The Brooklyn Museum is situated, of course, in the borough with the same name – Brooklyn in New York. This art museum hosts the second largest collection in the city. Here you can admire antiquities (mainly Egyptian), as well as Oceanic, African, Japanese art and last but not least American art which is the most numerous here, as you could imagine. A specific area is the “Memorial Sculpture Garden”.

Obviously, after visiting all of these wonderful pieces of art, you would want to remain with some souvenirs – the Brooklyn Museum gift shop is there for that purpose. You can find all sorts of things here: from items for your home, books and catalogs, Brooklyn products, articles for children, clothing and accessories, desk and stationery, gifts and gift certificates, Hiroshige, jewelry, posters and prints, to street and graffiti art. Let’s detail.

In the gifts area, you may choose from all sorts of vases (minimalistic but elegant, amusing ones – rabbit shaped, inspired from other cultures – Mexican, simple and classic ones and so on), items for your table (plates, mug set, platters, trivets, fruit bowls and salad bowls, funny shaped items – kiss salad server, hug salt and pepper shakers), other things that you can use in the house (index chopping board set, distortion candlesticks, loop candelabra, pillowcases with beautiful prints, tea towel, dish towel (with Brooklyn inspired prints), glasses and some other gift objects like Chilote house shoes, Blackbird Fly Camera, Digital Harinezumi 2 camera, graphite cast pencil frog, graphite cast pencil quill.

You can pay with Visa American Express and Master Card, after you have placed your order. For discounts you can apply for membership. If you want to ship the items that you’ve purchased, you will have to wait up to 7 days (you can find more details about this on the official website). 

Whenever we think about monastic life in the Christian world, we are inclined to consider the European great monasteries in both western and eastern part of the continent. Who hasn’t heard of the great monasteries in Greece or in Romania or in Russia? Who doesn’t know the great convents in France, or Spain, or Ireland? Even though monastic life in Western Europe has decayed since the Reformation to the stage of complete disappearance in some countries, monks and nuns can still be seen in great religious establishments that go back in history as far as the foundation of Christianity.

In Eastern  Europe, however, in spite of the brutal repression Communist regimes inflicted on their citizens, Christian life remained practically unblemished. Furthermore, it knows a revival now after the fall of the Communist dystopia. That is why, Orthodox monasteries are full of activity and the spiritual life takes its routine course it has been knowing for the last two mileniums.

The connaisseurs of Christian spirituality know that not even Europe is the center of monastic life, or at least it wasn’t at first. The first hermits in Christian history lived in the desert of Nitria, Egypt, and on the banks of Jordan River. Spiritual life of the Christian world crossed the ocean into the Americas, once the new world was discovered. Spanish settled there Catholic convents, French and Portuguese did that also.

On US soil settled mostly people of Protestant belief. As every one knows, Protestant Reformation made a point of faith of denying the monastic life. That is why at first there were no monasteries on US territories except for those built by the Catholics, be they Spanish or French. The only thing remotely similar to monasteries in Europe was tin the United States he Amish community life style. In fact the Amish communities can easily be considered a genuine American form of monasticism.

Orthodox monasteries appeared in US as soon as the acquisition of Alaska by the US government from the Russian Empire, in 1867, and after the Communist revolution in Russia,  in 1917, which brought a lot of people from Russia to the US. As Greek or Romanian communities grew in the United States of America, monasteries of their tradition appeared. That is how these days we have serious settlements where the Orthodox Christian spirituality grows every day.

Let’s see a few places where we can acquire gifts at gift shops hosted inside these monasteries. If we go to the Catholic  Benedictine Monastery of Christ in the Desert in New Mexico we can receive impressive gifts made mostly by the brothers living there: paintings, medals representing Saint Benedict, note cards, belts and sandals, honey, rosaries, sculptures, crosses.

In the state of New York you can find the Monastery of Saint Mary the Queen (of heaven) where we can find in the gift  pickles, jelly, kitchen towels, tissue holders, counted cross stitch items, calligraphy Marriage or House blessings, greetings cards, statues, medals and holy pictures and many more.

In Goldendale,  Washington, there is an Orthodox Monastery called St. John Forerunner Greek Orthodox Monastery where pilgrims can buy icons, sewing vestments, knotting prayer ropes, incense and many more, most of them made by the hands of those who live and serve God there.

Every Christian monastery, Orthodox or Catholic, offers you specific gifts to remind you of He Who gives us life, which is the  most precious gift of them all – God.

“Celebrity Cruises” is a famous cruise line that was founded in 1988 by the Greek Chandris Group. In 1997 the company had merged with another one and formed the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. which operates other smaller companies.  It has the headquarters in Miami, Florida and here is its logo:

The X sign is actually the Greek letter chi, for “Chandris”. Usually the ships of this company have a lot of interesting , but also expensive features, such as: aft-glass dining rooms, alternate dining venues, balcony and suite staterooms, pools, bars, lounges, libraries, spas, gyms and other relaxation areas. Since its launching the company had used many cruise ships such as: Celebrity Century, Celebrity Mercury, Celebrity Millennium,  Celebrity Infinity, Celebrity Equinox and the ships that are planning to be used in 2010 and 2011 are Celebrity Eclipse and Celebrity Silhouette.

So if you had ever been on board on of these ships, or if you are planning to, or if you simply want to have an item related to the company and its cruises, then you can buy an object from the Celebrity Cruises gift shop. There probably is a gift shop in each of the ships, but you can also order a product directly from the official site of the company (www.celebritycruises.com – at the “Order Celebrity Gifts” category). First of all the gifts are divided into 6 categories: gifts by Celebrity, group gifts by Celebrity, Celebrity vineyards, Time to Spa, LeapFrog and tuxedo rentals. If you will visit the first category, you will find the gifts divided into 2 other categories. These are: delivery aboard and delivery ashore. You can use some of the items from the first category to send them to your loved ones, or send them to your home and find them when you get there, and you can use the items from the second category while you are still onboard one of the Celebrity ships.



You will find all sorts of gifts from apparel, culinary delights, items for kids and teens and many more. If you want you can buy some items that have the company’s logo on them, and this way you will always remember the wonderful cruise you had with a Celebrity ship. For example you can buy a key card holder for 3.90 euro, or a lanyard for 6.10 euro, or a signature photo album and so on. You can also find a cool coffee mug which is blue and has the Celebrity Cruises logo on it. And it also features an easy to grip handle, so it is perfect for the coffee drinker on the go. For 8 EUR you can buy a key chain and a pen set, both of them with the X sign of the company. There is also a Celebrity beach towel that is big enough for two persons and can be used any time you are going to the beach or at the pool. And it has a price of 15 EUR. Another useful object for your journeys would be the water bottle holder, an object which covers a bottle and which keeps your drink cool and refreshing. It also has a shoulder strap for easy carrying and a price of 11 EUR.

And there are so many more other cool and useful items that you can buy, so whenever you have some free time, visit the site and browse through all of them. And if you ever go (or if you already been) on a Celebrity Cruise ship, tell us all about the experience you had.

The Eiffel Tower is the most recognized building in Paris. It was built for the World Exposition of 1889 and it was pretty much unpopular after inauguration. But in time it becomes a symbol of the modern and elegant Paris and one of Paris must see attractions.

Does the Eiffel Tower have a gift shop? We’ll try here to answer you and not only this. If you are going to visit Paris and the Eiffel Tower and you want to have a remembrance of this experience all you have to do is to step into the Eiffel Tower Gift Shop. You’ll find 8 boutiques at the Eiffel Tower on three different levels: at the ground floor – 4 boutiques (one in each pillar); at first level one boutique and 3 boutiques on the second floor. At the second level, you’ll find also a food shop selling traditional grocery items, perfect to take them home as food souvenirs (canned pate, canned escargots, cookies).

So, The Eiffel Tower Gift Shop does have shops in them and also surrounding it, are other shops where you might find other things you like. At The Official Eiffel Tower Shops you’ll find a large selection of cultural and souvenir items with Paris and the Eiffel Tower: little Eiffel Towers, but not only this: key rings, snowglobes, towels, candies, post cards, medals, clothing, tableware, clocks and other trinkets you find in a gift shop (over 700 different products). Some of this items, you can’t find elsewhere and are suited to all ages and budgets. At the end of their visit, every year, over one million tourists buy a collectible of this monument, the symbol of Paris and of France. Like we already mentioned above, you can find this items in the shops located at the ground floor, first and second floors, as well online.

We took a look on the online Eiffel Tower Gift Shop and we’ll share with you what we discover there. The items are sorted like this:

- reproductions: Paris monuments (Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame de Paris in metal – marble base), Eiffel Tower clock, Eiffel Tower under construction (marble base), Eiffel Tower in crystal (3D reproduction in crystal), Eiffel Tower clock in crystal, medium sized Eiffel Tower, large Eiffel Tower, large snowstorm (resin base);

- books, comicstrips, DVDs: interactive DVD – visit of the Eiffel Tower, secrets of the Eiffel Tower, On the trail of Gustave Eiffel; books – The Eiffel Tower – a universal beacon, Unexplored Paris, Fascinating Paris, Paris from the air, The 300 metre tower; comicstrips – Story of the Tower, The triplets in Paris;

- leather goods: Eiffel Tower shopping bag, decorated oilskin bag, purse with strass, purse style mirror with strass;

- scarves, t-shirts: orange-brown/ white-brown Eiffel Tower scarf, Paris monuments list t-shirt, Eiffel Tower t-shirt, Eiffel Tower heart t-shirt, Eiffel Tower Paris crest t-shirt;

- caps, berets: Eiffel Tower crest cap, Eiffel Tower metal cap, Paris monument cap, Eiffel Tower beret;

- lamps, photo frames: Eiffel Tower photo frame, Eiffel Tower plate frame, large Eiffel Tower lamp, Eiffel Tower lampshade.

Now, take a look at The Eiffel Tower Gift Shop and make your own idea about this marvelous piece of art.