My birthday was in March but I had promised to treat myself to a massage for my birthday so, here we are, 3 months later, and I finally did it. The whole process of gearing up to treat myself took a bit of doing but I booked an hour massage for myself with my neighbor this morning. What a treat! You just lay back and let her pamper you. Definitely my kind of a morning.
Before my massage I headed to a new bakery in the Old City, the Artisan Bakery. Bought a few fermented-dough rolls. It's so nice to see new and creative businesses (as opposed to the endless shoe shops, falaffel stands and pizza places that open here on a regular basis) opening up here. The rolls were incredible and i'll definitely be visiting the bakery again soon.
My final stop was at the local fruit and vegetable shop. Even though it was relatively early there were still some other customers there. The shop, more than any other place in Tzfat, reminds me of what a unique town this is.
First of all, standing almost shoulder to shoulder at the check-out counter were a Hassidic man and a woman who was wearing a sleeveless, low-cut top and tight pants. True, he didn't exactly look at her, but he didn't make any rude remarks either.
Then, a few seconds after a customer left, someone noticed that a bill (didn't see how much) had dropped out of his pocket to the floor. The finder gave the money to the check-out guy who ran out of the store after the customer who had dropped the money.
I, in the meantime, was picking out my produce. Since there's almost no place to stack your purchases while you're shopping, and since there's no room to wheel a shopping cart around the store, I just plop my purchases in my little push-cart as I'm doing my shopping. Then, when my turn comes at the counter, I pull my bags out of the cart and the counter guy weighs them before I put them back in my trolley for the trip home. The counter-guy never checks to see whether I've paid for everything that I put in my trolley while I was shopping...it would never occur to him that I'd take something without paying.
Same thing happens every week at the shuk (open-air market) -- with 20 people all filling up their bags at once, the stall owners have no way of monitoring who's paying and who isn't, but everyone proceeds on faith and trust. Customers who fill up their bags with produce far away from where the stall owner is standing with his scale bring everything to him to pay. They will certainly attempt to bargain, but not pay? I can't say that it never happens, but 99.9% of the transactions are based on trust, and it works.
First of all, standing almost shoulder to shoulder at the check-out counter were a Hassidic man and a woman who was wearing a sleeveless, low-cut top and tight pants. True, he didn't exactly look at her, but he didn't make any rude remarks either.
Then, a few seconds after a customer left, someone noticed that a bill (didn't see how much) had dropped out of his pocket to the floor. The finder gave the money to the check-out guy who ran out of the store after the customer who had dropped the money.
I, in the meantime, was picking out my produce. Since there's almost no place to stack your purchases while you're shopping, and since there's no room to wheel a shopping cart around the store, I just plop my purchases in my little push-cart as I'm doing my shopping. Then, when my turn comes at the counter, I pull my bags out of the cart and the counter guy weighs them before I put them back in my trolley for the trip home. The counter-guy never checks to see whether I've paid for everything that I put in my trolley while I was shopping...it would never occur to him that I'd take something without paying.
Same thing happens every week at the shuk (open-air market) -- with 20 people all filling up their bags at once, the stall owners have no way of monitoring who's paying and who isn't, but everyone proceeds on faith and trust. Customers who fill up their bags with produce far away from where the stall owner is standing with his scale bring everything to him to pay. They will certainly attempt to bargain, but not pay? I can't say that it never happens, but 99.9% of the transactions are based on trust, and it works.
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