This is the way we shop in Greece.

Let us start with the basics:  the Periptero.  It is a little kiosk, found all over the place.  We get ice cream from here for Ellie, milk or water, cookies, gum, bus tickets.  I've bought hair accessories once, and in touristy areas, you can get postcards and other little things.  One is open all the time, somewhere.   It is also a great source of neighborhood information.  I've been told to ask the woman at the periptero where to find a shoe repair shop and a place to get a cell phone cord -- she would be the one who knew.

The periptero:  longer opening hours and a little of everything.

There are a few big chains with big stores where you can buy most of what you need, like the Carrefour (which has eaten most of the Marinopoulos chain), or the Alpha Vita, or the Jumbo.  But there are tons of little family-owned stores that specialize.  Here you have a relationship with the shopkeeper who is probably the owner or one of the family, they know their wares, and presumably, you are getting things someone has chosen for that store in that neighborhood.  Here is our favorite supermarket, the Karantinos.  The woman who is there every morning speaks English, though she'll switch to Greek if I start in Greek, and will help me learn new vocabulary.  I also really like the man behind the cheese counter, who doesn't speak English but is very patient with me, and even gives me recipe help.

Our favorite grocery store.

But there are some things you can't get at a supermarket, like any medications.  All medications are at pharmacies.  The pharmacies are small, and while they sell some beauty products, are NOT like a CVS or Walgreens, that is to say, a general store.  You can't buy milk or school supplies at a pharmacy.  But you don't always need a prescription either.  Some that we've been given have been sticky notes with a list, and I think that only because the doctor didn't trust that we'd remember and pronounce the medications correctly.

Like other stores, they close at about 2, but one stays open 8-8 in every neighborhood.

You can buy bread at the grocery store, even the small Karantinos, but why would you when the bakery is 2 stores down?

The Round Bakery, as the students call it.

But did you need some sweets to bring to a dinner party?  You won't find bakery goods at the bakery, only bread (usually called an artopoleion, or bread store, so it is more clear in Greek).  You'd find them at the zaxaroplasteion, or pastry shop, of course.

One of probably 5 pastry shops on our commercial street.

 I get most of my fruit and vegetables at the Laiki Agora, or if it is the end of the week, the Karantinos, but I could choose to walk 5 more minutes and go to the Fruit Agora or the Fish Market down the road.

They are closed in this picture, but when open, the fruit/vegetables and fish are arranged outside (fish are on ice) so you see them as you pass by.

 At the Karantinos there is some frozen meat, but they don't really sell fresh, so I go to the butcher who is 3 doors up (right next to the round bakery).  He doesn't speak English, but again is very patient.  Sometimes if I don't know the right cut (see, it isn't just language, I don't know cuts of meat in English, either!), I tell him what I am making and he gets the right thing.  I bought pork chops the other day, and he took out a big piece of meat, used a very sharp knife to cut through the meat at the top, and then used his big cleaver -- WHAM -- to get through the bone.  All on a round butcher block table.  He also grinds meat on the spot.  I love that he is a butcher and not just an employee behind the counter.

Finally, if you are really hardcore, you can go down to Omonia Square, the commercial heart of Athens.  There is a spice market, fruit and vegetable market, and of course a meat market...

WARNING:  IF YOU ARE GROSSED OUT BY MEAT, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER!

The cleaver!

This is just for the squeamish...

This one is just gratuitious bloodshed.

It is hard to see, but he's got a cleaver to the backside of this animal.

The Greeks are not squeamish -- this cafe is INSIDE the meat market, and faces a row of butcher shops!

And this is the souvlaki joint across the street.  The meat is FRESH!!!