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The Fort Lauderdale that most tourists see is filled with wealthy people who have holiday houses on the water and a yatch moored at their own private dock, but today I saw a different part. I found the underbelly of Fort Lauderdale and it's called The Swap Shop. Here I found a place much more familiar to me, a place where people are poor and everyone is looking for a bargain. I don't think I have been anywhere in Florida were I have heard less English spoken than here.
Today I was driving Andy's car which comes equipped with a GPS, so I decided to make use of the guarantee of never getting lost to do some exploring. My adventure took me to a yellow bridge which spanned the length of the interstate and on my left hand side there was a massive banner proclaiming my arrival at The Swap Shop. I pulled in to the parking lot, which in itself was big, but there was more to come. Stepping out of the car, I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place - it was like a village of its own, and in truth it is a separate sub-culture within the greater American experience. The first thing that I saw was the people with the cheap stalls. These were the unsheltered ones on the outskirts of the parking lot. These people displayed anything from used car parts to crocheted doilies and porcelain statues of puppies. Most of these things seemed to have once belonged to the owners of the stalls who were now trying to sell them. After these came the more established stalls, selling a huge variety of things from hand bags to adult DVDs. The sheer size was overwhelming! Was I really still in America? This world of second-hand and cheap goods seemed so much more like something I might find in South Africa. This could almost be the local Muizenberg Sunday flea market. The only difference was the size - bigger is better in America! That and the languages being spoken here were more likely to be Spanish or Portuguese.
After wandering aimlessly and totally overwhelmed for a while, a stall over to my right caught my eye. It called to me like a siren song that I knew I should resist. But, like many a hapless sailor of old, I was powerless to resist. The shoe stall was calling me and I just had to go and look! There were so many shoes! Blue ones, black ones, fake patent leather ones, fake crocodile skin ones - anything your heart desired, it was there! They were all so beautiful. After long minutes of drooling and internal struggle I finally managed to pry myself away without purchasing anything. That's when the next stall got me and the next one and the next one and the one after that. There were so many places selling shoes! Then out of nowhere I saw them and in my mind I could hear angel voices singing and soft golden light falling. It was the shoes - the perfect pair. The pair that every girl should have - cheap, plastic and uncomfortable but oh so beautiful! Except that I was in luck because these were actually comfortable! I couldn't resist. I bought them. Then, to top my day off I also found a very cute little pink case like I had always wanted. After finding these treasures I was left wandering around with a really stupid grin on my face which earned me a few funny looks but the atmosphere was amazing and I had a wonderful adventure!
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