Nabeul market in Tunisia - a different way to shop and barter in foreign countries



  

Hammamet Market

Nabeul market, a busy street

Travel guides mention it, and when you go to Nabeul market you realise how expensive it is & how rude the locals are if they don’t get their way. Nabeul market is much larger than the one in Hammamet  – which I visited only a day before. This also had given me an idea of prices and, together with the one I had seen in a local supermarket just outside my hotel, I felt I was armed with knowledge and could easily compare prices and quality. 

Buying and bartering at a Tunisian market is not as fun as doing it at a Moroccan one. Tunisians seemed very rude and if you manage to agree a price, they became grumpy if they felt they hadn’t charged you way over the odds. I drive prices down as much as possible, especially if I have seen it before at a lower price. I also know that they won’t sell if it is not convenient to them and not making a profit. I have a budget and stay within it. 

Once the sale is done, I expect the other side to be pleased and not to hold a grudge.  They had a choice and I did not force them to sell to me, and I do not want them to try to make me feel guilty!   Having been several times before in Morocco and Turkey, I know that if they sell they make a profit, so cheer up Nabeulians! 

Nevertheless even after having encountered some very rude and begrudging people, I still managed to meet great lovely ones. In particular at Nabeul market I met again an old man and his son (?) whom I had seen the day before at the Hammamet market and I had purchased a few items from him.

With Bourawi, market seller

I liked his jovial and welcoming (if a bit too overwhelming) approach. It certainly made a stark contrast with the other local stall holders. This man (Bourawi) had developed an immediate crush for me (!) - he wanted to come back to England with me which I drew a line to (it is very useful in this cases to have a story involving ‘loving husband or partner’ that is working hard at home and waiting for you to get back or joining you in a day or two, if you do not happen to have the ‘real McCoy’!) - anyway, Bourawi was the first to see me in Nabeul street market that Friday morning, while I was walking around hot and confused by the number of people.

Above the noise and hassling a friendly, welcoming voice rose and shouted: ‘Hallo my friend!!’ and I looked around to see a smiling face with open arms! 
You cannot believe how nice it was - after having been shoved and pushed by greedy sellers and harassed by pushy ones - to see a familiar face. He got me out of the crowd, offered a cool drink from a nearby stall seller and a seat!   Well, I supposed I felt like royalty! :-)
And you know, I bought a lot of lovely bits from him again, much more than the day before, as I had regretted not buying more of certain bracelets… It turned out my host was from Nabeul and had more of the stock I wanted and in different colours.

Berber Bracelet with semi-precious stones

I also bought two beautiful amber necklaces. Gorgeous. Did you know there is a way to test that amber is real amber?  With Amber, you stroke it hard against a cloth so it warms up and when you smell it, it has a nice aroma, kind of resin.

Or if you are buying camel bone, the real camel bone/hoof and not just plastic (as sometimes it looks and it is) can be tested by using a flame to barely touch the hoof/bone. It won't smell as nicely as amber, it will have a smell similar to the one of when you burn hair.

Amber Necklace 

 

The way to usually do business in these countries is to sit and chat and sip a drink and bargain, and chat some more and then pick something else to add to the bargaining and you go on for a while. 
At the end you are happy and so are they. I love it when you find people like these, and hate it when I haven’t got scope to buy things from them, as they are so nice (like in the case of the potterer – see photo below) that you want to support their business.
The choosing, buying, bartering is a process that takes time, however I love it, as you get to know a tiny bit of the other person and culture which is partly what is all about for me.

Nabeul - pottery

At the end of my chatting/shopping/bargaining with my new friend (Bourawi) I was also given a present of a Fatima hand pendant in silver and a very nice chain to go with it - which he asked his son to put on my neck - and a little stuffed key ring camel.

Such graceful and nice people! As I finished with my friend, a few steps away, another  seller from the Hammamet market crowd popped up – the one the day before had been a bit grumpy after the sale– and that day he was a bit more charming. Again I bought two more bracelets from him (some the ones I had really wanted the day before) and managed to get them for a very good price.

Camel bone & Resin Bracelet

I wasn’t so lucky when I went back to a shop, just outside the market, where first thing in the morning I had seen some nice cushion covers and lovely decorated glasses to use as T-lights holders. When I went by in the morning there was a woman setting up the shop, and having asked for the prices, I had decided to buy up a few on my way back – as I did not want to carry them all the way through the market. Unfortunately though, when I went back to the shop around mid-morning, the young son and dozy grandma where there instead and the son was much too greedy and quoted me a much, much higher price than the one quoted in the morning.  I didn’t manage to convince him to see reason and sell them to me at his mom’s price. I had promised myself to go back there the following Friday, early in order to catch the woman while setting up the shop again. However, the following week I also wanted to be in Hammamet and in the end decided I didn’t want to go from pillar to post (Nabeul and Hammamet are at opposite ends from where I was staying) and didn’t fancy rushing around on my last day of holiday. 

I went to the Hammamet Medina instead and, eventually, managed to find a shop I had seen the first day of my holiday while wondering around. Boy what a maze is the Medina. And when asking direction, the ‘clever’ sellers thought they could confuse me and take me to their shops claiming to be the one I wanted… as if!  I had a picture on my mobile with the name on it … ;-)

Toe Rings

I have been wearing rings on my toes for many years. I suppose I started wearing them as I gradually stopped wearing the ones in my hands as I was gardening more and more and not often practical to wear or if I was wearing them I risked to leave them behind when washing my hands ... therefore wearing something, albeit on my feet was a way of sporting some jewellery.
I found the 1^st of my toe-rings on a small street market stall in London. Only a few stalls in a street near Shaftesbury Avenue, which I happened by change on a week day – I don’t even remember why I was there.
I loved it. I am still wearing it. It is a nice band of silver with some a real small motive. I got used to wearing a toe ring pretty quickly and after that summer I decided I wanted to have another one for the other foot. In those days ankle bracelets were very fashionable and you think it would have been easy to find also toe rings... not the case. I happened upon my 2^nd toe ring on one of the stalls of the market in Chancery Lane, we used to get there in our lunch break from the City and one summer I found one, not the best, but decent enough for me to buy it. However it was never very good: the metal, even though was supposed to me silver, would get dark very soon, and eventually snapped in two a few years back.
For a long time I could not find any toe rings and if I found one none that I liked. Until I went to Morocco one summer. In Agadir, I found a shop that sold local crafts at a fix-price and I found my next toe-ring. I bought it and wore it right away to the delight of the shop owner/assistant. As the ring was so comfortable, I decided to buy another one and to try to wear two rings on two different toes on the same foot. It worked; they were comfortable to wear and did not clash with each other causing pain. Before the end of that holiday I had bought several more, which I have given as presents and some form part of the Valentine Day Gift Ideas now.
A few summers ago – in Tunisia – I was looking to replace the toe ring which broke (see above) and I found it in a little shop outside the compound of my hotel in Hammamet. They had quite a few of them and some were really nice. As it happened after a lot of thinking I bought the first one that caught my eye. A little silver band with a small dolphin. I cannot remember the exact meaning of the dolphin for the Tunisian. I have checked it and the dolphin has been used since Greek mythology. Also nowadays is used in tattoos. Here are a links to website where you can read more if interested in the symbolism of the dolphin.

Last summer I met an Irish woman and she too was wearing toe rings. Her rings were really nice and I was interested in knowing where she had got hers. We got chatting and it turned out she wears them all year round. So this year (or rather last) when the first cold days settled in I kept on wearing my toe rings. Went to the swimming pool, wore them with tights (and they did not ladder them) and now I wear them with all sorts of close shoes even my walking boots!! (Although when really cold I prefer to take them off as my toes shrink and the rings are then too big for them!).
What I have learnt over the years and with the experience of wearing toe rings, is that toe rings to be comfortable have to be in real silver, have an opening – which allows you to place it over the large bits of your toes and then tightening it to fit the middle, slim bit of the toe – and be fairly solid without excessive protuberances.
Why, you ask? Feet get a lot of battering and any jewellery has to be strong enough to sustain the pressure the foot applies on ground, shoes and so forth.
Silver is easy to clean, doesn’t wear off and therefore your rings will always look the best. You want to be able to see them when you look down to your feet... vanity??

I prefer mine not to have any big protuberances or stones as rings do turn from time to time, especially if cooler and your foot shrinks a little, and there is nothing worse or more painful than a sharp bit in between two toes – think of a ring with a stone and having a handshake that is very hard and squeeze your hand. Painful! Imagine the little toe in a similar situation (I am not saying someone is going to give you a foot shake!)
As I was saying I haven’t found very easy to buy toe rings. One summer the Tunisians – crafty people! – upon my inquiring would take me around to their shop only to be shown normal finger rings... they think they are clever:-~

As I was writing this article I have also done a little research and found that toe rings are a relatively new item of accessories used in the western world (that explains it!) and usually only one ring is worn on a single foot. However in India (I have not been there yet) it is something associated with a bride and they wear matching ones on each foot. Click here should you want to read more about it.

If you would like to purchase a toe ring, click on the link or go to www.craftsoftheworldonline.com and contact us.