Excursion - Marketplace

It was in Salzburg, around 2pm with cloudy skies and a crisp wind. My hometown growing up had a Saturday farmers market consisting of approximately half a dozen stands of the same vegetables you could find in Walmart on any given Tuesday. Not so for the markets of a city, especially one as fine as Salzburg. Fruits and vegetables made up only the basic aisles of this market; flanking the surrounding stands were multiple varieties of fresh meats, homemade cheeses, pretzels, liquors, beers, pastries, and flowers. The aisle I was particularly interested in for the occasion of my visit was the assortment of cheese and salami pretzels for my afternoon luncheon. I dared to attempt my German vocabulary at the check out and ordered what appealed most to my hunger. I’d like to think the lady at the counter was fooled by my impeccable pronunciation and timing of “Danke” when handing in my change. 

Regardless, my friends each gathered their own goods and we assembled ourselves out by a nearby courtyard to enjoy our meal, ranging from cheese stuffed to apricot jelly and chocolate drizzled pretzels. What I found particularly charming about this market experience was the variety of the goods each person had at their stand. Nearly each stand was unique in its products, each tantalizing in their own way and holding that home-made, natural charm about them; promising not a product packaged and marketed but a fruit of some good soul’s labor, arranged in such a way so as to demonstrate that any of these vendibles would be worth experiencing. 

The very nature of a market has an air of humanity about it. The items displayed are always paired to a face, a personality who arranged them for you to browse, a voice saluting each spectator (usually agreeably, but sometimes moodily, you’ll have to take a gamble). Your experience will vary depending on the day and on what each vendor was able to gather in preparation for the event. Each customer becomes a participant and completes the final step intended for each crafted good in the booth; in contrast to our modern supermarket experience where each product is rid of any natural variances in favor of uniformity and capitalizing on the human desire for the comfort of consistency. Marketplaces cultivate a healthy sense of appreciation for the fruits presented and made available from one day to the next, teaching us to seize the good opportunities presented to us and not to become too attached to our obstinate likings. In a time when we are so accustomed to having products tailored precisely to our demands and desires, attending a market is a refreshing change of pace and scenery, reminding us that we are all participants of a communal world, and not the center of its outcomes.