#if I wanted clothes and jewelry I'd literally just shop at the store I work at

[plushie-lovey]

Went to a flea market yesterday hoping to come home with a bunch of plushies. Found one (1) zodiac beanie babie rat that looks like the embodiment of an acid trip (I mean that in the best way possible)

[kebriones]

Let's say you have a hypothetical friend like that, where are you taking them? Doesn't have to be a specific place, I'm more curious what you'd show to a foreigner looking for some not-tourist-traps-and-not-that-one-temple-everyone-goes-to?

HERE ARE A FEW EXAMPLES HEHE:

Mount Hymettus. I can milk so much content out of that mountain if you like nature and easy hikes.

The various hidden and run-down neoclassical, art deco etc buildings one can find around areas like kypseli etc. Plaka is fine but everyone knows of it.

University campuses. Don't you want to see what the athenian university campus looks like. I'd even take a foreign friend to my art school fo show them around all the workshops and stuff.

The planetarium, the goulandri natural history museum, the natural history museum of the university of athens and a bunch of other lesser known ones, or those with modern folk art like the benaki museum and some others hidden around in athens.

Peiraius. Most tourists only see a tiny portion of peiraius, only when they get on or off a boat. The port and peiraius in general has so much more to see.

Random neighborhoods. Richer ones, industrial ones, i think each neighborhood in athens has its own character.

The first cemetery. Graves that are literal works of art, also many famous people's graves and a chance for historical discussions.

Plato's academy. The lyceum of Aristotle. People completely overlook these ones.

The diomedes botanical garden.

Parks tour. Metro stations tour. My dad and I used to do metro stations tours.

Mount parnitha . A bit of a car trip but it's gorgeous.

Any ongoing festival or exhibition or event meant for locals rather than tourists.

Visit non-tourist stores for souvenirs. Maybe they won't say "i love athens" or have a korinthian helmet on them, but you can find everything from second hand books and clothes to antiques to locally handmade art, comics by greek people that exist only in the 3-4 Athenian comic stores and nowhere else, there's scavenger's markets, there's incredible local jewelry stores etc etc.

Visit a very big supermarket, and visit a big jumbo store. These are essential experiences. When I was in Germany, I had a blast visiting a big supermarket. It's so interesting to see these common things in other countries.

Take them to a nice church to see the Sunday morning service. It might be interesting for someone who hasn't experienced an Orthodox service before. I'll pick one with epic chanters.

Bring them to some of the best pizza shops around athens. Greek pizza is the best pizza please don't kill me italians.

Just show them around my neighborhood. I know all the interesting spots, the best places to eat, and if they're a cat fan I can do the epic cat tour. I think one can get a very good idea of common daily life in Athens in my neighborhood.

[being-creative-mephisto]

I've had an idea for a very strange shop in my home town recently. The whole thing is horror themed selling like spell jars, horror stories, goth clothes, jewelry, monster dolls ect. Anyway here are some fun little ideas I had for said shop.

every employee dresses as a monster however if they are stocking products they must be dressed as a goblin and if a customer sees them working they must pretend to be stealing the items. Full permission for them to scurry around and act as much as they feel necessary for the part.

publishing books specifically for the store that can't be found elsewhere. Like putting in explicit effort into writing good intriguing stories and when they look up to find any information on the books or find a fandom or people to talk to about the books they are met with nothing.

Jars of happiness, anger, jealousy, and sorrow but the prices vary tremendously. The jars would be little spell jar type things but used as a decorative piece and the idea is that the sorrow jars are fucking huge and cost like a few cents meanwhile the happiness jar is like $5 and can if in the palm of your hand. It works as both a joke of you CAN buy happiness but also as a joke that there's so much negativity that it's easier to get than the positivity.

hotel upstairs. The way the shops in my town are set up is most have apartment complexes that come with the property when you buy or rent it and most stores just don't use that upstairs space but I would open up a hotel upstairs and because of that the store could technically remain open all night but we'd already have the creepy advantage so wether or not the hotel ends up being haunted people are going to feel haunted and we'll get to hear all their stories about ghosts and I'll get to say shit like "I'd say that was housekeeping but I didn't send anyone up to your room last night" and freak them out more.

Fucking literal hole in the floor! My town has a system of underground tunnels and currently there is one place in my town that show cases said tunnels and they do so by having a hole looking down into the tunnels that is covered with thick glass and for my shop I want to do something similar. I want to just straight up dig a hole leading to the catacombs so people can look at it and realize "we don't know what lurks beneath us" because most people don't realize the fact we have tunnels. My catacomb hole will not be covered with glass though. There will be a railing and a sign say "the creatures below enjoy trinkets" basically encouraging people to throw pennies and shit down the hole because that's fun.

If anyone else has any ideas would love to read them. I want to be myself and completely up end my town with this idea