me to confidently take my time to browse, afraid of them asking me something weird-sounding.

Huge pumpkins, as huge as (some are HUGER than) the buttocks of those old ladies bending over just as I was clicking my shutter button.

More huge pumpkins. Pineapples are called 'Ananas' here. Fruits and veggies here are much fresher compared to Aldi, our favourite supermarket in the train station. So fresh that tomatoes looks fake, and too beautiful to be eaten.

Not forgetting, fruits are VERY CHEAP here compared to Malaysia. Those green grapes (From Italy) cost only 1 Euro for 1kg, and the 5 plums only cost me 71 Euro cents. The Wellafoam was placed in the middle so that you could imagine how much, and how big they are. The grapes and plums are of normal sizes I would say. But they do sell giant oranges. I will buy one when I go to the market again.

Flowers.. Plants.. They look good, but didn't take many shots that time. The seller was pissed off because the Malaysian group were crowding his stall, blocking the view of his other 'potential buyers'. He shouted something in German, in which a short argument took place between Katja and him. We had the impression that they could be as nasty as Petaling Street Joes if they want to.

A stall selling many type of bread, cakes and other delicacies. Have not tried it yet, and it has been 16 days since I have been i Leipzig now. Will try them soon.

A crazy shirtless man. He shouts when he speaks, everywhere he goes. Have seen him 3 times since I came to Leipzig. The second time was a few days later, he was in a middle of an argument with someone, somewhere near the marketplace again. The last time I saw him was a few days ago. He got beaten up by some punks (Yes, real punks with coloured punk hair, tattoos, piercings, clothings, punk LIFESTYLE). We passed by the group of punks who were minding their own business near the train station; drinking, begging for money and being merry. Somehow I guess Mr. Loudmouth came shouting or something, and as we walked back from the rain station towards our apartment, we saw him sitting on the ground, shirtless again, bleeding a little from the back of his head. There were a lot of Polizei (Police) officers around him, and the big group of punks have dispersed. Only a few left for questioning.

A little insight of what we have seen so far. There are many young adults who are into punk lifestyle. People here have multi-coloured hair, young to old. It looks nice on them. Shocking pink, electric blue, deep purple, everything. Very cool.

Anyway, speaking of punks in Leipzig, they are generally peaceful group of people with an alternative choice of lifestyle. Through my observation, they do not even bother to stare at others. They mind their own business, but yes, they do look intimidating. Intimidating and loud. Unlike our local heroes, whenever they are in a group of 5, our local heroes rule the street. One stare at them and you get your whole family cursed, if you're lucky. If lady luck is not on your side, you get beaten up, robbed, and sometimes knifed for nothing. I really appreciate the lifestyle in Leipzig. It has been said many times to us, Leipzig is the safest city in Germany. I dare not aim my camera at the punks though. Stay away from trouble...

Got to stop now. I would be posting some nice shots of autumn and interesting stuffs I see again soon. Till then, take care!