Our first order of business before we could start any sightseeing was to visit a shopping mall. We picked River West, about 15 minutes away from our Airbnb because it has a Decathlon. We lived less than 10 minutes bike ride away from a Decathlon in Shanghai and over the past 7 years, it had become one of our favorite shops. It is a French sporting goods company that offers affordable sportswear and equipment for the whole family, even babies. I’ve never seen it in the US and there is really nothing similar there. Decathlon sells clothing and equipment for every and any sport you can think of, from the run-of-the-mill ballet, soccer, tennis and basketball to less common sports like equestrian, rowing, archery and field hockey. And the best part is that they sell at very affordable prices.
When we lived in Shanghai, our family bought so much stuff from Decathlon over the years including many firsts’ for all of the kids like rollerblades, school shoes, scooters, skateboards, balls of all types, bikes, hiking shoes and pants, fleeces, raincoats, camping gear, tennis rackets and the list goes on.
We have been to a Decathlon in most countries on our trip including South Africa, Egypt and now Greece.
This time, we needed to go to Decathlon for a specific reason. On the morning that we checked into our Airbnb, I lost my fleece along with DY’s and EY’s. I couldn’t work out how I had lost it because I remember vividly putting it on the table in the foyer of the apartment building as we were bringing the luggage into the building. I must have lost track of it as we were moving the luggage into the tiny elevator. But when I went back downstairs to retrieve it, it was no longer there. I looked everywhere in the lobby, multiple times but it had disappeared. This remained a puzzle in my mind all night because I couldn’t make sense of it. Were the fleece’s stolen? Seems unlikely. Did someone throw them out? Why would they? Was someone playing a joke on us? But who?
I accepted that our jackets were gone, but I couldn’t figure out what had happened to them. I put the question out of my mind and decided that we just needed to buy new ones. Decathlon was the perfect store for that.
The first thing that we saw was a giant Christmas tree that delighted the children so much. Uninhibited at expressing her joy, Ellen ran over to give the tree a big hug. I understood what the children were feeling. Egypt was so culturally different from what we are used to. Arriving in Athens felt like we had returned to a familiar place with familiar holidays, cultural norms and even people dressed in a familiar way that we might see in the US or in Shanghai. We felt instantly at ease and comfortable.
Inside the mall, we were all dumbstruck at the expansive facilities and public areas that were all immaculate and free for everybody to enjoy.
We walked through the mall and were mesmerized by the power of Western consumerism and branding. There were all the familiar international brands like H&M, Nike and Lego. We were drawn to the stores simply because we recognized the brands and even though we didn’t need anything specific, we were programmed by that recognition to just go in and take a look.
We fell right into the trap, willingly though. While browsing in H&M, we got the idea to buy some new Christmas clothes. AY and EY quickly found something they liked. It was the first time that AY picked out clothes that didn’t look like clothes for a little girl. After some deliberation, she chose a red plaid top and black flared pants that looked like clothes for a big girl. EY quickly chose a glittery short sleeve sweater dress with a bow at the collar that looked like clothes for a little girl. DY picked out a new blue hoodie. After that, we found Decathlon and got my fleece and EY’s fleece and a few neck gators for the kids to replace the ones that were lost. RY and DY have been aching to get watches so DY picked out a watch at Decathlon. Leo said he would take RR to look for a watch at the other shops and eventually they picked out a Xiaomi smart watch that was on sale.
Once we were finished with our shopping, we went outside to explore. Leo saw a sign for a playground, so we followed it until we arrived at an amazing sight. The kids were overjoyed at what was before them. A playground of their dreams with slides, swings, obstacle courses, climbing structures and even a water wheel. I was amazed that the entire playground was constructed of wood, metal and recycled tires. There was not a single piece of plastic in the entire place.
It was a beautiful sight watching the kids play as the sun set into the trees behind them. They ran as fast as they wished, shouted as loud as they wanted, touched everything and climbed everywhere. We weren’t in a temple or a museum or a restaurant. This was their world and they could do whatever they pleased.
We were getting hungry and sat down at a casual restaurant called Apola. It looked good and we were in the mood for souvlaki and gyros. We ordered three gyros and two souvlaki plates, one pork and one chicken. When the food arrived, it seemed that we ordered too much but the food was so delicious that we gobbled it all up. The gyros were springy, salad was fresh and tossed with a vinaigrette dressing, the fries were crispy on the outside with a bit of bite on the inside, the meat was succulent and juicy and the Greek yogurt was the perfect accompaniment to every bite. We hadn’t had pork for an entire month in Egypt and I have to admit that the pork souvlaki tasted better than any pork I have ever eaten.
We were getting ready to leave but we saw a little Christmas market had opened next to the giant Christmas tree. While the boys browsed in a nearby electronics stores, the girls went into the handmade cards cottage where they did some free Christmas crafts and wrote a letter to Santa. Everybody working in the booths was so kind and spoke English to the girls.
It was getting late so we called an Uber and waited outside. The afternoon at River West felt like something out of a dream. Nobody wanted to wake up and the kids asked if we would have another chance to visit this mall.
The next morning, when I went downstairs to the lobby of our Airbnb, I saw our three fleeces left in a pile on the exact table where I was sure I had left them when we first arrived. I ran back upstairs with the fleeces and shared the news with the rest of the family. Everybody was amused and puzzled. We concluded that somebody probably took them by mistake and once they realized their mistake, returned them to the place where they had picked them up.
This was good news for the kids because now we would have to arrange a second visit to River West to return the fleeces and hoodie that we bought the night before.
There were Decathalons in SF and Emeryville a few years back! Sadly I think all closed.