Torino: one of my fave Italian cities. Photo courtesy of http://www.pm-news.net
I often write about experiencing Op Shop and thrifting karma, but I’ve had cases of traveling karma too. Its great when the two come together.
The story: In 2005 the hubby & I headed back to Canada for a wedding with an open ended ticket & a bunch of $$ saved to buy our 1st house. While visiting family, we saw a seat sale to Amsterdam and figured since we were 1/2 way to Europe why not. So we jumped on another plane, bought rail passes & backpacked through Europe on our 2nd OE, living on pasta, tuna and pesto. The house would have to wait.
The souvenir I shoulda bought in 2005
Memories of Torino:
pre olympics…the city was madly trying to finish construction projects before the start of the games
I rode a city bus next to a HUGE Neopolitan Mastif
Umm, is this seat taken? Photo courtesy of dog-harnesses-store.com
The city’s main art gallery had a MASSIVE painting of herd of dairy cows which I could only envisage hanging in the corporate HQ of Fonterra (NZ dairy company/nation’s economic powerhouse)
Standing in line to buy a rail ticket, the hubby did a twist to stretch his back and nearly beheaded a guy trying to pickpocket his backpack
Completely befuddled the RailItalia/Rail France people by being gungy backpackers & holding 1st class Rail Passes (the one bit of luxury, thanks to being over 25!)
Regrets:
5euro for one of those famous hot chocolates exceeded the food budget
The Chocoholic in me has never let me forget. Photo courtesy of slowtalk.com
We passed on going to an Italian opera
I didn’t bring home any souvenirs
*******
Did the Baron household need new glassware? Kinda, sorta, maybe? Our toddler wants to be like Mum & Dad and drink out of real glasses. If that’s gonna happen we needed something smaller and fairly robust.
Why pick up these vintage souvenir glasses from the Op Shop? I thought they looked sturdy, retro and cool. And we had actully spent time in Torino (aka Turin) Also figured they could do double duty as red wine glasses (like the Europeans and their table wines, no?)
”Are we going to use this?” YES! The glasses have been in constant use since I brought them home.
Hubby’s impression: “Hey, those are kinda cool, and they’d be good for rum & cokes”
Best part: It was white tag day at the Addington Salvation Army Family Store, $2 for the 6 glasses. Score!
Ready for the next blueberry banana smoothie
Ever head back from a holiday wishing you had picked up more souvenirs? Come home with anything strange?
(my fav souvenir is a bobbing moose picked up in 2003 on a x-Canada road trip)
I’d love you to share your thrifting strategy or your own op shopping experiences in the comments below. I’m all about sharing the knowledge, but if you’re one of those Op Shopping Ninjas who thrives on a stealth mission, I get and respect that too!
Linking with the lovely hosts of:
Op Shop Show-Off, The Nifty Thrifty, Thriftasaurus, Remnant, Thrift Share Monday, Magpie Monday
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