The flea market

Today i visited the flea market in Alexandria. Really, i have not seen more junk piled up in the streets in my whole life...The system in here works like this: guys with carretas and donkeys walk around every neighborhood shouting like mad men, and everybody will give them the old stuff they dont want. Then they take everything to this old industrial area, expose them in massive piles and try to sell them. This point can be easily illustrated by this picture, the tram passing through the only corridor available:

As you can realise there is no apparent order...an old telephone close to an iron, a remote control of an unknown appliance close to a vase of a mixer, doors and windows, sewing machines, etc...the list is almost infinite. It is indeed very amusing to see all these objects, you cannot predict what is coming next :) From the chaos certain patterns emerge, as we scientists know; therefore sometimes the classification is something like "small metal pieces":

Other times (the less of them) is a bit more obvious like "bathroom stuff". Observe the demonstration of the vendor sitting on one of the toilets:

The classification is not always possible to make, even though some premeditated order can be hinted. This guy seems mainly interested in wheeled stuff and lamps...

But, as i was saying, the most of it is simply chaotic, shoes and electronics was one of my favourites:

And for not forgetting we are in Africa, the ever present colourful approach:

I have to say that there was many interesting and useful objects to be rescued from there. Old russian film projectors, shishas, furniture, tools, engines, suspensions, keyboards, typing machines, radios and many others... A paradise for any curious and patient mind. Particularly interesting was the offer from this guy, that claimed to have an engine that runs forever without the need of any fuel, quoting him "by thermal expansion" mmm really??? This guy was either a thermodynamics heretic or the Nicola Tesla of the Arab world :P