There were two types of flea markets I came across while living in Russia: the type made for tourists, and the type made for Russian locals. I had already heard about Izmailovo Park before heading to Russia, so I already knew what to expect- a park filled with tourists, and overpriced souvenirs. What I had expected is exactly what I got. When I got there, everybody walking around was either speaking English, or some other language, but also obviously tourists. My first thought was "Shit- there are too many people speaking English here...everything's gonna be expensive." I mean... things weren't actually THAT expensive. Overpriced for what some of the things were? Yeah, of course. But I knew to expect that, so what bothered me more was that after walking 2 or 3 aisles, I realized something- everyone was selling the same stuff, which explained why not everything was expensive, because they were all in competition with each other. But yeah, stuff there was all the same-matryoshkas of every style: from the classic style to NFL players to Michael Jackson and U.S. Presidents. Then there were the fur hats, and a bunch of magnets, and other little nic nacs. There was also a section that sold antiques, but those were way more expensive, plus there was no point in even spending the money on them since Russia has this rule where you can't take antiques out of the country because if you get caught at the airport, you can get fined and jailed, and they take it really serious.
Anyways, I decided I wanted to find somewhere that locals go, so that not only did I have to deal with jacked up prices, but I could find things besides the same tourist crap. So i scoured around online and found that on a forum somewhere, someone mentioned finding a flea market in the Moscow outskirts. And they didn't even list the entire directions on how to get there. I tried finding it online but that's impossible, lol! Anyways, this person listed partial instructions, so I kinda had to ask around, but the only issue with that was that most Muscovites had no idea what I was talking about because they had never been to it before. After taking a couple metros, i found myself at a train station that would then take me out of Moscow. The only issue I had now, was that I had no idea which train to board. I was alone. I noticed that there were mainly men there, and the women that WERE there were either accompanied by a man, or were traveling in pairs. Plenty of babushkas though.
I finally got tired of trying to figure out how to get to where I wanted to go, so I approached this lone babushka and asked her if she knew which train would take me to ____ train station. She asked if I was alone, and I said yes. So she told me to stay there and she would be back, because she had to get a friend. My next thought was "shit, everybody told me that I was going to be 'taken', like the movie, and now I'm gonna be taken by a babushka". But she didn't take me. She soon came back with another babushka and was telling her in front of me "look, this dyevushka is here alone and doesn't know what train to get on" Between them, they couldn't figure it out either, so they began asking some cops there, but they didn't know either. It was almost time for their train to come so I told them to just go ahead, because I would figure it out. One of them ran to her train, while the one I originally spoke with didn't want to leave me alone. Finally she told me that she would leave, but kept giving me a million warnings to not talk to strangers, and to not talk to men and said there were "many bad men here". I assured her I'd be fine, so she scurried away too. As soon as I saw her get on the train, I felt like a fawn amongst wolves. There were a few men eying me, looking at each other perhaps figuring out amongst themselves who would be the first to approach me. Finally, this one guy came up to me and started asking where I was from and why I was alone and if I needed him to help me. I kept telling him no, but he insisted, so I walked away, but he kept following me. He then put his arm around me. It was then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something jogging towards my way. It was the babushka. She threw his arm off of me, yelled at him and told him to leave me alone, and then grabbed me by the arm and said "you're coming with me!" And i was like...ummm... okay. So we then kinda hurried back to the train that was literally a minute from taking off. Once we got on the train she told me that she didn't know if this was my train, but that she didn't want to leave me out there with the wolves. At the moment I was thinking "okay...this is nice of her, but I also dont want to be on the wrong train going the total opposite direction". She soon asked one the ticket-checkers about my station and we found out that by luck, I was on the right train.
here is a secret shot of the 2 babushki who helped me :)
Anyways, so as our train ride continued, they were just asking me a bunch of questions about the U.S. and were curious why I wanted to come to Russia. But more than that, why the hell I wanted to travel outside of Moscow to go to a flea market, especially as a young lady alone. But I told 'em I kinda wanted to have an adventure that day, and at first they looked at me weird, but then they laughed. It was finally their stop, but mine wasn't too far ahead, so I said thank you and goodbye to them, and they wished me luck, and once again, warned me to be safe.
When I finally arrived to this place, I was like what the fuck? People literally had thrown blankets onto the ground, with their stuff on it. But the thing was...it had been raining, so it was muddy. So people have their stuff on blankets in the mud. And there werent that many people, so I was like oh great...I came all this way and there are hardly any sellers. But I looked anyway, and saw that people actually had good stuff, and they were selling things dirt cheap. Fur hats, like legit, real animal fur hats, for like ten bucks. Leather gloves for like 2 dollars. And lots and lots of clothes for super cheap, like a dollar.
so yeah...this is what i first saw....
As I continued lookin around at stuff, I saw that some people were coming out of an area past the spot we were in, so I walked on over. I then realized that THIS was the "real" flea market area. This area was huge! There were aisles and aisles of tables set up that people had set their worldly possessions on. Not just on tables, but again, on ground. Yeah, some things were junk, but a lot of treasures too. Mainly older people selling their things. Some things they sold I felt looked too expensive because they looked antiqued, but then when I'd ask the prices, they were incredibly low. I bought a bunch of stuff, but then decided to leave because it got way too cold.
one of the things i bought this trip was a samovar :)
On my way to the train, this young guy with the prettiest blue eyes came up to me and started to talk to me. He just wanted to talk and talk, but I was like wayyyyyy too freezing to be a social butterfly at that moment. As my train approached, he asked if I could stay and just take the next train that came (which wouldnt be for about another 45 minutes), so I said no. Not only for that, but idk...was just weird. I don't come to flea markets to pick up on people, lol! Little did I know, this would not be the last time I were to see this blue-eyed boy. Or shall I say, man. sounds weird to call him a boy since he was about 28. But yes....this was not the last of him. But I will mention him again next time. As for now, I will end it here since I have written too much already for this post.
.JPG)
.jpg){kind=link}
