The Hague Market — De Haagse Markt

No sooner said than done: barely settled in, I dragged everyone along to fill the fridge with fresh produce. Local, cheap, delicious produce… mmmh, what a great idea.

We came back with grapes — neither local nor particularly seasonal — a fluorescent beach ball, and a phone charger we’d lost during the move.

So let’s just say the little Provençal-style market or Madrid food hall I had pictured in my head was nowhere to be found.

The atmosphere here is completely different. At least it feels wonderfully unfamiliar.

Shops full of cheap trinkets sit next to spice stalls and fishmongers, where crabs are literally fighting each other in plastic tubs.

Vegetables are sold by the bowl — meaning the price is fixed for whatever happens to be inside each bowl displayed on the stall.

You can buy mangoes and avocados for next to nothing. Go figure.

There are also a few little snack bars where you can grab a coffee or eat some croquettes.

I walked out feeling a bit like a child disappointed by their Christmas present…

But maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

Maybe I’ll come back.

And maybe, in the end, this is actually more interesting — and more typical — than finding yet another version of something I already know from somewhere else.