Thursday, August 15, 2013

Hot as Hades Tour: SHOPPING!!!!!

Who doesn't love to do a little shopping in a foreign country. Those of you that know me, know that this is one of my favorite things to do...no matter where I am. :-) I do try and contain myself and stick to items that are relevant to the country and our "chosen" souvenir.

After talking with other avid travelers we decided early on, unfortunately after we had already traveled a few times, that we needed to have a common themed souvenir that we would try and look for in each new location. This was two fold. First of all, it deterred from the kids asking for every thing that they saw with the name of the place we were in and secondly, it made for a nice collection, rather than random souvenirs. We don't always find our particular type souvenir in each new place, but that is par for the course.

Chad's "chosen" souvenir is probably the hardest to find and mine coming in at a close second. The kids have "chosen" wisely as theirs are found in just about every spot. Chad has decided to get a souvenir Hard Rock glass in each place that has a Hard Rock. He has racked up quite the collection and of different styles of glasses. This will all add to his "man cave" at some point. :-) I chose to collect watercolor scenes in hopes to have a "true" travel wall someday. Tanner decided on key chains and Ellie on snow globes. We also, sometimes, venture off our beaten path and get something that is unique to that country.

The fun thing about cruises is that you can accumulate quite the collection during all the different ports. Our first port was Messina, Italy on the Island of Sicily. We visited Mt. Etna and the village of Taormina. On our tour our guide mentioned that Sicily is often represented by a three-legged woman, known as the trinacria. The three legs symbolize the three coastlines of Sicily with a head at it's center. The three coastlines are considered as gorgeous as the legs of a beautiful woman.


The three-legged trinacria, here, is made in a Gaudi style. I actually collect figures in this style, so I was thrilled to see this. I have several from Spain, such as: Don Quixote, a flamenco dancer and a bull fighter. Whenever I see one in another place I scoop it up.

In Rick Steves' guides he usually includes a section on shopping and what items to look for in each area, but since we didn't have a Rick Steves guide for Sicily, we just stuck to our tried and true, key chain, globe and print.

In Athens we didn't have a whole lot of time to shop. Some of the authentic items that Rick Steves recommends in Athens include: jewelry, sandals, carpets, religious items and worry beads.

It is no secret that the tour guides in some locations are in cahoots with a local shop owner. In Athens, it was no different. During the tour, our guide passed around a piece of jewelry that was popular amongst tourists. It was a charm that had your name written in Greek on one side and in English (or your native language) on the backside. After the Acropolis our guide brought us directly to a "select" shop that sells these and guarantees to have them ready before the cruise ship disembarks that evening. I admit, we fell into this scheme. I knew I wouldn't wear anything like this, but the woman mentioned that they could turn them into key chains for the kids. Well, this was a super unique souvenir. We all agreed this was going to be their souvenir and they would have to fore go their traditional one. I found some great prints, but couldn't chose just one.


Staying on the theme of tour guides in cahoots with a local trade, was VERY apparent in Turkey. Our tour ended with a tour of a "traditional" Turkish Carpet shop. We were basically wined and dined and then the bargaining began. We already knew going into this location that we were NOT in the market for a Turkish Carpet. After speaking to some other passengers on the ship, it turns out that EVERY tour ended with one of these presentations at a Turkish Carpet spot. Rick Steves warns you of this in his book, so we were prepared to just walk away, which we did, but I do have to say the presentation was really interesting.

The story goes...Carpet making is a dying trade. These warehouses or family owned business/franchises or whatever you want to call them, provide woman in tiny villages with the training and supplies in order to keep this trade alive. Again, after talking with other passengers, this was the same story they got. Who knows if it is true or not. The materials that this particular shop used were wool, silk and cotton/wool blend. They did a small demonstration on the process of collecting the silk. Ellie thought this was fascinating because in her 2nd grade class, last year, they studied silk worms. Her class actually had a bunch of them, fed them, watched them build their cocoons and then turn into moths and fly away.


The cocoons are very tightly wound. There is no way you can pull the threads out of them. So they have to soak the cocoons in hot water first. Being so tightly wound, they still cannot find an end to the cocoon. They take a wooden broom looking thing and begin to tap down on the cocoons until the threads catch. They then thread those threads onto a wheel. This wheel would spin the silk threads into a much stronger thickness. It really was amazing.

They also demonstrated how the carpets are made. A woman at a loom was actually tying little knots of thread making the pattern and then she would shave off the pieces sticking up making the top of the carpet a smooth surface. It is said that Turkish carpets are made differently from rugs anywhere in the world. They are double knotted, making them sturdier and more durable. Rugs elsewhere are said to be tied with a single fiber per vertical thread. Who knows, but they were impressive. Now for the ultimate presentation...


The owner of the shop began rolling carpet after carpet out. Don't get me wrong, these things were incredibly beautiful and intricate. If I was rich beyond my wildest dreams I may have considered, but that is not the case. Plus, as Rick Steves states...there is no way you can come to Turkey and get a good deal on a rug in 4 hours. As added marketing, they got the kids involved. They had them take their shoes off and run all over the carpets. The kids were the perfect tool, they ooohhheed and aaahhhheeedd all over the rugs. This allowed the presenter to then go into how to clean the rugs with kids and yada yada yada. Our kids were in love with the rugs and would have chosen every single one if we let them. As soon as the presentation was over and they invited you to go through "those" doors and look at many more and talk with one of "their guys", we were out of there. We ran for the door. Just to give you an idea of the price tag. We turned over a rug that was 100% silk and was maybe a 3 foot x 5 foot size..it was $16,000. We didn't even stay to be offered a good price, but after talking to other passengers, they said that as soon as they walked away, the price dropped by 50%.

The other shopping experience in Turkey is their bazaar style shopping. We were told that you always bargain in Turkey. I hate this. I don't feel comfortable bargaining and I just don't care for the whole thing. Funny story...after leaving the ruins of Ephesus we were walking back to our bus. Between the point where you leave the ruins and the parking lot was a huge bazaar. There were vendors on either side and they are selling everything you might need from Turkey. They are also VERY aggressive. There is definitely not a "Just looking" response. Once you pick up something they start yelling out prices and I found it really uncomfortable. So, we found a spot that had globes and key chains. Chad decided that he was going to "bargain". All of this bargaining was going to be over about a euro or so. I am saying, "Are you kidding me". Ellie is always indecisive when it comes to her globe choice and she always T A K E S  F O R E V E R. This was causing me major stress here because the shop owners were hovering over us and every time she would pick one up to look at the owner would holler out a price. At this point I am like: Just pick one already and lets get the heck out of here. Well once we got back to the ship we unpacked the items and...


Look closely. Ummm....yeah...that is exactly what you think it is. Chad and I about died. Why on earth would this be on a globe of Turkey and Ephesus. Well it is what it is at this point and thankfully she hasn't really noticed. I just made sure it was turned the other direction on her shelf. HOLY COW!!!!

The Turkish evil eye was another symbol that we saw all over Turkey, and Greece, for that matter. These evil eye beads go back thousands of years. It is said to protect. We received a pin with an evil eye on it as part of our tour and Tanner picked a great key chain featuring the evil eye and the flag of Turkey, much more appropriate than his sister's choice.


Our stop on the Island of Crete was really a bust. We didn't find anything that fell into our categories. I did score some olive oil soap in one of the little villages we stopped at. They were only 1 euro a piece. I was thrilled.


Rome was a place to score a smorgasbord of trinkets. We were good and stuck to our usual's. Chad was able to get one of his glasses at Hard Rock as well.


Venice is where we fell off the wagon a bit. Hahaha. In the Shopping in Venice chapter of Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports he says, "Long a city of aristocrats, luxury goods, and merchants, Venice was built to entice. While no one claims it's great for bargains, it has a shopping charm that makes paying too much strangely enjoyable. Carnevale masks, lace, glass, antique paper products, designer clothing, fancy accessories, and paintings are all popular with tourists visiting Venice." He wasn't kidding. We fell for the trap in a few places, but at the end of the day, we are happy with what we brought home.

Though you can probably buy Venetian Glass all over the world now, there was just something about going through the factory and drooling over all the beautiful pieces. We, obviously, weren't going home with one of their remarkable chandeliers, but we did want to leave with some nice pieces, that we could carry onto the airplane, I might add. We chose a beautiful pitcher and 8 glasses. We originally had 4 glasses (one we each picked out), but then the bargaining began. I was eyeing the pitcher and the salesman started lowering the price of the pitcher if we bought more glasses and then he gave us a package deal. Though, we are afraid to use them, for fear of one getting broken, we are excited with our Venetian luxury purchase.


This year is Chad and I's 15th Wedding Anniversary and though the traditional gift is crystal, we are going with Venetian Glass. :-)

One of the other "luxuries" I couldn't resist was a leather jacket. I had eyed one in Greece and then regretted not buying it for such a good price, so when I saw this one, in one of the many leather shops in Venice, I couldn't resist. I was told that I have to put it away until my birthday in September...Deal!


Honestly, normally, I wouldn't look at things like this, but as Rick Steves said...there is just something about Venice. :-)

The kids scored some pretty great items as well. Because we were such GREAT customers at the Glass Factory they threw in a couple of their glass signature pieces, the horses, free of charge. The kids were over the moon about this, while Chad and I were like, "They better give us a gift with purchase". Hahahaha. The kids also loved the masks, but we didn't think it was practical to have these super fancy masks that they couldn't really use, because they were too fancy. So, as we were walking through the cute little mask shop we saw plain ones that you could decorate yourself. Well this was right up our alley. They were cheap and the kids could make them whatever they wanted and not be afraid to actually use them. Win, win in my book. They were also able to find their usual's and Chad got his Venice Hard Rock glass. It was a good thing we were so good in all the other places because by the end of our Venice trip we were glad we had all the extra space in our suitcases.


Well, we certainly got some pretty nice souvenirs of our great vacation. I always hope that our choices are ones that we will be able to enjoy for a long time to come.

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