Too much or not enough? That is the question. After
a 1.5 decade absence from the country of my father’s birth, I felt like I
needed to stock up on enough souvenirs and supplies to last us until our
return.
Our bounty can be divided up into two categories,
food and stuff.
We purchased all our food souvenirs from my
family’s island, because we could be sure to get things with authentic local
ingredients. Pictured from the top going clockwise:
Teskou Mastixa, local spoon sweet made from Mastic
gum
Muscato wine from Samos island next door
Thyme spice
Bergamot jam (2 variations)
Trahana, a dried porridge that we cook at home (a
gift from my aunt)
Loukomia, local gummies
Lavendar honey (2 variations)
Dried
mushroom
In the stuff category, we further divide into a
section of memorable Greek souvenirs, which were mostly gifts from my family.
Pictured from the top going clockwise:
Ikaria mug
Evil Eye coaster (crocheted by my aunt)
Ikaria keychain
CD from a local artist
Refrigerator magnet
Ikaria shot glass
Evil eye to hang in our house
Also in the stuff category would be Korres beauty
products. Korres is a Greek beauty company and I want to support local
business. From top to bottom:
Mosquito spray
Body oil
Charcoal face mask
There is also a paper products category, which
weighed my suitcase down plenty. From left to right:
Art book of the Ai Wei Wei exhibit in the Cycladic
Museum of art
Greek island coloring book
A book of stories from my island (written in
English)
A fiction book by my favor author (written in
Greek)
A Ikaria travel book in Greek
Lastly, I got a couple cool totes from various museums.
On the left is a tote from the Rijskmuseum in Amsterdam (ok, I know the title
of this post is What Did I Buy in Greek, but come on, it’s the only souvenir
from my layover), and one from the Cycladic museum of Art in Athens.