Gifts to Buy in Athens

Lately people have been asking me what gifts they should bring back for their friends and relatives to show that they have been somewhere, and even for themselves. Athens is a shopper's paradise and looking for the perfect present can be as much fun as going to the Acropolis, and some people would say even more. But if you are the type who needs help making decisions then print out this page and take it with you. When it is time to shop you will be totally prepared and actually I imagine it would be fun going around Athens looking for these things as if you are on a scavanger hunt. For gifts to Greece bring for friends, relatives or your favorite travel agent ot taxi driver see below.

Maybe you don't think old ads for cigarettes are such a great gift. But if you lives in Greece in the sixties and had to smoke these things you would appreciate them. You can find these and lots of antiques at the shop of Apostolos Sofialidis at Pittaki 15 in Psiri, right around the corner from the Naxos Cheese store.

Angelos the Ouzo King of the Plaka has more varieties of ouzo than probably any shop in Athens. If you want to bring some ouzo home and you don't want to be limited by the meager selection at the airport then visit his shop at 120 Adrianou Street (or somewhere near there) just up the street from Byzantino Jewelry. See Angelos the Ouzo King

You can't leave Greece without an Athens 2004 T-shirt. If you are lucky you may find an Athens 96 Olympic T-shirt which is now a collector's item since the Olympics ended up going to Atlanta that year. You can get this model and many other unique styles at George Dolkas Shop at 107 Adrianou street on the corner where Hill and Kekropos and Hatzimichali streets all meet. See their website.

Sandals from the Poet!

Stavros Melissinos is not just a great sandal maker but he is also a wonderful poet. I have his Rubiyat which is a poem in praise of wine and spirit. I have been buying my sandals from him (and only from him) since 1969. Even the Beatles and Jackie O bought his sandals. To find Stavros and his sandals just cross Monastiraki square in front of the metro station and walk towards the intersection of Athinas Street and Ermou. Take a left on Ermou and walk two streets and go right on Ag Theklas Street and he is at #2.You never know who you will meet in his shop. His son Pandelis works there as well and he is a playwright and artists/designer whose works are also available in the shop.

Visit the Poet-Sandal-maker of Athens

Kefalotiri from Naxos: Available at the Geniko Emborio Eklekton Proionton Naxos in Psiri.(this is what I brought home last trip and it lasted for a year.) The store is down from Platia Iroon (Iroon Square) on Agia Theklas just off Kariaskakis street and the owner's name is Kostas.

Brettos Ouzo: One summer I brought home a bottle so big it filled my entire backpack. Last year I bought a whole case and had it shipped. It arrived totally intact 2 weeks later. It cost $300 but it should last me a year unless I have some kind of crisis. Brettos is on Kydatheneon in the Plaka right by the intersection of Adrianou.

Unlike most jewelry stores which buy from factories Byzantino is owned by the artists themselves so the work is original and the workmanship is better. See their webpage and visit their shop at 120 Adrianou street in the Plaka, next to the ice-cream shop. They have a second shop on the corner of Pondrossou and Eolou Streets in Monastiraki. Go and ask Kosta for a free massage with your jewelry.

Matia . You can never have too many of these. They ward off the evil-eye. If you have been having bad luck lately that may be the problem and one of these may help. You can find many different styles of these at just about any tourist shop in Athens. Icons too: Hand-painted, Yes. Prints, no.

The Priftis Family have a small shop in the Plaka that sells herbs, olive oil and all sorts of traditional goods from the villages, beautifully packages and ready to be presented as the perfect gift. Their shop is called Greek Traditional Goods and it is at 82 Adrianou. Tel. 323-3002

Fill a plastic bag full of Souvlakia and then give them as gifts to your family and friends when you get home. I know a guy who took home a suitcase full. Unfortunately I think it is against US Customs regulations

What is illegal in America but perfectly legal in Greece? Cuban Cigars. You can get them at the cigar shop in Platia Iroon (Iroon Square) in Psiri. While you are in the neighborhood go to the shop of George Triantafilou on the corner of Ag. Dimitriou and Kalamida where you can buy anything you could possibly need for your horse.

Buy a bouzouki, an aoud or a baglama to take home and learn to play. These are handmade and can be bought at Mousika Organa at Hfaistos 36 in Monastiraki just behind the train station. You can call 210 3212433 or e-mail Yannis Samoyelian at samoueli@hotmail.com

Get your name or the name of someone you love engraved on a grain of rice. Sounds silly right? It is actually pretty cool and a unique gift sold by street vendors in the Plaka. Also check out the street venders on Areos Street just up from the Monastiraki metro station. They have lots of cool stuff, some imported from the east and some handmade in Ahens.

These little faces are made out of baloons filled with flower. Once you master the technique there are dozens of faces you can make. Great gifts to bring home for kids or to keep them occupied while in Greece. Pretty durable considering. You can buy these from street venders in the Plaka.

I don't know how PC it is to buy sponges since after all they are live animals, or at least they were until they were captured and killed and rinsed a hundred times until there was nothing left but the skeleton, which as we all know is amazingly absorbant. If this is OK with you then you can find them at 2 shops on Adrianou right across from each other.

The Lesvos Shop: In the old days I used to go to the island of Lesvos and come back with my kapsack full of canned sardines, cheeses from Montamados and Vatousa, local brands of ouzo, soap made from olive oil and even olive oil. But now I come back from Lesvos with my backpack light and empty of everything but my clothes. Thats because downstairs from the Hotel Attalos on Athinas street is the Lesvos Shop which has all these things and I just buy them there. With the price of Olive Oil in America you may as well buiy it here.

I actually bought one of these little creatures and gave it to my daughter and she loves it. Who wouldn't? It's an owl, the symbol of the Goddess Athena. This is just one of many styles and in fact this is the one I bought. Now he's a star! You can find his brothers and sisters at m ost of the tourist shops in Plaka on Adrianou.

I love the shirts with the ancient Greek designs on them. You can find a great many of them at George Dolkas T-Shirt and Swatch Shop at 107 Adrianou street on the corner where Hill and Kekropos and Hatzimichali streets all meet. See their website..

Miraculous Utensils that do strange things to vegetables. Zuchinni Hollow-outers. Grape-leave Stuffers, Cheese-pie makers...you name it and it can be found on Eoulou Street at demonstration tables. Also visit some of the kitchen stores near the Central market and see if you can find stuff they don't have at home.

CD's! If you don't know where to begin when it comes to Greek music Click here for my choices. You can also go to Ihogram-Superstore at 25 Evripidou Street right at the City Market off Athinas street. They have a great selection and the prices are good too plus they speak English and are very knowlegable about old Greek music (and New).

The best pottery comes from the island of Sifnos and you can see some of it at www.greektravel.com/sifnos/pottery
But if you can't get to Sifnos you can find pottery at many of the shops in the Plaka. Lots of it is pretty cheesy but you can find some cool pieces as well.

This is a beautiful book and would probably make someone you know a great gift. They should have it at Compendium or Eleftherodakis books on Nikis street but I picked mine up at the little Cretan Traditional Food shop on the corner of Kydatheneon and Nikis in the Plaka. Also cookbooks like Aglaia Kremazi's Greek island Cooking.

A Toucan! You can get one of these for about $500 and if the one you choose has been in the shop for awhile you may be able to get him for cheaper. Of course you will have to find out all the rules and regulations about importing toucans before you buy it. Well maybe this is not such a good idea. Anyway you can visit this one at the Mr Zoo Pet Shop on Athina Street and Kratinou at Dimarch Square. They also have parrots, monkeys, boas and chinchillas. If you see an animal in bad shape please tell one of the workers.

Clothes and Shoes: August-September and January-February are the big sale months when you can find bargains on the finest Italian shoes and clothing among other things. You can literally pay for your trip by shopping for your wardrobe in Athens during these months. Spiliopoulos at 63 Ermou and 50 Adrianou in Monastiraki have an amazing selection of shoes and I bought a very cool leather coat there too. See Shopping in Athens.

Olives : I go to the Athens market and sample olives until I find the best tasting, then buy a couple kilos and wrap them up well so they don't destroy my clothes. Then I divide them up in America. Kalamata you can buy anywhere in America so leave them. These are from The Olive Shop of Sabbas Psychogios in the Agora on Athinas street. See their website

Hand-made Greek Boats:
This man makes handmade boats and sells them at the Thiamis at 71 A sklipiou street, They are not mass-produced so whatever they have on display is what they have but it is a unique gift and perhaps a valuable one too.

Odyssey Magazine: This is a wonderful gift to yourself or someone in your family who is Greek-American or just loves Greece. Well-written and interesting articles on subjects you won't find anywhere else about destinations in Greece, current events and historical events, artists, writers, politics, scandals, and culture. It's like the New Yorker but easier and more fun to read with a lot more pictures. Great photography actually. For info on gift subscriptions click here.

There is this neat little gift shop at 17 Athinas Street right by the Hotel Attalos called Konstantoglou . It is the kind of place you can walk by a thousand times and never notice it. (I know because I walked by it a thousand times and never noticed it.) They have a very interesting collection of museum type pieces, religious ornaments, evil-eye talismans, and all sorts of old and new things.

Spatholado or Saint John's Wort Healing Oil is an ancient remedy known to the Greeks and the Crusaders for it's healing properties. Spatholado means sword-oil because it was used to heal sword wounds. I have never seen it in America and I used it when I cut my foot and had to get stitches and I was pretty impressed. It also works on  burns, surgical scars and is especially effective on deep wounds.  It comes from the island of Kea but can be found in the herb shop called Elixer which is on Evripidou Street near the corner of Ag Dimitriou Street, just a block from Athinas Street and the Central Market. You can also order it by mail from marulis@otenet.gr and read more about it at www.greektravel.com/greekislands/kea/spatholado Also on Evripidou Street are several shops that sell flower and vegetable seeds. I don't even know if it is legal totake them home to your country but they have some varieties of seeds that you may not find in your local garden shop.

Gifts to Bring TO Greece

What I do is find things they can't get in Greece. These are becoming inscreasingly rare because of the global marketplace that enables you to find just about anything in a place where peanut-butter and ketchup used to be as valuable as gold. T-shirts and local products from your town are good gifts. If you live in the Pacific-Northwest one of those packages of smoked salmon are appreciated. (If you are working with Uli at Dolphin-Hellas she loves beer-she's German, so if you have a microbrewery in your town and you don't mind bringing a couple bottles that is fine.) I live in a town where every other person is in a band or is a solo artist and has a CD and for awhile this is what I was brnging as gifts. Now  my Greek friends are pretty hip to the North Carolina music scene and when local groups like Squirrel Nut Zippers and Ben Folds made the big time they could brag that they'd heard of them years before. You can also bring local canned or packaged foods that may not be found outside of your area. In Raleigh-Durham airport they sell cans of boiled possum but this may be going a little too far. If you have a respected friend who is a connoisseur of the finer things in life and don't mind spending a little money a bottle of Don Eduardo 100% Agave Anejo Tequila will be very appreciated since it is more like a fine Scotch than the tequila they may be familiar with. Any other alcohol is easily available in Greece and even on the flight going over. Chocolates and stuff like that it goes without saying are appreciated gifts.