Friday Flee Market

The Friday Flee Market takes place in a parking garage in Downtown Tehran. It started as a local market where you could find just about anything, from missing parts of your chinaware to unique silverware.

In time Uptown Tehran discovered the flee market and it has become a bit more fashionable. It is still a flee market, it's just that the prices have gone up a bit and the items you find have expanded to more valuable things.

I've been to a flee market before, although it has been more than 20 years, if you don't count Waterloo Plein in Amsterdam, still it was an intersting experience. It all looks like rubbish, with some rare items here and there if you look well.

What caught my attention were the many pictures of the Shah and his family, court pictures from before the revolution and the Hebrew ceramic tiles from pre-islamic era in Iran. And there were the collector items like pre-historic film camera's, picture camera's, radio's and one single Geiger Counter.

Are had his eye on a glistening silver knive, with detailed ornaments. When he asked, the salesman told him it was 200 Eur. But it seems that there had been a misunderstanding, not at all in our favour. When we had our Iranian driver ask for the price, thinking 'big white man being ripped off', we found out that this knive was a historical and valuable treasure, costing 3.000 Eur. We passed. Impressed.

So, just like any Flee Market, find anything you want. You know, same, but different...

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