Green Glasses in the District: Exploring Eastern Market.

In talking with some people new to the area or visiting, I realized that I tend to explore the same areas. Having prided myself on trying to experience the city to it's fullest, I felt like I was letting that down a bit. So Sunday when I dropped Laura off at Union, I decided to hop on a train to a new area that I hadn't yet explored. Eastern Market. That sounds fun. I know there's a big market there, maybe it's on Sunday?

So off I went. It only took a little peeking around to notice the giant market up 7th. Perfect!

The market is huge. Bigger than any of the other ones in the area. They had booth after booth of fresh produce, handmade jewelry, beautiful flowers, and the standard "cleaned out my basement and threw a bunch of crap on this table; please buy it". It also had a building that housed food and more produce vendors, and another fenced-off area as the flea market. Inside I found a wonderful case of homemade pastas. Delicious. Some goat cheese and herb ravioli had to come home with me, and it was awesome.

Amidst the authentic junk, there were some pretty cool treasures. I don't need any more junk, so I remained an appreciative observer for most of the morning.

I happened upon Kyle and Aaron from Tshirt Insurgency, recognizing them from Crafty Bastards. "Best War Ever", "These Pancakes Don't Run", "Gay on Tuesdays", and generally awesome tshirts. We talked local markets for a bit, and I got their Eastern Market recommendations.

They also pointed me to Capitol Hill Books, a cute little used bookstore on C street. It was musky, and over-stimulating, and homey, and irresistible. Neat-freaks beware, this isn't your type of joint. But for those who like to peek around for hidden gems, this place is awesome. It was like the interesting area of the Muse Bookshop in DeLand but three floors of it. I kept to one section with plans of returning, and walked away with a novel based on the life of Van Gough "on the house" (thanks Kyle!)