Obor Market

We wanted to experience a little bit of what regular life is like in Bucharest and to do that we headed over to Obor market to see how Bucharesters do their shopping.

The original market itself came to be over 300 years ago but the place you will find today was in fact built in the 70’s as part of Bucharest’s renewal plan. Counting with two main halls and a fairly wide stall and terrace area, it is a large area best visited with a little bit of time.

The first impressions were exactly what I expected!

Everyday people gathered around a myriad of little stalls outside the main building buying and selling all kinds of trinkets and clothes. It’s a bit loud, a bit chaotic and quite a bit of fun to explore for us newbies.

Right off the bat what was surprising to me was the amount of stalls selling containers and barrels of all kinds of sizes on the terrace outside of the main hall. It didn’t seem like the most obvious of things to be selling and it wasn’t until we moved across from that hall that we discovered why. You see, Bucharesters seem to be keen on buying their wine and grape juice as fresh as possible and Obor market has dozens of places offering just that by the litre. 

Wine barrels at Obor

If you’re there, I highly recommend trying some of it! The salespeople are more than happy to give you a little bit in little plastic cups and it is quite delicious.

Grape juice salesman at Obor

Agitated, colorful and full of energy, it’s in the open space inside the ground floor of the halls that things get really interesting though. 

On one side you find all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables displayed with pride. To me, being in this kind of a market reminds me of my childhood but to A I could see it was a totally different experience and that was actually a lot of fun to just walk around and enjoy all the different sights and smells.

Vegetables stall at Obor

Also on the ground floor but across the hall from the fresh fruits you find the dried fruits, nuts and pickles quarter. There is quite a lot of this on offer and I for one was a bit surprised by the movement on that area. 

It was in this area that we accidentally discovered that pickled pumpkin is a thing! We were moving around and we found a whole bunch of different miniature pumpkins which we were wondering how to eat. At this point a lady which randomly passed by told us that those are in fact not there to be eaten but rather to be canned, fermented and consumed much later on. We smiled embarrassed, she smiled and continued her shopping day. Though the interchange was brief, it was really cool because it just showed how nice people in Bucharest really are and how educated as well. I mean, a random lady (of a certain age) which just happened to be passing by was both kind enough and capable to explain to us about pumpkins in English. That is pretty awesome.

And while all the veggies are on the ground floor, all the meat products are proudly on display on the 1st floor.

Full of small shops offering all kinds of pork, beef and lamb products, the first floor of Obor market is just as bright and cheerful as downstairs and the people working there did not hesitate to give us a smile!

Stylish lady at Obor market

Especially since we may have mentioned this could go to Facebook…

The market was a lot of fun and if i’d have to say one thing that seemed to be missing for me in such a place it is the fish. I realize that it is far from the shore and that fresh fish may not be easy to come by but I guess I just figured this would also be on offer and that was not exactly the case and that is too bad I suppose.

In any event, tired shoppers who grow hungry at the market can find multiple stalls at the terrace offering barbecued food and some sweet or salty treats depending on preference. 

Salty treat to recover energy

After all, shopping is an exhausting sport, isn’t it?