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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2009 16:24:19 GMT
Do you buy souvenirs when you travel? Things with the name of the place you are visiting or an item that is typically associated with the place? I loved souvenirs when I was little and had a major collection of snow globes. As soon as I grew up, I stopped buying souvenirs and you would have to pay me to wear clothing with something written on it rather than the other way around. Anything you'd like from Paris?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2009 17:32:21 GMT
We have our share of t-shirt shops here. I remember when they began infiltrating the French Quarter. Positive shame it was(is). I would go down to shop at the Flea Market and some lesser known hole in the wall book shops and junk shops only to find it replaced with ,you got it.
If I travel to a region that is known for it's quality crafts such as a Yucatacan hammock or a Turkish rug for instance, I can do some serious damage. There are still items I passed up in Istanbul that I regret not purchasing. The problem was how to transport a hundred or even fifty Iznik tiles? I'll have to go back that's all!
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Post by traveler63 on Jul 25, 2009 20:42:51 GMT
For me it is Remeberences and not souvenirs. I try to ppurchase something of value that reminds me of where I have been. I must also confess that I purchase the "souvenirs" for the people that take care of the cat,house plants, etc and I usually sneak in one magnet for the refrig.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 25, 2009 21:48:12 GMT
Wow ~~ what great stuff!
I had no idea you could do such nice shopping in Paris!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2009 3:51:32 GMT
I'll send you a big boxful.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2009 4:00:03 GMT
I'd like a really colorful spoon rest, please.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2009 4:03:32 GMT
I was thinking that the Marilyn Monroe t-shirt with 'Eiffel' misspelled on it would be perfect for you to get VIP service when you go to the market.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2009 4:08:57 GMT
Yeah! And I can see it's made of top quality jersey knit, too!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2009 4:13:41 GMT
Because we were an Air Force family, much of my childhood seemed to have been spent in the car. We always knew when we were passing some place like Stuckey's on the highway because my dad would get the car up to warp speed to keep us from noticing it. I still like to cruise the crap in truck stops and those convenience stores attached to filling stations in the US.
The highway places always had their specialties featured in big bold words on the outside of the store: Salt Water Taffy! Real Fossils! Gifts! What we couldn't figure out as kids was why my dad didn't want to stop at a place that was going to give us gifts.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2009 4:22:27 GMT
Paris is definitely lacking funny animals made out of seashells glued together.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2009 4:30:53 GMT
Gad! How can you live in a place like that?! Here is a perfectly lovely souvenir that I actually use all the time. This is my wallet, which I purchased in Guanajuato several years ago. I was charmed down to my socks by all the lovely embroidered options, but simply had to have the Virgin of Guadalupe. In going through each and every one in the stack in order to insure that I got the one with the best expression on her face, I discovered that this 30 peso wallet was made from real leather. The second picture shows the real velcro.
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Post by bjd on Jul 26, 2009 6:13:42 GMT
Oh Bixa -- how lovely. I'm sure you are a fan of tacky postcards too. I just received a great one from a friend who went to Rome -- a picture of the Pope with his arms outstretched.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2009 6:15:55 GMT
One of the best was one my brother sent me from Bourbon Street years ago. It had a stripper in scanty hot pink garments and the legend "hotsy totsy" over her head. On the back he simply wrote, "Good taste -- always in fashion."
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 26, 2009 6:17:32 GMT
Actually, I don't think my wallet is tacky. I feel that whoever produced it thought it was really nice, so I think the same thing.
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Post by hwinpp on Jul 29, 2009 9:24:49 GMT
I think I have the ugliest, weirdest souvenir of all. It's part of our 'altar'. My girlfriend bought it when we went to Halong Bay in northern Vietnam. It's a blue dolphin... with a baby dolphin growing out of its head! The funny thing is that the baby dolphin is in one of those glass balls filled with water that snow when you shake them. It stands right next to a see- through plastic statue of Kuan Yin that flashes in multi coloured lights (but I took out the batteries , so no flashing), a bronze Buddha shielded by a naga, a glass half full of coke, sprite or fanta and joss sticks. All of this is on my fridge, facing the door. I'll take a pic but I have to ask for permission first.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 11:01:12 GMT
I was always a sucker for those snow globes too when I was a kid. Fascinated by them. I don't they make them nearly as nice as they used to(as with most things). I would imagine that the old ones are highly collectible.
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Post by imec on Jul 29, 2009 12:01:35 GMT
I love snow globes - from places that NEVER see snow.
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Post by lagatta on Jul 29, 2009 13:01:47 GMT
Do they make Winnipeg snow globes, or is that too close to reality?
I'm sure there must be snow globes of Montréal and Québec, but I never visit souvenir stands.
About the only t-shirt I'd buy from those Parisian ones is un maillot jaune in a child's size - it is sort of cute on a baby or toddler. I did once buy an Amsterdam t-shirt with a bicycle on it for a friend. But not the friend who was taking care of my cat Renzo while I was in Amsterdam - he is like me in that we never wear t-shirts with writing on them.
I never bought many souvenirs when studying in Italy - the nicest local item in Umbria is Deruta ceramics, and as I was not returning directly home, I was too afraid of breaking my decorative plate or little jug.
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Post by imec on Jul 29, 2009 13:08:22 GMT
Do they make Winnipeg snow globes, or is that too close to reality? Yep, AND mosquito globes.
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Post by Jazz on Jul 29, 2009 13:36:24 GMT
Yes, I often buy one thing to remind me of a place but never anything with a name on it. For instance, in Prague I discovered an obscure glass shop and bought six hand painted champagne flutes which were reproductions of a flute used in the 20's by a Prague aristocratic family. They were not expensive, but to this day are the most beautiful flutes I have ever seen. A few days later I was on the Charles bridge where there were many aspiring artists and found two watercolours...one was of the street where I found my flutes and I bought it.
I also love vintage postcards and photos of a place, a painting or a sketch, a journal. There is one thing that I bought in Paris that is 'touristy' and I wish I'd bought a two dozen! One morning at the market at Place Maubert, I bought two scarves very inexpensively (about 10E each) and the colours and patterns are stunning! One was a gift, the other is always draped somehow in my dining room and I think of all those mornings at the market where I would have coffee, watch the goings on of the market, write in my journal and roughly plan my day.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 17:11:22 GMT
But what do the souvenirs look like from your cities? I know that Canada overuses (?) the Canadian flag theme perhaps for lack of a better idea, but I'm sure there is something else. I can't imagine anybody wanting to buy a replica of the CN Tower, but I'm sure it exists. In the airport duty free shops, I recall T-shirts with "wolf + full moon in the snow" and things like that. Anything else?
(I'm not asking about London or England, because I know what they have there!)
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Post by imec on Jul 29, 2009 17:24:51 GMT
Good question. I'll check out a souvenir store.
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Post by cigalechanta on Jul 29, 2009 18:12:29 GMT
, bean pots, red sox misc. lobster images, t=shirts
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Post by Jazz on Jul 29, 2009 18:27:26 GMT
Here's one in Toronto, Not only do we have flag pins, we have a bounty of globes, carved Indian figures, fake soapstone Eskimo carvings, birch bark canoes, copious bottles of Canadian maple syrup, and many, many mountie souvenirs. Would you like the mountie plate, Kerouac? It might lend quite the 'cosmopolitan feel',hanging on the wall in your Paris apartment The finest souvenir I ever saw was in a shop at the airport...a bikini made with the Canadian flag!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 18:37:24 GMT
Ah, that's more like it! (What a load of crap! -- just like everywhere else!)
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Post by cigalechanta on Jul 29, 2009 18:42:42 GMT
I remember an Indian friend visiting me an later to the White mountains. I asked her to be sure to look at the back when buying her gifts. In those days everythin was made in Japan not China
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Post by imec on Jul 29, 2009 18:51:25 GMT
The finest souvenir I ever saw was in a shop at the airport...a bikini made with the Canadian flag! ;D Saw one of these in London:
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Post by lagatta on Jul 29, 2009 19:29:53 GMT
Here, lots of fleur-de-lys flag everything (distressing to French people as it is associated with a type of monarchists who are reactionary indeed), fake folkloric Québecois stuff as well as the junque Jazz depicts.
Yes, a lot of the Indigenous art is fake, made in Asia, but there are some (pricier) boutiques that sell actual Indigenous arts and crafts.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 19:36:38 GMT
Well, I at least saw some CN Towers in snow globes or something. What does Montreal look like in a snow globe? Skyscrapers or Vieux Montreal? Or maybe the Champlain bridge?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2009 21:40:02 GMT
We are overrun with the fleur de lys motif on everything here too. And then there's the horrible,tacky,cheesy porcelain masks. Cajun everything.
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