Getting there
OK, I'm slowly getting there... Hopefully the first of the travel posts will go up tomorrow. Today's post is just a short one on my purchases while overseas. I don't believe I did anything too crazy - my most expensive purchase was 35 Euros - but I still managed to spend all the money I budgeted for the trip. That was 60 Euros a day for my time in Europe and £50 a day for the UK. I blame the Contiki optional activities for sucking up all my funds, seeing as I ended up doing a few expensive ones I wasn't intending...
Anyway, here are my notable personal shopping exploits:
Paddington Bear: There will eventually be an entire Facebook photo gallery for these images, but before departing for Europe I purchased a little Paddington Bear fluffy toy from the Paddington Stall at the train station of the same name (where Paddington was first found in Michael Bond's books). This seemed appropriate not only because 2008 is the 50th Anniversary of the iconic London character, but it gave me the opportunity to take photos of my little Paddington at some of the most famous locations in Europe. The results, as you will see in the coming week, are pretty cool.
A Florentine Puzzle Ring: A Renaissance creation that originated in Tuscany, puzzle rings consist of 4 separate loops that must be positioned together and interlocked to form the final design (see below). The idea behind this piece of jewellery is that it makes the ideal wedding ring. You can't take it off to cheat on your partner because it will immediately fall apart and the puzzle of its construction will need to be re-solved before putting it back on.
Oktoberfest goodies: When we weren't guzzling pork knuckle, bratwurst and pretzels, and trying out the divine German beers, I found time to buy a ladies' T-shirt, and a collectible lidded stein with this year's festival logo. Right now I'm waiting for the stein to arrive in the mail as the bf and I agreed to share costs and have ours shipped from Germany - instead of enduring the stress of trying to squeeze these monsters into our already heavy hand luggage.
I'll admit here I was burnt financially by this purchase. I didn't buy my stein at the Oktoberfest grounds, thinking it would be overly priced there. Instead, I bought mine from a specialist stein store in the Rhine Valley. Lo and behold it turned out I was ripped off there - the stein was priced at E39 as opposed to E27 at the festival grounds. Ho hum... You live and learn.
Roman souvenirs: I found a very nice kids' T-shirt of Asterix and Obelix in front of the Colosseum. I also scored a bargain from the street vendors outside the ancient stadium as they were closing up shop for the day - I picked up a greatly reduced bronze and marble gladiator statuette, and it now stands proudly alongside my mini Greek helmet from last year's trip.
Books: I actually find the best souvenirs aren't little knicknacks. Official guide books bring back the memories vividly, and are great visual aids when talking to others, so I picked up a few of those during my travels. It's also such a pity that books are so heavy (i.e. difficult to transport overseas) because you could go wild in the UK. I managed to restrain myself except for one purchase: Nigella Bites. When it comes to the cost of celebrity cook books we're anally raped in South Africa. I found this book on special for £10 (R150) at WH Smith (The UK equivalent of our CNA). Score!
Forbidden Planet: You can all be proud of me. I didn't lose my mind in this geek heaven. With 3 visits to the store, I eventually walked out with just a Family Guy 2009 daily desk calendar, a set of mini role-playing dice and 2 graphic novels: Alan Moore's classic Batman/Joker story, The Killing Joke and Mark Millar's Superman: Red Son.
Unleashed in HMV: OK, for as much as I behaved in Forbidden Planet, I lost control in the HMV Megastore where big sales were underway (BTW, for those of you who don't know, Virgin Megastores are long gone, having been renamed Zavvi). Television and animated box sets made the bulk of my purchases because they were much cheaper here than at home and with SA online retailers. So I picked up The Tudors Season 1 (I'm on a British royalist history kick at the moment), Batman: The Animated Series Season 1, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Vol. 1.
There were also a few Christmas presents for my family, but the most expensive DVD I bought was the Spanish horror film REC. The American version of the film, Quarantine, will be released in South Africa in the next 2 months, but chances are the highly acclaimed original - which European reviewers have been frothing over - will never be released here. So doing what many American horror fans have done (REC is unlikely to get a cinema release there too), I sorted out a copy for myself. Man I do love rabid, blood-spewing zombies.
So yes, I really do need a lot of downtime to enjoy all my new goodies. Of course though they'll have to wait for the completion of my travel diary, holiday scrapbook and the organisation of all my photos.
Anyway, here are my notable personal shopping exploits:
Paddington Bear: There will eventually be an entire Facebook photo gallery for these images, but before departing for Europe I purchased a little Paddington Bear fluffy toy from the Paddington Stall at the train station of the same name (where Paddington was first found in Michael Bond's books). This seemed appropriate not only because 2008 is the 50th Anniversary of the iconic London character, but it gave me the opportunity to take photos of my little Paddington at some of the most famous locations in Europe. The results, as you will see in the coming week, are pretty cool.
A Florentine Puzzle Ring: A Renaissance creation that originated in Tuscany, puzzle rings consist of 4 separate loops that must be positioned together and interlocked to form the final design (see below). The idea behind this piece of jewellery is that it makes the ideal wedding ring. You can't take it off to cheat on your partner because it will immediately fall apart and the puzzle of its construction will need to be re-solved before putting it back on.
Oktoberfest goodies: When we weren't guzzling pork knuckle, bratwurst and pretzels, and trying out the divine German beers, I found time to buy a ladies' T-shirt, and a collectible lidded stein with this year's festival logo. Right now I'm waiting for the stein to arrive in the mail as the bf and I agreed to share costs and have ours shipped from Germany - instead of enduring the stress of trying to squeeze these monsters into our already heavy hand luggage.
I'll admit here I was burnt financially by this purchase. I didn't buy my stein at the Oktoberfest grounds, thinking it would be overly priced there. Instead, I bought mine from a specialist stein store in the Rhine Valley. Lo and behold it turned out I was ripped off there - the stein was priced at E39 as opposed to E27 at the festival grounds. Ho hum... You live and learn.
Roman souvenirs: I found a very nice kids' T-shirt of Asterix and Obelix in front of the Colosseum. I also scored a bargain from the street vendors outside the ancient stadium as they were closing up shop for the day - I picked up a greatly reduced bronze and marble gladiator statuette, and it now stands proudly alongside my mini Greek helmet from last year's trip.
Books: I actually find the best souvenirs aren't little knicknacks. Official guide books bring back the memories vividly, and are great visual aids when talking to others, so I picked up a few of those during my travels. It's also such a pity that books are so heavy (i.e. difficult to transport overseas) because you could go wild in the UK. I managed to restrain myself except for one purchase: Nigella Bites. When it comes to the cost of celebrity cook books we're anally raped in South Africa. I found this book on special for £10 (R150) at WH Smith (The UK equivalent of our CNA). Score!
Forbidden Planet: You can all be proud of me. I didn't lose my mind in this geek heaven. With 3 visits to the store, I eventually walked out with just a Family Guy 2009 daily desk calendar, a set of mini role-playing dice and 2 graphic novels: Alan Moore's classic Batman/Joker story, The Killing Joke and Mark Millar's Superman: Red Son.
Unleashed in HMV: OK, for as much as I behaved in Forbidden Planet, I lost control in the HMV Megastore where big sales were underway (BTW, for those of you who don't know, Virgin Megastores are long gone, having been renamed Zavvi). Television and animated box sets made the bulk of my purchases because they were much cheaper here than at home and with SA online retailers. So I picked up The Tudors Season 1 (I'm on a British royalist history kick at the moment), Batman: The Animated Series Season 1, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers Vol. 1.
There were also a few Christmas presents for my family, but the most expensive DVD I bought was the Spanish horror film REC. The American version of the film, Quarantine, will be released in South Africa in the next 2 months, but chances are the highly acclaimed original - which European reviewers have been frothing over - will never be released here. So doing what many American horror fans have done (REC is unlikely to get a cinema release there too), I sorted out a copy for myself. Man I do love rabid, blood-spewing zombies.
So yes, I really do need a lot of downtime to enjoy all my new goodies. Of course though they'll have to wait for the completion of my travel diary, holiday scrapbook and the organisation of all my photos.
Comments
that's like an entire history lesson in one shirt.