Shopping in Cyprus

I never thought of myself as a fan of shopping but as the saying goes 'You don't know what you've got till it's gone!'  One of the unexpected things I now miss about living in England is the shops, and most expats out here would probably say the same thing.

Now I think about it, as long I was not having to buy shoes or a particular outfit I loved wandering up and down the high street.  Bookshops, 'gadget' shops, Primark, Wilkinsons and Woolworths (or whatever random shops has been occupying the old store for the last few years!)  and not just the high street shops - supermarkets which sold everything from clothes to toys, DVDs and household goods AND medicine (saving you having to go to a Pharmacy to buy some headache tablets).  The supermarkets here DO sell non-food items but I generally gave up looking at it when I first noticed a plain white baby sleepsuit on sale for €10 euro and promptly went into mourning for Asda multipacks and money off vouchers!

The shops are very spread out here, no highstreet locally where you can park in one place and do all your shopping, you end up driving from place to place  or as is more common you just don't!   Buy your food, go home and browse the second hand selling groups on Facebook to find your bargains for anything else you want.

Shops usually close for lunch between 1pm and 3pm (except the supermarkets and shops in the tourist areas) but stay open until 7pm.   Wednesday and Saturday are early closing and Sundays everything is closed.  It often caught me out when I first arrived as I drove into a supermarket on a Wednesday afternoon to then remember it was closed!

Shopping online isn't really an option either unless you have helpful guests coming over with plently of space in their suitcase.  So often I find that even websites that offer shipping 'Europe wide' have decided that Cyprus is not in Europe and do not deliver here or they will but the shipping fee far outweighs the cost of the actual item!!

You can find Petals on Facebook here

Kids clothes are the thing that annoy me the most, as adults you tend not to NEED new clothes as often (well that is if you don't go and get pregnant and have nothing to wear!)  but these pesky kids do insist on getting bigger all the time!

Myself and my friends miss the likes of Asda, Primark and Matalan so much for baby and  childrens clothes so you can imagine how pleased we were when a friend of mine opened up her new shop last month.

Petals Children's Boutique are selling UK branded childrens clothing and bedding and not only that they are all at sensible prices!   So no more €10 euro baby grows for me then!


This is not a sponsored post I an genuinely impressed we have a new shop selling such great stuff!


I am linking this post up to the Expat Blog hop over at 'Tales from the Windmill Fields'  This week's theme is 'Shopping'