The show will go on
Do you ever wonder what is happening to the busy touristic roads that you shop during your holidays, when you and the rest of the tourists are gone? You know what I mean, the ones that exist to relief you from the extra burden of your wallet by providing anything you could (or couldn't) imagine.
A great example is the area next to the lake of Agios Nikolaos in Crete, Greece. A place where millions of euro change hands every summer, a market that is designed to satisfy thousands of tourists in the blink of an eye. When the large cruise ships anchor at the port they unleash up to 5000 people at once with the only goal to take pictures and shop!
But that's in the summer. Because in the winter there is a different story. The story I am about to tell you.
Today is #MarketFriday initiated by @dswigle and for the last one of the year I have a really unexpected entry. I hope Denise won't get too upset with all those covered windows but I am thinking to do a post like that for years and I felt that this community is the most relevant one.
All the pictures are from yesterday morning. That means one day before New Year's Eve, on working hours and a nice weather. Sounds ideal for shopping,isn't it? But not here.
The mayor's decision to place loudspeakers playing Christmas songs emphasized even more the obvious fact that there were just a bunch of people scattered around and most of the shops were closed! And boy, the shops there are there. Just name it. Cloths, hats, jewellery, wooden handicrafts, pastry , souvenirs of any kind, fish spa (!) and furs, a lot of furs. Apparently Russian people shop furs from Greece. I never understood why. Maybe someone that lives closer to them can enlighten us! @qwerrie @sharker @evildeathcore @olga.maslievich @aleksandra.mart any ideas?
The closed cafes and restaurants complete the puzzle of dereliction. But then again who needs all those shops. Let the owners have their vacations and in the spring the show will go on :)
My apologies if my post was a little depressing for those days of celebration and joy but I promise I'll make it up to you with an abundant #MarketFriday post when everyone is back to business!
Happy new year, my best wishes for 2022!
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!
Actually, it is a brilliant post! It is the reality of these beautiful, tourist-ridden places of pleasure. I can understand the need to close shop and enjoy the few months of pleasure. After all, local people don't usually throw away money like that, at least I don't.
Vacation money is for using on frivolous things and indeed, most do. I applaud them for closing it up, and how silly to have Christmas carols playing to nobody. Where do the local people shop and everything?
I love the concept of #MarketFriday and how our cultures differ and then again, how much they are alike. Rituals, Festivals, food, architecture, even your language/languages. Along with the fact of what is normal for where you live? These are unwritten rules that rule our social behaviors. I see this as allowing for increased tolerance between cultures and nations, and opportunities to come together on an even playing ground. A strong culture can be beneficial to a country as it promotes unity, especially during a crisis, peaceful debate, and open dialogue. I had hoped that posting here will familiarize you with the world around you just a little bit more. Viewing it from a more personal level as opposed to the newsworthy level gives me a better understanding of the people and a view that is often not seen on television. Sometimes, it seems like I learn more on some social media about a certain incident than what the news tells me.
I appreciate the amazing support given to #MarketFriday! Thank you! Your participation adds a piece to your world, and I have to say, people are interested in seeing it. This entire challenge has opened up the world to me and so many others. Thank you again for being a part of all this! I am so happy to see you here! I hope you have a fabulous day! Hive on!!
Take pictures! Be creative!
As always, please remember! #MarketFriday loves you!
Upped and reposted
Thank you very much Denise, I wasn't sure it would fit to the spirit of the challenge!
Of course it is only natural for those shops to be closed in winter. And anyway there are other shops for the locals that are enough for their needs. I guess that most of the locals don't even consider that as something unusual. But in my eyes this transformation of the town is very aggressive, almost violent. We are talking about a real town that people actually live there, not a resort for holidays.
Indeed #MarketFriday is a wonderful concept, you can learn a lot about people from what they shop and you have done a wonderful job, building a community around it!
Thanks again for your beautiful and so elaborated response, it was much more than I expected :)
Have a great day and an amazing year. My best wishes from Crete :)
Thank you. I think it is a violent close also. We have a lot of coastal towns on the Eastern Seaboard that are like that. Everything closes, but, real people live there still!!!
I find it bizarre. There was life there in the towns before tourism. Now? None.
I thought it was a great fit, we love being creative! :)
Best wishes to you and thank you!
Please remember to drop the link to your post on my #MarketFriday post for more views.
I had forgotten about that. I hit the publish button and I headed to the New Year Eve's dinner last evening :)
As you should. Life first! :) You can still do it. Edited: I just saw you did! Thank you!
Time for shop owners to have their vacation to enjoy. Anyways they have all the days of the year to hustle again. It is nice to know it just closed because of holidays not the because of corona thing. Happy New Year 😊
Of course it is only natural for them to have their rest too!
Happy New Year @amayphin :)
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Closed shops look sad, but if there are no people, no tourists who need them, then this is right. Nice post!
As for buying furs abroad, especially in warm countries - I myself have never understood this. It's even funnier to take it from Egypt, for example :)
But for some reason it was popular a while ago, perhaps because of the scarcity and little variety, especially in small towns, I'm not sure. Now, it seems to me, far fewer people are bringing furs from warm countries.
Of course it is only natural for those shops to be closed in winter. It is just in my eyes this transformation of the town is very aggressive, almost violent. But I am probably the only one who sees it that way :)
Thank you very much for answering me. It is a question that I have for years and I never got a convincing answer. Maybe I should ask someone that is coming out of one of those shops with a fur in a bag :)
Definitely, you should ask at least a couple of these people :)