After a few days, we began to wonder where all the junk shops were. Stopping in a bookshop to get a better map of the city, we asked the owner if he could point us in the right direction, extending the question to include flea markets, antique dealers; anything of that kind really? He replied that he’d never come across them in the city. I have several theories about this but I’m not airing them here. It’s not a good idea to make assumptions about a country you have such limited experience of. Nevertheless, the absence seems significant.