Greece Information
Joined: 21 Oct 2006
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Home Country: greece
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 Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 3:57 am Post subject: SHOPPING IN GREECE/ GREECE SHOPPING GUIDE |
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SHOPPING IN GREECE
GENERAL
Traditional Arts & Crafts: So many places in Greece pride themselves on their needlework that it is hard to single out even a few, but among those few would be Crete, Rhodes, and Skyros. Two places in Athens deserve mention: The Centre of Hellenic Tradition (59 Mitropoleos and 36 Pandrossou) and the National Welfare Organization (6 Ipatias and Apollonos). The Centre offers ceramics, woodcarvings, prints -- and one of the finest views of the Acropolis in Athens. The National Welfare Organization contains hand-loomed rugs and silk embroidery done by village women, as well as excellent copperwork and ceramics.
Leatherwork: Both Rhodes and Crete feature local leatherwork, from sandals to handbags, from belts to jackets. Pay attention to quality.
Furs: Kastoria, in northwestern Greece, is the center of the fur trade, and fur products are everywhere. Athens, of course, sells expensive fur coats. Rhodes also features fur coats. Wherever furs are sold, be sure you know what you are buying.
Jewelry: It now seems that half of Greece's retail stores sell jewelry, so shop around. Much of it is really no different than what can be found in cities all over the world, but Athens does have major, internationally known jewelers such as LALAoUNIS and Zolotas. Try Chania, Crete, for sophisticated local artisans' work. Islands such as Santorini, Skiathos, and Rhodes have scores of stores appealing to the tourist trade.
Ceramics: As with needlework, pots and ceramics of all kinds are to be found throughout Greece. Some of the more traditional may be found on Chios, Crete, Mitilini, Sifnos, and Skopelos.
Rugs/Weavings: Crete probably offers the largest variety of rugs and weavings. Metsovo has some distinctive textiles. If you like rag rugs, keep an eye out for kourouloudes on sale at small shops as you travel the Peloponnese.
Wood: Corfu seems to be the center of olive wood products -- carving boards, bowls, utensils. Rethymnon, Crete, also has a selection. In the Peloponnese, woodcarvings and utensils are often found in the villages of Arcadia. Chios and Mitilini also boast wood-carving traditions.
Icons and Ecclesiastical Books & Items: On the streets around the Greek Orthodox Cathedral (Metropolitan) in Athens, you'll find many shops selling votive offerings, candles, and reproductions of icons. In Thessaloniki, Apostolic Diakonta Bookstore (tel. 2310/275-126) has a wide selection of religious items. Many of the most important religious shrines, such as Panagia Evangelistria on Tinos, and many convents and monasteries, including most of the Meteora monasteries, sell reproductions of icons and other religious items. On Crete, the Petrakis couple in Elounda paint internationally sought traditional icons.
Museum Reproductions: Officially approved, fine replicas of many famous museum pieces may be purchased at the Archaeological, Byzantine, Benaki, Goulandris, and LALAoUNIS museums in Athens; at the Archaeological and Byzantine museums in Thessaloniki; and at official archaeological service stores in Rhodes Old Town and in Rethymnon, Crete.
Books: Whether you're looking for books about Greece or books for vacation reading, in Athens the places to go are Eleftheroudakis, Compendium, Reymondos, and Folia tou Bibliou. In Thessaloniki, seek out Ianos.
Natural Products: In the last few years, Greece has begun to produce superb organic and natural products, including olive oil, honey, jams, and cosmetics. Keep an eye out for food products with the Peloponnese, Gaea, Milelia, Nefeli, Yiam, and Stater labels in groceries and delis. Good places to look in Athens include most specialty food shops in Kolonaki, and the Mesogaia delicatessen in the Plaka section of Athens. Green Farm in Kolonaki sells only organic produce. Korres Natural Products (www.korres.com), including a wide range of herbal shampoos and lotions, and Apivita's Aromatherapy Essential Oils (www.apivita.gr), are now carried in many pharmacies and cosmetics stores (such as the widespread Hondos Centres) throughout Greece.
SHOPPING IN ATHENS
You're in luck shopping in Athens, because much of what tourists want can be found in the central city, bounded by Omonia, Syntagma, and Monastiraki squares. You'll also find most of the shops frequented by Athenians, including a number of large department stores.
Monastiraki has a famous flea market, which is especially lively on Sunday. Although there's a vast amount of ticky-tacky stuff for sale here, you can uncover real finds, including retro clothes and old copper. Many Athenians furnishing new homes head here to pick up old treasures.
The Plaka has pretty much cornered the market on souvenir shops, with T-shirts, reproductions of antiquities (including obscene playing cards, drink coasters, bottle openers, and more), fishermen's sweaters (increasingly made in the Far East), and jewelry (often not real gold) -- enough souvenirs to encircle the globe.
In the Plaka-Monastiraki area, shops worth seeking amid the endlessly repetitive souvenir shops include Stavros Melissinos, the Poet-Sandalmaker of Athens, relocated after 50 years on Pandrossou to his new location at 12 Agias Theklas (tel. 210/321-9247); Iphanta, a weaving workshop, 6 Selleu (tel. 210/322-3628); Emanuel Masmanidis' Gold Rose Jewelry Shop, 85 Pandrossou (tel. 210/321-5662); the Center of Hellenic Tradition, 59 Mitropoleos and 36 Pandrossou (tel. 210/321-3023), which sells arts and crafts; and the National Welfare Organization, 6 Ipatias and Apollonos, Plaka (tel. 210/325-0524), where a portion of the proceeds from everything sold (including handsome woven and embroidered carpets) goes to the National Welfare Organization, which encourages traditional crafts.
Kolonaki, on the slopes of Mount Likavitos, is boutique heaven. However, it's a better place to window-shop than to buy, since much of what you see here is imported and heavily taxed. During the January and August sales, you may discover bargains. If not, it's still fun to work your way up pedestrian Voukourestiou and along Tsakalof and Anagnostopoulou (location of probably the most expensive boutiques in Athens) before you collapse at a cafe by one of the pedestrian shopping streets in Kolonaki Square -- perhaps the very fashionable Milioni. Then you can engage in the other really serious business of Kolonaki: people-watching. Give yourself about 15 minutes to figure out the season's must-have accessory. If you want to make a small, traditional purchase, have a look at the "worry beads" at Kombologadiko, 6 Koumbari (tel. 210/362-4267); or check out charms that ward off the evil eye at To Fylakto Mou, 20 Solonos (tel. 210/364-7610).
SHOPPING IN THESSALONIKI
Greece's second-largest city offers a wide variety of shops, and since the city centre is quite compact, it's easy to explore the major shopping districts. As in Athens -- indeed, throughout Greece -- most chic boutiques stock imported goods from Europe and the States, usually with a hefty import duty that is passed on to the customer. If you shop the winter (Jan) and summer (late July and Aug) sales, you may find some bargains.
If you want to see where Thessalonians shop, take a stroll along Tsimiski, Mitropoleos, and Proxenou Koromila streets between Pavlou Mela (the diagonal street connecting the church of Ayia Sofia with the White Tower) and the north-south vertical of Venizelou. In this area, the city's few department stores compete with the many boutiques selling the latest in expensive haute couture, shops selling jeans and casual clothing, lots of shoe stores, jewelry and antiques stores, record shops selling both Greek and foreign items, the best English- and French-language book-and-magazine store in town, and a number of confectioneries. There are also several Hondos Centre minimalls.
Some Thessaloniki shops still sell crafts by local artists such as coppersmiths and jewelers. You're likely to find something tempting here, sometimes at what constitutes a bargain price for a foreigner. Not surprisingly, most of the shops are near the church of Panagia Chalkeon (Virgin of the Copper Makers) in Dikasterion Square.
What you won't find in Thessaloniki is anything remotely equivalent to the streets of shops packed with souvenirs -- many made in the Far East -- that have proliferated in Athens and on many islands. If you get a souvenir here, it's likely to be just that: a reminder of your visit, rather than a mass-produced memento. If you're after something more contemporary, there's now a branch of IKEA near the Thessaloniki International Airport. It's become very popular with visitors from central and eastern Europe who fly in on charter flights for a day of shopping.
Details--In Thessaloniki, old-style, pre-European Community shopping hours, unfathomable to foreigners, still predominate. Stores open at about 9am and close around 1:30 or 2pm for the afternoon siesta. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings, some (but not all) reopen from about 5:30 to 8:30pm. In July, however, almost all shops close for the evening. The best time to shop is morning. Note that some of these stores will take major credit cards, but almost all, especially the smaller ones, prefer not to. |
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