Do you speak shopping?

On our recent trip to Europe, we saw quite a few of the big sights. In London we saw Big Ben, The Tate Modern and went on the London Eye. In Brussels we saw the city square and the peeing boy fountatin/statue. In Paris we saw the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. That said, I think museums and monuments are great and you should definitely put them on your travel itinerary. However, I have to admit that my favorite thing to when travelling is to go shopping.

I have shopped all over Europe, the U.K., North America and Mexico. To me shopping is like gambling, sometimes you win big and sometimes you get skunked. For our recent trip to Europe, I made sure to set aside a shopping allowance that I could blow, much like when people go to Vegas and set aside gambling money.

I used to live in London, so I knew that I wanted to visit H&M. H&M has trendy clothes, as well as basics and their clothes are reasonably priced. Those of you on the east coast get to enjoy the cheap deals that H&M has to offer, but we sorry sods on the west coast only have Old Navy and maybe a sale at Banana Republic to look forward to. The other store in London that I wanted to check out was Primark. I don't think Primark was around when I lived in London in 1996, but I recently read an article about them and their cheap wares, so I knew I had to go there. They had some kickass deals! I got a belt for 1 pound, a purse for 4 pounds and a shirt for 4 pounds, and some other odds and ends. The stuff at Primark probably won't last very long and isn't that well made, but my total bill was 15 pounds. Holy crap, right? Plus, nobody here really knows what Primark is, so it doesn't matter that the stuff is from the British equivalent of Kmart.

For non-retail shopping in London, Camden Market is always fun. We spent an afternoon there and it was chaos! There are tons of market stalls and even more people that you can imagine. There are sellers hawking knock-off hand bags (I picked up a Gucci knock-off bag with bamboo handles, thank you very much), clothes, food, jewellery, t-shirts and records. It was a bit overwhelming, but I soldiered through even when everyone else collapsed at the pub. I got the Gucci "replica" handbag, a ring, a necklace and an eery yet kind of kitschy shoulder bag with a picture of a big-headed doll and some garden gnomes. Then I joined everyone at the pub, celebrated my purchases and got "well pissed" as the Brits say.

We didn't have much time to shop in Brussels, so I settled for a few touristy treats, like magnets and postcards. In Paris, however, I went a little apeshit. We were staying near in the St. Germain area of Paris, and after a little sleuthing, we discovered a street full of shops where I could afford to buy more than a shoe lace. (There was a Christian Dior shop and a Karl Lagerfield shop near our hotel, but that's a little out of my price range, dahling.)

My two favorite stores in Paris are probably the equivalent of clothing at Target price-wise and quality-wise (not that there's anything wrong with that - I really like Target), but the added bonus is that they were full of clothes that nobody in the States would have. At a store called Promord, I found two sweaters, a hot handbag that is olive brown with red leather accents, and a cute shirt with a melon colored flower on the front. Then my boyfriend dragged me out of the store, while I frothed at the mouth like a rabid dog being torn away from a blind, gimpy squirrel.

The other store that I thought was really cool in Paris was a store called Etam. There, I bought a cute black leather messenger bag. I have a Manhattan Portage messenger bag, but this one is smaller...and it's French! Oui! My boyfriend got a pair of cool CHiPs style aviator sunglasses at Etam. They are very stylish.

Another place we went in Paris was a leather goods store where I got a brown leather handbag. It sort of matches a pair of brown boots that I already own, but it's more a milk chocolate brown, whereas the boots are dark chocolate brown. Oh, well. Guess I'll keep shopping...

I also went to Claire's in Paris. I know, they have a Claire's at Northgate Mall (and probably every other mall in North America), but I had to go in and see if they had anything different. I got a cute black and pink make-up bag with a kitten on the front. The kitten is playing a guitar and it says "rock kitty" above his head. It's so cute! I also got a necklace there.

In between all my frenzied shopping, my boyfriend managed to shop for used records. He amassed 33 records to add to his burgeoning collection. So after he was bored to tears shopping for handbags, I had my turn waiting for him to sift through dusty French pop LPs. Fair is fair.