To Market to Market to buy a......

Car load of Groceries! Not my favorite thing to do at home, but just like "other" shopping, it's rather intriguing here because of the differences! There are grocery stores and small markets all over.  I'm not sure how you decide which ones to go to, but one thing I have discovered, none of them are like ours at home! I find the grocery stores very UN-organized for the most part here.  Some more than others. Then there's the thing of having to go to at least 3 different stores to find all the things that you need. This doesn't fit very well in my thought of  "can we please just go to one store & buy it all"  (Now here I don't particularly mind, as it's only temporary for me, I don't have to deal with it all the time!)

Speaking of Shopping, Laura and I went shopping on Monday also. (do you detect a pattern here? haha!) Well, shopping = walking.  That's good for both of us, right?   We went to Ikea and Prenatal.  No baby for us at either store tho....haha!  Most all of us are familiar with Ikea, but Prenatal was one of those store signs that amused me.  It's a baby store--everything from clothes to furniture.

Now back to Tuesday.  In my life, I prefer to do one or two big shopping trips a month & stock up on everything I commonly use.  It is a bit more difficult to do that when you live in a little house with a small kitchen, few cupboards, small fridge, & tiny freezer.  However thinking of (hopefully soon) days ahead, we really did want to stock up on some things.  I am familiar enough with the grocery up the road, could walk there & find the basics, but It's nice to have your meal stuff already handy!

This store has a bakery in it, and I thought it was interesting how you removed what you wanted.  If you see those long handled scoops, they are in each unit.  You scoop the amount of rolls/bread you want thru the side into open trays along the right, pick them up and put them in a sack. It's impossible for anyone to touch any of the others.

In this particular store we were in they have these large baskets with wheels that you can either pull, push, or carry (by another set of handles that fold on the side.
 I really would have liked to take more pictures in the store, but I already feel rather conspicuous taking pictures all over!
Since I can't read labels, I have to go by the pictures on the items, Some items I simply haven't found at all.  And, being a bit ingredient conscious I find it frustrating not to know what is in something.  Sometimes some words on the label are English familiar, but when it comes to  things like meat, oh my.  It's baffling to figure out. Boneless skinless chicken breasts  and ground beef are easy.  8 different packages of bacon looking meat not so much

There is outdoor Market on Wednesday mornings, and the other weeks we've been downtown on Wednesday we were doing something else or too late to really look around.  Today we walked all around it.

 Fruits & Vegetables

 Socks, stockings, anyone?

 Sometimes I wonder how many times I appear in someone else's tourist photos!  :D

 Flowers!

 And cheese!  Remember I told you about the cheese in an earlier post?!

 Clothing-

More flowers!

Breads

Trailers, with Fish & other hot foods for sale


Here was my market picks of the day.  Strawberries that  both smelled and tasted totally delectable
Pink Lady apples--one of my top apple picks.  I was delighted to find them here!

And fresh raspberries.  Big, plump and absolutely the best!

 
 Yummmm!!  Like really really good!  :)

Then came the fun of carrying all our stuff inside & finding a place to put it!

Till next time---