A few weeks ago this mostly quiet little town had a racing heartbeat... of course, if places would have a pulse. The quiet streets were transformed into the focal point of a lively and exciting event. A traditional market was held in Finestrat and not just the residents of this town were celebrating it. Many people from the surrounding towns walked there that weekend.
We went on a Saturday afternoon. There is no chance to park in the old part of the town anyway, and during the events like this, it is even worse. The town provided a place where the visitors could leave their vehicles and go up to the centre with a bus. But don't you think it would be just too easy? We walked uphill, it was part of the experience :D
At first, everything looked as always, calm. Empty streets... not even a cat was there to give it some cuddles. Though, a few steps closer to the church and centre some festive details revealed the presence of a celebration or a market.
And then, we stepped into a completely different ambience. People, a lot of them. Everywhere.
One of the first things that hit my senses was the smell of freshly baked bread. We stopped at this stand and a young man was kneading scones, that is, he was already filling them with stuffing. These were with sausage. Bread and stuffed cakes were baked in a wood-burning fireplace, which contributed to making them tastier. We bought a ham and cheese scone and ate it on the way.
A good traditional market should have a wide offer of food, I think. If not, it would be just an ordinary market, but this had to be different. We passed by a stall with sausages...
...cheese...
...sweets, like fig bread. It is called here bread, although it is not. It is just a dough, of dried figs and almonds.
More food, but we would not like to eat these hot peppers as a dessert.
The second, very good smell that hit my nose was roasted coffee!
It smelled so well... They had coffee beans from Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica etc. The price was maybe a bit more expensive than in a supermarket, but I believe that the quality of this coffee is worth paying a few euros more for a kg.
But let's leave food and coffee behind (though I am having a cup of coffee right now while writing this post). Stalls were showcasing interesting items made of wood, metal, little rocks, leather, wattle, knitted stuff, recycled material and else.
The man behind the woodworking stand was in the process of making one of the works. That was the thing in this market, to show the process. The same happened in the stall with iron, as we saw while making bread, or while a man was presenting a marvellous instrument, the hurdy-gurdy. You can take a look at it when clicking this link.
Leather belts and bags. I like to see them, in different colours and also to feel the scent of these items. But I don't buy belts, at least not for myself (don't need them... my trousers are getting small, don't know why... maybe they secretly get smaller day by day, or I am getting thicker? ;D )
Now I have a ton of photos of other stuff like jewellery, wattle bags and hats, knitted hearts and dolls, but will have to reduce the number of images not to take your time. However, I can't leave out the cute brooches and pendants I saw at one stall. Cats, dogs, turtles, cherries, umbrellas, flowers, musical signs etc.
And the soaps. I know, I know, nothing special in soaps, but I like these homemade ones in different shapes. Some of them looked like a slice of a cake...
Officially, I could close this market, I showed and described a bit the items that I saw, eat and smelled. But there is a bit more... not items, but living creatures, and they were not for sale. We could see goats, little pigs, donkeys, chickens, bunnies, ducks and geese!!
Children were riding the donkeys through the streets. I just cuddled this one :))
The geese!
I have seen in the leaflet that the geese will walk through the streets of Finestrat. It indeed happened, before we left the market. They were inside the fence before someone (probably the owner) opened the gate...
They came out and the geese walk started.
They followed the person in charge for guiding them, and actually, they were pretty fast. In a few seconds, the geese passed by us leaving their temporary shelter empty.
We were also about to leave the market but went back to feed my eyes and sense of smell once again with the bread and roasted coffee aroma. And later I am surprised my clothes are getting small... 😂
