Buying Bargains Worldwide - especially tee shirts, flags and landmarks.

 Many countries have local specialities you can buy easily from kiosks in tourist spots. You often see t-shirts with the national flag.

Albania

 In Albania I bought a cross body bag which was light weight and woven.

You can also buy lots of items with the national flag.

If you are not travelling, two of the big online websites from China are Shein and Temu.

In the UK even the post boxes (Americans call them mail boxes) wear fancy, seasonal hats.

 In the UK we have Ebay online.

Bargains can by bought in charity shops. Well known companies include Barnardoes, Oxfam, St Lukes (in London).

This is a t-shirt with tower bridge in playing cards which I bought online in early 2923

USA

The USA has thrift stores, Dollar stores, Goodwill. 

Online you have EBay and Etsy, Amazon and many more.

Most websites have a sales page, and an offer of discounts if you give them your email.

Shopping In Your Spare Room

Another way to shop without travelling is to shop in your own cupboards for those old beach bags and souvenir tee-shirt which you bought on holiday and never wore. With global warming, you have an opportunity to wear summer clothes and beach clothes in the city without looking out of place.

 In the good old days people used to store their winter clothes in a suitcase in the loft or attic in winter. The reverse took place in summer. Nowadays we recycle and collect clutter. Only a quarter of UK garages are used to store cars. Now cars are left in the front forecourt, and garages are used for storage, clothes, accessories, bric a brac.

You need t keep moving clothes. Why? To be sure that moths get disturbed. Also so that the clothes do not get mouldy from damp.

I try not to go shopping for food. I postpone my trips to Tesco supermarket because it is right near a charity shop. 

Every time that I look in the spare room, I found a new outfit which I have not seen or worn for years. Often great colours and styles. Better suited to me than most of all of the items in the shops.

I won't say that everything fits. I have had to re-label some drawers. Move too small or too large clothes into a different area. Or start alterations.

I recently gave a speech in which I said that I liked to go shopping in my own wardrobe, in order to recycle, re-wear clothes. even Kate Middleton is making this fashionable and acceptable. You don't have to wear a whole new outfit. You can ring the changes by altering the hat, shoes and belt or gloves or scarf.

Instead of going shopping, shop in your own wardrobe. (Americans would say closet. They have larger homes, which often have walk in closets, small rooms, without windows, storage rooms, kitted out with clothes rails under a shelf for hats and shoe boxes, scarf boxes, what you will.

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Funny Tower Bridge Tee-Shirt in pale blue and 11 more colours

 

From Etsy. Link below

You can buy all sorts of items from the UK with amusing slogans and images of cards, cats and chess, tee shirt clothes, a chess bow tie, a playing card blouse, and sets of pencils with playing cards for friends who play bridge, or whist or poker or casinos or any card games.

Playing card jacket in window of Dojo shop near Bond Street. Photo taken July 1st 2023. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

This jacket has a green background, white background cards, red hearts, red diamonds. black aces, black spades and other circular designs with centres in black, or red, or turquoise. It would do with many colours., black, white, red, a mid green or a blueish green

 turquoise green and could be worn with black shoes and belts and hats and bags or for summer in white, or for jollity and liveliness in red.

The Dojo website tells you that they sell many types of goods as well as clothing. Postage is free. You have 14 days, two weeks, 

as we say in Britain, a fortnight, to return the goods or exchange them.

Check with them for their latest opening hours and online conditions.

Do jo

I remember it as do a good job. Do - jo for Dojo. The word comes from the Japanese dao or way, do-jo meaning place of the way, in other words, place of instruction or learning centre. A dojo used to be a school (for adults?) attached to a Buddhist temple.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of Playing Card Patterns

The pattern might suit you if you want to pair it with red hearts. Or to start a conversation. Or to find new friends or old friends who are also interested in card games such as whist or bridge.

Props and Additions

Playing card designs can be found on tablecloths sold by playing card sellers and card game suppliers. They also sell stationery and crockery with card patterns. In the past I have bought pencils, notepads, cups and saucers, green felt card table cloths, black felt square card table cloths with playing card decoration on the corners.

Playing card design. Elizabethan Staffordshire Fine bone china. England. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Saucer for small coffee cup. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I bought one set of a tablecloth and cards from a friend whose stepmother had died. You might buy from players who have items which they rarely use. You might buy from or for a club or from an informal group which meets weekly for a card game afternoon or evening.

Chess

A combined card and chess shop has chess items, more chess than bridge and playing cards. Chess clothing includes a bow tie. The Chess company has a shop in Baker Street, not far from Bond Street. For Christmas or a birthday, wedding, or other gift, you could check out both the chess and bridge shops for gifts for your family and friends.

Etsy has numerous playing card blouses, and reasonably priced tee shirts with black or white backgrounds and either multiple cards or one big card.

Useful websites

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1446983910/playing-card-bridge-ladies-t-shirt?

Card patterns

https://retaildojo.co.uk/collections/all-clothing

Playing card trays from a company called Nauticalia which gives you ten percent off when you sign up.

https://nauticalia.com/products/playing-card-trays?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dojo#:~:text=The%20term%20literally%20means%20%22place,Japanese%20name

Chess Patterns

https://chess.co.uk/collections/chess-t-shirts/socks

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Four Must Do things in Nicosia, capital of Cyprus

Cyprus Museum
 

Nicosia is the divided city, divided between the Greek Orthodox Greek Cypriots and Muslim Turks.

The Walls

On the Greek side you automatically pass the huge Venetian era walls. Those massive walls didn't save the Italians or the Greeks from invaders on all occasions, but they are now an attractive and distinctive feature of the city.  The Italians were here, then the Turks, then the Brits. 

As a tourist you are bound to see some sad parts, and struggle with some of the signs and language. But never mind. Most people here in Cyprus, as elsewhere in the world, when dealing with visitors are glad to see you, hear you, talk to you in English, show you what you want to see and take your euros or credit cards.

Get a map of the city so you can find your way walking. Or bring it up on your phone.

If you drive in, you need to find a car park. Some car parks charge 3 Euros for unlimited time. Watch out for car parks which threaten to clamp your car if you are not back on time. 

1 Cyprus Museum

Laughing lions at the Cyprus museum. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The big must do museum is the Cyprus Museum. Rooms of statues of people with extraordinary expressions - and symbolic animals, interesting jewellery, and gravestones with emotional or historically revealing inscriptions. 

Our group had only an hour so I raced round the museum to get an overview to decide where to spend most time and be sure of not missing anything. Make sure to see the two rooms showing gravestones with bilingual translations of the inscriptions, and the caves where burials took place. 

The rooms are numbered and there is a map. I counted the numbers to be sure I had not missed a room, and went back to see the last two rooms which I missed on my first circle.

If you are on a meter for parking, or meeting others, allow time for a photograph of yourself at the entrance of the museum, between the massive pillars.

The shop is at the entrance. I could not find a cafe.

2 Ledra Street

Ledra is the long central pedestrianised shopping street. Its name has changed over the  See shops with bargain souvenirs. Clothes, hats. I bought a map hat showing Cyprus. I also found a shop selling tops for 2 Euros and 3 Euros.

The museum is a short walk from the old town and one of the two entrance gates on the Greek side.  

Starbucks has a toilet with a code for entry. McDonalds toilet is a short walk away at the end of the passage, again with an entry code you get from the staff. I also saw a sign to a public toilet.

3 Ledra Observatory

The observatory is at the top of the Shakolas Tower. The entree fee was five Euros but worth it to get an overview of buildings both sides of the city, Greek and Turkish. 

A video gives you a summary of the city's history. I watched in twice.

 The small souvenir area has amusing pottery bowls for olives. You could have a bowl with olives painted inside. Or a long one for olives. Or a small pot like an egg cup with six prongs.  

Another interesting souvenir was playing cards. One pair showed cats.

Free public toilets are a couple of floors down from the Observatory which is the twelfth top floor of the building. The entrance hall on the ground floor listed a cafe but the museum attendant told me that the cafe had closed down 'eight years ago'.

4 Motorcycle Museum on Mondays

On Mondays when all other museums in the old area are closed you can visit the motorcycle museum which also has a couple of cars. Best if you are with a motorcycling enthusiast. The restorer gave us a guided tour and told us tales and answered questions. It takes him not just hours but months for him to restore a rusty old machine until it is gleaming like when it was new. We saw signs to other museums which were closed. I liked the look of the Fairytale Museum. Now that Covid-19 seems under control (writing in June 2022) I hope that on my next visit and yours some other museums which are still on the signposts will have re-opened.

5 The Turkish Side's Buyuk Han (Big Hostelry/Hotel/Ancient Inn)

The main area to see is an enclosed quadrangle with restaurants in the middle and kiosks selling clothes and bags and souvenirs around the little shops on the edges of cloister walks. It is called Buyuk Han meaning great inn. The shopkeeper's tenancy agreements stipulate that the products sold are made in Cyprus. 

One drinking area is under greenery but that part was occupied by smokers. I was sorry I did not have time to see the second storey and take photos from there looking down.

The public toilets where you are sent from the restaurants make a charge of half a euro.

Summary

Top 4 Tourists Sites and Sights

Old Walls

1 Cyprus Museum

2 Classic Motorcycle Museum

3 Observatory

4 Turkish Square

Also in the Nicosia Area

Art Gallery: Diachroniki Gallery, Ledras, Arsinois 84 Nicosia.

Web www.diachroniki.com

tel:22 680 145.

The owner is Chris Kikas. His brother, George, owns the gorgeous guesthouse, George's Villa. George sent us here to see the gallery and meet Chris.

Driving out of the old city:

Wine Shop

Uncork wine

Useful Information & Websites

Cyprus Museum, Museum Street, Nicosia, Cyprus.

/www.mcw.gov.cy

Great Inn

http://www.cypnet.co.uk/ncyprus/city/nicosia/inn-great.htm

Coffee Island is in the UK.

https://www.facebook.com/CoffeeIslandUK/

https://www.coffeeisland.co.uk/pages/company

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Chinese Playing Cards From Taiwan and UK

I was given these cards on the Taiwan stand by the tourist board at World Travel market in London November 2016. The cards show characters from Chinese mythology which you will see depicted in art and plays and stories and statues.


Such lovely, colourful cards, make me want to bring them out to impress others and start conversations at bridge games. Yet, the cards are so pretty, I would not want to spoil them. I would like to frame them. You can buy cards with slots which fit inside frames.

If you go to Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong or China, look for Chinese playing cards. When buying playing cards, remember that serious bridge players and those in competitions will want a standard pack. But for souvenirs, I just love cards decorated in this way.

In London there is a playing card and chess shop in Baker Street. Walk south from Baker Street station, on the left side of the road.

My current favourite is the set from Taiwan.

http://www.wopc.co.uk/shop/
Assorted designs.

For personalised playing cards with English and Italian style faces:
http://www.ludocards.com/?gclid=CjwKEAiA0pDBBRCFtoPyguTh8AUSJADNWeuxSnS-G2cgeMONoP07VGDwabB4jn6LlTVn1E2c0ozevxoCVfnw_wcB

For Heritage brand playing cards in assorted designs such as animals such as butterflies, cats, horses, castles, kings and queens:
shop.chess.co.uk/SearchResults.…

Singapore Airlines offers free cards on board. The packs had a back showing on every card the same as the picture on the pack a Singapore Airlines plane or stewardess or other theme related to the airline, changing year to year. The front is the standard 'English' playing card design.

To go back to the cards which inspired me to write this, in case you can't read the words, the front of my pack which appears as white under a heart says:
Taiwan
Taiwan Tourism Bureau
www.taiwan.net.tw

The back says on the red side
Creative Puppet Art
facebook https://www.facebook.com/SamadhiTang

On the white band underneath the text reads:
Translated by Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages

You can buy Chinese tarot cards on Amazon. Also a larger range of collectible cards on Ebay. Make sure you are buying a set, with jokers, and different fronts, (not just one design on the back, not two swap cards or a single card). But my Taiwan playing cards are still my favourites.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Bridge Shop on Baker Street

The bridge shop is on Baker Street in Central London. You can buy bridge table cloths and all kinds or cards, card sets, playing cards with score cards and ties.

Giant playing cards are used for events such as Bingo and club events. One couple used the large cards as table mats and table centrepieces for a themed Alice in Wonderland wedding.


If you collect playing cards as I do, look at the selection of Heritage brand cards, grouped together.