Outrageous souvenirs

When I first read the title, I equated 'outrageous ' with 'extravagant'. Vegas as a 21 year old newlywed from small town British Columbia. Not sure whether it was the gem encrusted belt, or the gold and silver diamond studded chess set (complete with castle turret table) that put me over the edge at the MGM Grand....the original one. Not your normal souvenir, but more to my dream taste;-)
I rarely look at them anymore, so can't think of anything along your line of description. I expect Pompeii was selling similar when I was first there in 1976, but as a 19 year old lass on her own, I would been ribbed to death by the others on the tour if I got caught looking interested.
Oh, I have a daughter into the macabre so she got the voodoo doll and potions from New Orleans and animal bones from Alaska. I will certainly get her something from Bran Castle when I go. I laughed at the cutting board description. As she is vegan, that would be quite the conversation starter.
I much prefer museum shops for bookmarks, or local artist pieces.
I have been known to consume some local beverages to keep the bottle cap for making into fridge magnets. Now, that was fun.. thoigh I never allowed myself to be outrageous.

Avoid buying anything at a "Gift" shop in Germany - especially anything to eat or drink.

Explanation: The word, Gift, in German, means "poison".

The Icelandic Phallological Museum is quite interesting!

In Alaska, I bought home a caribou jaw and teeth that we found one day. My husband and son came across a full caribou rack, but figured that was too difficult to get home, so it stayed at our cousins cabin in the bush there and we just visit it there instead;) The jaw though, yes that is on a bookshelf in our family room.

In Munich a few years ago we walked past a store that had a stuffed leather beaver in the window. Our college mascot is a beaver, so I had to have it. We were on our way to rent bicycles and ride for the day, but did not want to forget where this store was, so I bought it on the spot. It weighs a ton, must be filled with sand. So the beaver rode in the basket on the bicycle the rest of the day and then went into the beer gardens with us. It looked like a traveling gnome, but the traveling beaver. It too sits in the same bookcase in the family room.

I do enjoy shopping on our travels and did make one absolutely outrageous purchase many years ago. The Jesurum linen shop in Venice sucked me in. I bought a nice runner for my mom for a dresser, but then bought ourselves a tablecloth for the formal dining room. I made the mistake of not looking at prices. Gulp, I noticed later that I paid over $1000 US dollars for the tablecloth. It is beautiful but not one of my finer moments, especially since our kids were young at the time. So it did not get used for a long time.

You asked for it, so here goes. Part of my research before a trip is to look at what the area is famous for, such as leather in Florence. When researching Spain, the Caganer popped up. I clicked on and discovered that a Caganer is a bare-bottomed pooping figurine. It started as a Catalan Christmas figure, part of their nativity, and has morphed into sports, political, entertainers, etc. I kid you not. I have read the reason why and still don’t get it.
PS, Allan, another great thread, thanks

This wasn't something I bought, and wasn't really all that outrageous, but I'll always remember it.

In the summer of 1968, just before Stan and I were to be married, I went to the Soviet Union on a summer-long study tour. We spent most of the time at Leningrad (as it was then) State University, studying Russian. I was in a huge dorm room with 4 other American women, all of whom were more accomplished and considerably classier than I. (Many of them went to Ivy League schools, or studied dance at the professional level, for example. The only other one from the midwest was surrogate mother to her 7 younger siblings, and mothered all of us, as well.)

After the formal summer school session and a couple of tours the group took, we were flown to Vienna, where we went our own ways until meeting up again in Amsterdam for a final meeting and wrap-up.

I, being broke (really; I think I had $10 to last the week) stayed in Vienna until I took the train to Amsterdam, stopping off in Munich to see a museum. My classier friends spread out over Europe. Two of my roommates went to Paris, since they both spoke fluent French. When we met again in Amsterdam, they cornered me and said excitedly "We got you a wedding present in Paris! Open it!" Well, it was oddly shaped, I couldn't guess what it was, and when I opened it, I still had no idea what it was. A plaster figure, like a statuette with wings and bat ears, but with a channel down its back, leading to an gaping open mouth. I thanked them politely, looking confused, and they burst into laughter. "It's a gargoyle! A facsimile of one of the Notre Dame gargoyles! We figured you were the only person we know who would appreciate it!" Which I took as a compliment.

I rewrapped it in the clothing in my suitcase where it barely fit. Alas, it didn't make it home in one piece, but Stan, who was enchanted with it, managed to repair it. And we still have it, all these years later.

I have a small ikon that depicts the circumcision of Jesus (aka New Year's Day) from a foreshortened perspective, so-to-speak, based on an anonymous (ignoto) XVth century fresco in the Santuario Madonna dei Boschi in Boves near Cuneo.

Jesus' foreskin has a fascinating history, with some new wrinkles that were recently covered here:
https://www.wired.com/2006/12/whatever-happen/

In my picture Mary is holding the baby with Joseph standing over her shoulder to the left, and Agatha is on the right, but I'm not sure who the man is who is serving as the Mohel holding the knife to complete the Brit Milah.

[I'm mentioning this because of the Fascinus statues that Allan mentions in the OP, to show the continuity between so-called pagan and so-called xtian practices.] https://inaciem.com/equipment/winged-phallus

Note that the 18th century portrayal in Chartres Cathedral of the bris of the son of God is very different,
https://enthusiastical.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/christs-bris/
and more of an artifact of its time than of Jesus'

I'm pointing this episode out not just because it qualifies as outrageous, I guess, but also because I'm a little bit miffed by the resurgence of the 'too many churches' or 'not another cathedral' theme in another current thread about losing travel bug/enthusiasm. I think that it you are tired of touring churches you must not be doing it right.

The Roman winged phallus, Fascinas, was sold back then, too. Maybe they considered a healing amulet a souvenir in some ways, also.

The more we travel, the fewer souvenirs we buy.

I remember going to Berlin when the wall came down and there was a huge market for Soviet military uniforms, medals, etc. I read that rifles and even a tank was for sale. We saw no need for a uniform.

Jane--I love that story! I love gargoyles too though. I found one on a road trip just here in the US at a grocery store of all places. It was sitting outside with some plants, and is just one of those cement ones about a foot tall. I have hauled that around with us for years and still love it, and my husband still teases me about it;)

I think that it you are tired of touring churches you must not be
doing it right.

Thanks for the link in your post. I'm on the side of I've seen enough churches unless I have a plan in advance. That link was interesting and the point made that it is an explicit example inside a catholic church that Jesus and Mary were Jews is the kind of knowledge that I'm not patient enough to discover if I was just to drop in. But, I'm perfectly willing to put in hours of reading and preplanning if I know what I'm going to be visiting and then a church can come alive for me. It's the stories, not the building that inspires me.

I visited the Chartres cathedral last year on an RS tour and the glass was beautiful but I wasn't inspired by the building as a whole. The only fact that has stayed with me is one section of glass with a tiny image on the bottom corner showing that that section was sponsored by the shoemakers guild during the original installation. I thought it was a fun fact that even back then, groups were looking for sponsors. Down the street from the cathedral is a Stained Glass Museum and Institute that describes the history of stained glass, how it's made and how it is used in modern churches. I found that far more interesting.

However, back to the outrageous souvenir theme, now I wonder if the gift shop had a snow globe showing Jesus getting his wee wee cut...

Allan, the gift shops in cathedrals brings us back to the subject of whether Los Angeles should be on anyone's bucket list --

the gift shop at the LA cathedral (Our Lady Of The Angels) has an amazing selection of collectible action figures that would expand the collection of any Marvel or DC fan to include an older and more diverse range of action heroes:
https://cathedralgiftshop.com/gifts/patrons-protectors.html

They label them Patrons & Protectors but they could as easily be called Catholic superheroes or celebrities or comicbook stars.

In decades past fusty American WASP tourists would tut-tut at the commercialism of the gift stalls in and around sacred sites in Rome and other major stops, and I've gotten my share of Vatican postcards over the years, but the shop in LA gives them all a run for their money.
I see just now that they have a new line of girls' jewelry called Tiny Saints
https://cathedralgiftshop.com/gifts/tiny-saints.html
which would be, I'm guessing, a competitor to Hello Kitty or My Little Pony (I'm not up on current girls trends, sorry)

Not so much outrageous, but certainly amusing...on my first trip to Tallinn I was delighted to find vintage alarm clocks with Stalin's face on them in an antique shop...posted on FB something like "who would want to wake up to Stalin?!" and went about my business, and didn't see a comment from a dear friend who loves odd things that he would, of course it was night by then and I was going home the next day. For 6 years it haunted me, and when I made a return trip to Tallinn last year I had a Stalin alarm clock on my to-do list...found a few examples in the antique shop area of the Balti Jaam market, except upon closer examination I realized that while the clocks themselves were from the 40s-50s, the picture of Stalin was added more recently and I regretfully left them behind.

At the Ecseri flea market in Budapest there was a hilariously awful pair of taxidermied hares, standing upright, dressed in military garb and toting miniature automatic rifles...just bizarre.

The most outrageous souvenir i’ve ever seen was in the gift shop of the Hotel Crillon (most expensive hotel in Paris in 2001 and maybe still). It was a small real fur stuffed bear with a $10,000 price tag (in 2001 money). 😳

The most “outrageous” gift i’ve bought was in Paris, in 1975. Went to the big flea market at Clignancourt and bought an antique coat rack with a shelf above it that attaches to the wall. It was gorgeous and big. Bought it as a wedding gift for my sister and her husband. I was living in Paris and had to mail it home. I walked all over the city with it trying to find a box it would fit in. For some reason, large cardboard boxes, in Paris, in 1975 were hard to find. But finally i did. What a day that was! Then, wrapping it to mail, and getting it to the post office. My sister loved it, so it was worth all the trouble. Sadly though, her house burned to the ground in the California Camp Fire in Paradise and it’s now gone.

I'd forgotten that Cameron Hewitt had written this piece in the Spring. https://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/2020/04/europe-travel-memories-shelf/

I read Cameron’s blog and lo and behold, he actually has a Caganer. Fifth item down.

There's a book on Barcelona by art critic/traveler/good writer Robert Hughes, where I first heard of the caganer. Traditional figure in Basque nativity scenes, representing humankind's eternal connection to the earth (um, yeah) , plus the outrageous factor!

We've got a souvenir phallus - there's a phrase - from Bhutan. Folk tradition good luck symbol, seen hung from rural house corners, carved wood, sometimes winged. This one's maybe six inches long (natch), bought at a street market, fetchingly painted red with big white polka dots - how could one resist - & antique-ly weathered. Striking on our mantlepiece, though we had to remember to closet it when certain relatives visited, & never had the nerve to hang it from our house corner. Yet!

Susan's post reminded me - I don't know how I forgot. In the early '80s we were living in Poland. One of the souvenirs we had picked up was a small stuffed sheep - maybe 4" long. Cute with curly wool and a cute little face. Well, one day for some reason we were in Kraków (we were living in Poznań at the time) and Stan found a giant version of the tiny sheep. I swear, this thing must have been the size of a Great Dane, if the GD didn't have any legs. Well, he actually bought it and it now lives on the top of our dresser. And yes, it covers the entire dresser top. We certainly had a lot of comments from people as he carried that huge stuffed sheep around Kraków and onto the train. It sat in his lap the entire way home. What was funny was the word for a stuffed animal is a translation of "little mascot," maskotka. More than one person we met laughed at the idea of this being a diminutive anything.

I often wonder what whoever gets stuck with handling our estate will think of the two sheep, both sitting serenely on the dresser, the tiny little sheep, and the huge version, with the same cute face.

I did ask, when Stan was buying it, what it was stuffed with, having visions of things hatching out of it in years to come. The woman just said "wool." So far, nothing has hatched.

I can't remember how he got it home. Sometimes time blissfully blurs memories.

We lived in Germany for four years and have traveled to 3/4 of the countries in Europe.

Most European countries have significant VAT taxes that seriously inflate the cost of purchasing there. Because we were serving with the USArmy, we could go through a process to receive a refund of the VAT. Still, we tried to avoid purchasing on the local economy because of high costs.

I hear the argument that prices are so much higher because of VAT. I don't know how much difference there really is.

The VAT across most of Europe is 20%, or less, and it is included in the advertised prices in the shops, online, and advertising.

The price you see is the price you pay, unless you are a business or certain special cases.

My memory of the US is that there is the pricetag price. Then add state sales tax. Then add local sales tax. Than "give" (or be extorted to give) a tip. The price is not the price. How much do you end up paying? Anywhere near 20% at the end?

At restaurants, yes, 20% or more is the norm. For “things”, the added sales tax is about 10% where i live.
There are so many, many things in Europe that are less expensive than in the US so i don’t understand not buying anything there.

I don't do much shopping while I'm away but we thought we were paying about the same at restaurants when I factored in the 1.75 exchange rate for the Canadian dollar vs the Pound.