I had gotten to the embassy early again, but this time instead of just hanging out on the corner, I decided to look around. The first thing I noticed was how close we were to Zubairi and the supermarket I wanted to get to. I knew I was in the neighborhood, but it was a block away. Walking along the road, I found a couple of spice shops. Spice shops here are a trip. They are a combination of cooking supply, herbal remedies, and traditional cosmetic care. One shop had recipes plastered all over the place, presumably to spur buying things you wouldn’t think of otherwise. There were anti-hemmeroid tea recipes, anti-acne, shiny hair, and many other recipes that I would never have guessed that I would find. One shop was rather narrow, the proprietor had to squeeze between his counter and his back wall. If I faced the counter, there were a bunch of cubbies to my back. Most of his more expensive stuff (various nuts mostly) were in glass displays in the counter. I did notice that he had a bin of saffron in the area in front of the counter and behind the customers if they were facing the counter. There must have been over $2000 worth of saffron there. At lest that’s what it would sell for in the US. I’ve never seen that much in one place before. Even the guys in the spice souk keep it behind their stall and in individual packets.
Another place I went to had an amazing collection of oils. Mint, linseed, clove, fenugreek, cod liver, saffron, rose extract, coriander, marrow(ew!), and more were arrayed in an island in the store. I’m pretty sure that these were intended for the hair because they had a special “For the hair” blend and it had many other hair products around them. In any case, I doubt that the oils were pure in some cases (what would pure saffron oil cost?) but probably diluted with corn oil or something. Still, interesting…
After I was shooed away from the embassy, I went back to one of the shops and bought about half a pound (1/4 kilo) of cashews. I don’t know if they were fresher, lacked the preservatives, were higher quality, or I was just much more hungry than I thought, but those were the best cashews I have ever had. 2 bucks, that’s what it cost for a half pound of perfect, whole cashews. Those, along with a glass of fresh squeezed OJ made up my breakfast/lunch.
It’s a good thing I did that before I went to the store. I only go to the actual supermarket for things like soap, tooth stuff, TP, etc. I loaded up on stuff that I had been waiting to get for a while. One of the things I go to this store for is Listerine, it’s the only place I can find it. It has always been expensive, around 7 bucks for a smallish bottle, but now they only have the size that is just a little larger than the travel size. At 5 bucks for that I finally had to look at some other stuff. I had always thought that the Listerine was expensive because not many people bought products with alcohol in them. Well, I found another mouthwash with alcohol in it for less than half the price, so now I have no idea why there is such a huge difference.
Anyway, I got all of my stuff and I had a bright idea, why not walk back a different way? Zubairi goes right by the store, and it also goes by tahreer square, which is where I have to go. I have always taken a more circuitous route because that’s the way it was shown to me and I had never made the connection before. So off I go, enjoying the weather (not a cloud in the sky, no humidity, low 80’s in the sun) and looking into the shops as I pass by. I had seen some landmarks that looked familiar to me, but after a while I didn’t recognize anything. Just after the thought “I’ve been walking for a while,” occurred to me, I noticed that the old city was on my left. Uh oh, that’s not good. I was expecting to walk to Tahreer and to make a right into the old city. I figured out that I was somewhere between the Bab-Al-Yemen (the door of Yemen, one of Sana’a’s most famous sights and the entrance to the main souk) and where I wanted to be. I could either walk along the wall around the old city, or I could try cutting through the city. Why walk more than I needed to? I went into the old city and tried to go in a diagonal towards where I wanted to go. The sun was directly overhead, and there are no “blocks” in the old city so I was soon turned around. I thought I knew were I was for a bit, I recognized one of the shops, but it turns out that I was going the opposite way that I thought. I wandered and wandered and ended up at… Bab-Al-Yemen. At least I knew where I was, on the opposite side of the old city from where I wanted to be.
I walked back via a familiar route. I had walked from a point about a mile from the old city, past it and onto the other side. I then had wandered aimlessly for a while only to end up at the far end and then walked home from there all with carrying my groceries, probably 7 or 8 pounds worth. I estimate I did around 5 or 6 miles in total. Good thing I cancelled class, I’m wiped out! Thank God I ate something and got some calories in me. In hindsight, I think that I veered at an intersection when I should have drifted. I’m pretty sure I can do what I had in mind, but that means that it is not Zubaiari that goes in front of Tahreer…At least my laundry was dry when I got home. With weather like this, it only takes 20 minutes or so for most things to dry, maybe 30 for my heavy socks, and probably just under an hour for my jeans. Forget about making hay while the sun shines, I’ve got laundry to do!
Isaac