Crafty clusters

Since today wasn't as eventful as previous days, besides a really awesome run in town, a lesson on the Greek language and class with an amusing British professor, I'm going to talk a little more about shopping experiences here in Greece while waiting for the chicken to thaw so we can start cookin up a storm! Don't worry, I don't plan on babbling on and on about all the cute and colorful sandals they sell here in Greece (surprisingly a lot though!). I'm more interesting in what the shopping system is like here and how it differs from the American system that we are all so very accustomed to.

One of the main things that I've been noticing as we are exploring downtown Athens is that the stores seem to categorize themselves by locations. What I'm trying to say is that as you are walking down one street, you will be likely to see five different say, shoe stores, or tailor shops. I've even witnessed a cluster of umbrella shops in one area!

So basically everything is sold is approximately in its own district. If you want to go buy a pet rabbit, you go down to say, Peiraios street (don't quote me on that please). Oo, I've got the perfect example! When we went to the food market yesterday, there were not lots of tents set up with a variety of different things to buy, but instead, there was a section strictly for fruits and veggies, another section for spices, and separate sections for the meat and seafood to be sold. 

When you think about it this can be really good for the customers. If it's a rainy day, you can head over to the area where they sell umbrellas. And instead of buying the first one that you find, you can look and compare with other stores to see which umbrella best matches your new outfit, or better yet which one has the best price! Another thing is, with the stores so close together, there is bound to be competition, so you can be pretty sure that they will sell their products at the best price available.

There are lots of awesome benefits when it comes to the customer's side of the story. But the thing I don't exactly get is how exactly this shopping system came about (maybe this is how things worked during ancient times and haven't changed yet), and also in what ways would it benefit the people who own the shops??

Now onto omnom shopping! Here, there isn't one store that carries everything and anything that you could ever dream of, and there are absolutely no Walmart, *gasp!*, well none that I've seen yet. The closest thing I've seen to a big department stores is Ikea, but those are everywhere anyways.

But back to food shopping! Here we have a small little super market that carries the essential things like milk, bread, cheese, and has an outside section for fruits and veggies. You may be thinking, well that sounds a lot like what a Publix would have. Not so much, here it's on a much smaller scale. That's because there are stores here that sell more specific items but with a larger variety (and fresher too!). For example at the mini market, there was only a small selection of bread, and none of them looked all that appetizing. That's because all the good stuff is at the bakery where you are supposed to get it!

Here's an interesting story from today. When my friend Allison and I went to the store to get supplies for dinner, we were looking for the chicken, but since everything is in Greek we weren't exactly sure what we were looking at (and we weren't exactly brave enough to pick something at random). So when I went to ask one of the ladies who worked there, the first thing she said was that it wasn't fresh. I was like well duh, we know it's frozen! But then I thought about it some more and realized that it's much more common to walk down to the local butcher and get some chicken there (fresh!). Not sure how long it's going to take for me to gather the courage to go there yet, but I want to go at least once before I leave!

Now the chicken that was once frozen is settling quite nicely in our tummies and it's time to hit the sack so it won't be as hard to get up at 6 in the morning (crazy I know!), but we've got a big day planned to visit Corinth, Mycene, and Nauplion (all in one day!) so more on that tomorrow! But for now, Kalispera! (Goodnight in Greek)