Strange in Spain

I always find those small, strange things that one sees and experiences abroad to be the fabric that makes traveling unique. It´s like freckles on a face or red hair with brown eyes-those unexpected elements that distinguish a person-and distinguish a country as well.So here´s a strange thing I´ve encountered Spain:-Garage Sale? Down the same street as the Prado, I noticed a bunch of people congregating. They weren´t the typical, well dressed and pressed Spanish citizens but rather a rag tail bunch with raggedy headscarves, eye patches (for reals) and scruffy beards. They looked like hobo pirates or a parade of sad, retired circus performers. And each one had spread out wares to sell. They weren´t gypsies who hawk paper flowers or carved knick knacks. And their wares caught my attention. Each person had very few objects for sale. One man had, literally, a bottle of shampoo, a cracked plastic mirror, a cell phone charger, and a toothbrush (opened...used?!). The hoboes moved from display to display, assessing the objects with the same seriousness of a man buying a car, questioning the seller about the various merits and even bringing up package deals. This was a couple streets or so up from some of Spain´s designer stores, where the exact same serious buying was occuring. Commerce, apparently, happens at every level of society.

-Autumn