Street sellers

We spent the day downtown yesterday, Vasilis joining me after a morning meeting.  A friend of his joined us and we had lunch in the Monastiraki area.  Our outdoor table was sitting right at the intersection of two pedestrians streets, which turned out to be a good place for these African men to set up their portable sales.

You can see such arrangements all over Athens, definitely in the touristy areas but also near metro stations and bus stops.  Not all of them are selling their wares legally, and this particular group of "salesmen" usually aren't.  With a devilish desire for excitement, I was hoping the police would come along while we were at our table, so we could see the sellers bolt.  In the meantime, however, they were striking some interesting poses that I wanted to catch with my camera.

Of the street sellers, I think I like these guys the most because they don't get in your face to make a sale.  As you can see in the top picture, they keep an eye for those who might show interest (click on the picture for a larger version and better detail), spend time on the phone or chat with their fellow sellers in the downtimes.  Others approach you as you walk buy, or come up to your table, hawking their wares.  Sometimes they are useful items such as sunglasses or umbrells, others its simple little crap which makes me wonder who would ever buy it.

As you can see in the bottom picture, they are selling handbags, simply displayed on a white cloth.  In times of trouble (read: policemen approaching) they grab the corners of the cloth, wrapping up their handbags in one big package and running away as quick as possible.  I've never seen anyone get in any real trouble when this happens, so it's mostly harmless entertainment for those who witness it.

Luckily for me I had taken these pictures when I did, because only a few minutes later, confusion started as some of the street sellers started running - colliding with locals and tourists on the sidewalk.  At the first hint of movement, my nameless photographees made a quick grab and fled up the steep street next to them.  We couldn't even see police until sometime later, ironically coming from the direction everyone tried to escape to.  It was quite a collection of men who had ran away, one even dropping his stacks of bootleg DVD's and CD's.

Although they seem to be operating illegally, they don't have qualms about claiming what is theirs.  A purse or two was dropped when they gathered everything and a woman had grabbed one hoping to make a cost free acquisition.  The African man noticed her at the bottom of the hill and went to get it back.  There was a discussion with she and one of the policemen (it was obviously not her purse, still with handle covers and she already carrying one).  The African man's papers were checked, evidently in good order, and the bag returned to the rightful owner.  After things calmed down and the police left, they returned to their previously fled-from sales post to spread the white cloths out again.