Sites Sounds & Smells

Smells can be difficult to describe, yet nothing else much captures the uniqueness of a place like a smell...  reinforcing memories.  Touring Jeddah started with the smell of homemade banana muffins, a breakfast blessing from our fearless leader, Miss Cheryl.  Yummers.  Then we swung by Starbucks to get fortified with some morning jo, much needed on an yearly morning jaunt.  Our happy group woke up together, inhaling the wafting aroma's.  We drove through empty roads.  Avoiding the heat, people tend to come out only when necessary, or at night.  The city is alive into the wee hours.  Driving around the harbor, we finally disembarked  at a quant little inlet filled with worn out fishing boats.  I took a picture of a blue herring, but then was chased down and yelled at by the guards.  'La La!'  (no no) But as you can see, it turned out okay.  To explain the fish market from a new-bee perspective is difficult.  It is a scene and smell I have experienced many times before, tile floors with a maze of drains to wash unwanted matter, smells that are better left behind and the cacophony of voices trying to outshout each other over the crowds of buyers bartering for the best price.  There were the ordinary catch of the day~ tuna, swordfish, prawn, lobster, various sizes of sharks; then beautiful aqua blue fish and coral red fish with black pepper spots I've never seen before.  Unfortunately I was unable to take photo's.  We sloshed through the muck on the floor to watch the buyers take their purchase down to the fish gutters, who prepared them, bagged them and then put them in ice chests.  Buyers were able to keep an eye on their catch of the day.  Most of the crew headed back to the bus, but Bob and I stayed to witness a 'filet of shark'.  Looking at it's stomach, it was one hungry creature.  Makes me think twice about the scuba diving lessons.   After being 'baptized by a 'sloshing bucket', we'd had enough and headed off to the old part of Jeddah. Very few shops were open as it was only 10 in the morning, but we were able to get in a bit of wheeling and dealing.  I thought the markets would be more like the Turkish bazaars in Istanbul, but alas, no.  I snuck in a few shots through the bus windows.  Please note they were DIRTY windows.