The real deal – A flea market

Nowadays vintage is in. This means that what is being sold as vintage, is not really vintage, it just looks vintage.

However the real deals are still to be found in hidden spots around cities and maybe old villages. I heard of one such flea market called Steptoe on Steroids, somewhere in Rose Street.

Rose Street is not the easiest to find, its in a side street off the bottom of City Road, almost coming to Newport Road.  I went there on a cold Sunday morning after mass. I have started listening to mass in St. Peter’s in Roath and it was with a feel good mood I decided to go exploring. It was too early to go into town anyway.

I came across the sign without any problem, however the sign is the only indication that this garage is more than just a junk garage. Ranging on two floors, navigating your way through the store is not the easiest. Things aren’t laid out the way you expect them too. I like how you have BBC Wales (or some other station) on the ground floor, and then Queen’s Its a Kind of Magic playing upstairs, clearing from a vinyl record that was by the base of the stairs. Most impressive is the enamel signage that the owner has collected. Sadly, it isn’t for sale.

I fell in love with a number of old jukeboxes and cameras and would be tempted to buy one to decorate my house in the future. There were tons of bric a brac items too. I asked the owner whether he changed the items often, and he told me that he had an entire van to clear out! This is a place to go if you want to get nostalgic, lost or need a bargain. It opens every Saturday and Sunday and definitely worth a visit.

Did I buy anything? Yes, Yes I did. A game called Kan-U-Go which  my Dad had when he was a teenager and kept for us, for those rare Malta stormy nights!