Yesterday we headed back to Nicosia. This time we had our passports and crossed the border to the Greek side. Immediately it was obvious that we were somewhere different. I was suddenly confronted with lots of recognizable brands – MacDonalds, Starbucks, TopShop – there’s even a Marks and Spencer! On the Turkish side there are no European brands at all – though several stores emulate them, for example Tempo’s stores and supermarket bags are very similar to Tesco’s!
We wandered around the streets and had coffee and ice creams and I was really aware of not using the Turkish words for ‘thank you’ etc…
The highlight of the trip (sad I know) was stumbling on a sandal store. The sandals are made here in Nicosia and they are remarkably similar, if not identical to another sandal brand that I love wearing! The key difference is that these sandals in Nicosia were just 40 Euros! I ended up leaving with 2 pairs but I could have bought more – and may go back next week just to check. They are all leather with leather soles. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am with them – never again will I spend over $200 on sandals. My sandals are identical to another brand’s sandal!
Feet are badly in need of a pedi after almost 4 weeks of dust and heat! Just focus on the sandals!
I even got shoe bags to take them home in – a nice touch.
Astir Sandals have two Etsy stores – SandalsAstir and Sparta Sandals – and they will ship. Take a look – you will see many styles that you probably recognize. I found them true to size and I have a Eur 39 in mine. They only show photos in one particular color, but if you scroll through the photos you can see all the available colors that you can request and buy them in.
Not many people can say they are traveling to a different country for sandals hey? 😉
Here are some of the outfits I’ve worn over the past week – to state the obvious – it is damn hot here!
Poppy's Style 
They’re great! Wish they were €40 online. Still, much cheaper than Ancient Greek.
I wish I’d invested in some when I was last in Greece but I was in that position of too much choice and not enough time! Glad that you can vouch for the quality as I know you have the expensive ones too.
Hi honeybunchkin!
We are heading for Floriiiida on Saturday and planning on fitting in a little retail/outlet therapy into our schedule. Is it true that all the JCrew outlets are touting inferior goods? And Gap too? Where do we go, what do we do? Help?!
Yes unfortunately that is true – most if not all outlet stores these days offer a lower quality range than the actual stores – no longer is it somewhere a end of line or end of season piece can be found at a bargain. Some of it is ok but to be perfectly honest you are far better off going to the mall – there are so many sales and promos on all the time at J.Crew and other stores that a bargain can always be found! Just remember sales tax when you check out – the sticker price is not what you will pay – sales tax goes on top of that at the register and it is normally around 8% – have a blast!! xx