Venice or Bust IX - Shopping in Europe

SANTORINI SHOP
I CAN'T BELIEVE I SHOPPED A WHOLE GREEK ISLAND!

VENICE - SHOP WINDOW BY NIGHT

SOPHIE'S SHOPPING CART

MY NANA SAYS, "YOU'RE NEVER TOO YOUNG TO SHOP."

SHOPPING IN EUROPE

Hey all you shoppers! I’m not one myself, but being married to one qualifies me as something of a connoisseur. Here’s a few tips from our recent European splurge.
Rule #1 – Forget the price. You’re going to spend more than you ever thought. Don’t worry be happy.

Dubrovnik, Croatia
On a nice, sunny day Dubrovnik is paradise for shoppers’ husbands. Perhaps because outdoor cafes, ocean views, and other diversions entice away all but the most determined shoppers. Whatever!
Dubrovnik manages to strike the right balance for both buyers and sellers. The merchants are friendly and definitely not ‘hard sell’. Bargaining is allowed but not mandatory. Saying a few words in Croatian creates a genuine bridge of good feeling.
Best buys – lavendar and Italian leather goods. The former grows wild on the Dalmatian Coast while the latter is about 1/3 less than you would pay in Venice. Embroidered linens are reasonable also.

Kusadasi, Turkey
The sons of Artemis are indeed hard bargainers. Rena digs her heels in when faced with the hard sell, so I really didn’t have much to fear. Nevertheless you must play the game. For those who hate to negotiate a lower price – Turkey is not for you!

The Turks really enjoy it. They have a great sense of fun and appreciate a good joke as much as a successful negotiation. Even if no deal is struck – there are no hard feelings. Bargaining is a mental gymnastic like arm-wrestling. It’s definitely my kind of shopping:
“How about a nice leather jacket for the mister?” Romeo asks Rena.
(He is trying to enlarge the deal while he and Rena haggle over a pocketbook.)
“No thanks, I’m a vegetarian,” I chip in.
Big laugh all around.
If you’re not a vegetarian and enjoy bargaining, do buy a leather jacket. You’ll get a good deal. I think carpets are for experts only. Have fun trying on weird outfits. Enjoy baklava and coffee. Laugh a lot.

Santorini, Greece
Shopper’s paradise. Bring lots of euros and spend all of them. We happened to hit the island at the beginning of October when tourists are waning and prices are dropping. We found some good bargains.
Unique items include jewelry made from the lava that buried Atlantis. Gold jewelry in Byzantine style is also great.
Santorini is where shopper Rena finally met her limit. She shopped till she couldn’t walk another step. (see photo). We were waiting for the bus back from Oia to Fira. Even a donkey ride would have looked good by then!

Corfu, Greece
Do something else. It’s hard to get enthusiastic about kumquat liqueur.

Venice, Italy
To experience the sheer beauty and poetry of shopping (if there really is such a thing) shop Venice by night. I may be wrong, but I think the brilliantly lighted shop windows of the Rialto may be among the wonders of the modern world.

Imagine yourself in Venice 9:30 PM.-- Piazzas by moonlight, the footfalls and laughter of passersby, the smell of canals and the sea, the sound of classical violins from strolling troubadours. No streetlights, no motors, no horns. Moonlit waters lap the pier where your gondola awaits.

Suddenly a lighted window ahead! A shop displays its bounty of baroque party masks.
Imagination transports you to the 18th century. You’re in a world made for lovers, footpads and thieves. Lighted palazzos, costume balls and Casanova. One would have to be without a romantic bone in one’s body not to be affected by shopping in Venice at night.

Rena and I give it 10 stars as one of the best shopping experiences ever. And we spent absolutely nothing. How marvelous!

Daktari

Venice or Bust VII - Corfu Second Class Island

Empress Sisi as a Nymphette

Sisi's Study

Hail, Hail Freedonia!

Escape from Corfu - PLEASE!

Corfu – Second class Island

After Santorini, the Greek island of Corfu is a disappointment.

I'm afraid that I have to say it’s the Revere Beach of Greek islands.

As we debark from the Splendour, I vote to take a ferry to the even smaller island of Pakos and spend the day in an “unspoiled Greek fishing village” as described in the tourbook. I’m outvoted 3 to 1, so we do the same thing on Corfu that we did in Santorini. Only it’s inferior in every way.

First the taxi tour. Our driver, Christos, is quite personable and his English is better than any of the others (he lived in Toronto for 20 years). Unfortunately, the material he has to work with is not top drawer.

The scenery is so-so and it’s a cloudy day (the only cloudy day on the cruise). There are no dramatic cliffs, active volcanoes or buried cities. The chief attraction is a tiny palace built by the last Hapsburg Empress – Elizabeth of Austria a.k.a. ‘Sisi’. (faithful blog readers will remember her as the same Empress for whom the ‘Sisi’ bridge in Budapest was named -see "Peeing in the Public Baths - Budapest, Hungary August 25, 2001" ) She built this palace on Corfu because it was the part of the Empire farthest away from her detested husband, the Emperor Franz Joseph. It was constructed in 1892 at the height of Austrian kitsch. Sisi was assassinated by an anarchist bomb in 1898, so she didn’t get to spend much time in the palace.
And we don’t either.

After the island tour, we spend the rest of the day in the Old City shopping. The Old City is not that old. I would say it’s about as old as the Marx brothers. It even reminds me of the capital of Freedonia,“Land of the Spree, and the Home of the Knave”, as depicted in the movie ‘Duck Soup’. Only where’s Rufus T. Firefly when we need him most? I am un-amused.

The shopping itself is also inferior. What can you expect from an island whose principle products are olive oil and kumquats? Kumquat liqueur anyone? I buy a tee-shirt and take a few photos.
One of them is actually quite interesting. It seems to show a bunch of toys escaping from a Corfu shop window and invading Freedonia. Now that would be interesting! Unfortunately it’s just a trick reflection on the glass.

That pretty much sums up Corfu – a trick reflection of a Greek Island from which toys and tourists cannot escape. As old Groucho might say - “Corfooey”.
Don’t worry readers – better days are ahead. Next stop – Venezia!!

DAKTARI

Venice or Bust VI - Spectacular Santorini - Oct 1, 2008

Cliffs of the Caldera
Fira -Cable Car versus Mule trail?

Waiting for the Taxi

Make way for Burros

BEAUTIFUL OIA

Spectacular Santorini

Santorini (Saint Irene in Greek) is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We drop anchor in Santorini harbor, surrounded on all sides by 1000 foot volcanic cliffs layered in red, beige and black. The white-washed village of Fira clings to the top of the cliff , its sunlit cottages overlooking our shadowed mooring.

The harbor was created when a huge eruption breached the western wall of the volcano of Santorini allowing the turquoise waters of the Aegean to fill the caldera. Another eruption 3600 years ago unleashed a catastrophic tidal wave that destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete 90 miles to the South. (Remember the legendary Minotaur and his labyrinth? That civilization.)

We take a tender from the ship to the dock at the foot of the cliff.
"Looks like we have to take the cable car," says Rena as we approach the dock. "And look at that line!"
A long, long line of tourists from cruise ships snakes along the dock. The cable car’s single gondola holds only six passengers at a time.

"Not necessary," I respond. "The guidebook says you can take a mule or donkey to the top via a mountain path. It costs a little more but it will probably take less time and be more scenic. How about an adventure?"

The response from Margaret, John and Rena, a combination of eye-rolling and sideways glances, implies a healthy skepticism for my 'donkey adventure' proposal. All hopes are soon dashed when the ship's steward announces over the lighter's intercom that taking the donkey option will make us "smell like mule for three days". Despite my protests that we can buy a can of Fabreze and spray our clothes at the top, the final vote is: Cablecar Wimps 3 vs. Mule-piss Volunteers 1. Rats!

I am mollified somewhat by the cable car ride which is steeper and scarier than any I have taken before. I am sitting across from a woman from New Jersey who turns white and covers her eyes, moaning gently all the way up. Despite the silver anti-nausea patch behind her left ear, I am relieved when we exit the car without an emetic eruption. Wouldn’t it be ironic to escape smelling like a mule only to wind up smelling like a barf bag. (Travel tip: always pack Fabreze in your luggage along with the bugspray and suntan oil.)

A wrong turn at the top of the lift leads us away from the main tourist route. After several blocks Rena queries, "Do you know where we're going."

"Not exactly," I admit.

At just that moment a local fellow exits a house on the side-street and heads for his car.
"Excuse me," I ask. " Where can we find a taxi?"
Luckily I don't know enough Greek to ask for directions in the language of Pericles. I never (well to be truthful, hardly ever) ask directions in a language I don't understand. The answer always leaves me worse off than when I started.

Lucky for us, it’s 'Be Nice to Dumb Tourist Day'. Seeing our distress, his wife comes out of the house to help. After a brief discussion, our saviors summon a cab with their cellphone. We spend a pleasant 1/2 hour sitting in the autumn sun waiting for the taxi. The wife and small son wave bye-bye from the window as we depart. I realize, "Hey Santorini, you’re a small town just like Amesbury." I relax and feel at home.

At the cabby's recommendation we traverse the spine of the caldera to the small village of Oia. It's the only town I can think of whose name consists of three vowels – just pronounce it ee-ah. The road ends and from there, its either Shank’s mare or donkey. (N.B. Shank’s mare - an old Scottish saying meaning “to travel by foot”)
A local muleteer charges uphill on his burro scattering tourists to either side of the narrow path. Another donkey sure-footedly delivers six full suitcases to a cliff-side pensión.

At the top we stop at a taverna for Greek coffee and cheese pie. The pie is made with a local goat cheese called 'chloro' wrapped in filo dough and deep fried in olive oil. Served piping hot with Santorini's dark honey, it's 'to die for'. The photographs from the café don't really do justice to the great views. We take a card from a local bed-and-breakfast in case we ever return. (I should be so lucky!)

If ever I do come back there are still many things to do including beaches, winery tours, archeologic excavations, and a visit to the active volcano in the middle of the harbor. Shopping, by the way, is not too shabby either. This island is definitely a gem worth re-visiting.

P.S. One of the local treats are fresh almonds right off the trees. They are moist and chewy and taste like mild coconuts or Brazil nuts rather than almond flavor. It’s the first time in my life I’ve ever had them! If you ever get the chance, be sure and sample a few.

DAKTARI