My Fish Feet

I had one of my bright ideas the other day. I decided what I wanted as a reward for all my studying this past week and a half was to stick my feet in a pool of water and have fish nibble at them. I amaze even myself sometimes.

I wrote my Biology of the Mind exam this afternoon and as soon as I threw that test in the provided box, I headed down to Kirkgate Market with some friends. Kirkgate Market is one of the largest indoor markets in Europe and it's where I go for all my fruit, veg, and meat needs. Me and everyone else who wants the cheapest, freshest, straight-from-the-farm produce. It's lovely. And a bit sketchy. Just some parts. Well... Really most of it. I only trust food from about 20% of the stalls. There's also the guy who sells water pipes and (rumour has it) other less legal items. And there's the countless shops selling knock-off clothes, and out of date hair products. 

But there's also a really cute older couple who run a meat and cheese stall and give advice and samples out freely. Or the butcher in the meat alley who always rounds down my order to the closest pound while yelling at the butcher next door. And apparently there's the best fish and chip shop behind the market that's so hidden it truly is only for locals. But today we went down to find some feet eating fish.

The fish are from Turkey and don't actually have teeth but they do like to suck off dead skin. Does that sound gross? It does when I write it but it sounded like a good idea yesterday. It's y'know. Good for the environment. Kind of. And it was a bit of an accident that led us into the market. We were supposed to go to a fish spa that was a few streets away from the market but we couldn't find it. And even though there'd been a quite clear "It's not actually IN the market. That'd be...  It's just not." We trekked inside to find one. And find one we did. 

 It wasn't as hole-in-the-wall as I thought it might be. In fact it was a rather nice spa stall. The fish felt like a hundred little suction cups. 

It was pretty ticklish at first.

This is my friend Chynna. Her face is pretty much how we felt for the first ten minutes.

It turned out to be very relaxing in the end.

In fact, I'm a bit excited to go back with a friend (or maybe brother. Joel?) and do it again. It may not be exactly what I imagined but my feet have never felt so baby bottom smooth. Perfectly prepped for my Spain/Morocco trip coming up this weekend with Joel. Sandal season here I come!