Christmas was still a little more than a week in the future but the Christmas spirit was strong, almost palpable in the stores around the city. The same spirit was maybe as strong in the hearts of clerks and customers as well, but since I'm not a cardiac surgeon, I can't tell you what exactly was cooking there while Christmas was approaching.
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In this opening shot, you can see the Christmas tree in the store that offers mainly cosmetics but is equipped with a wide variety of products although in much smaller numbers than the cosmetics.
Besides the usual Christmas balls, the tree displays some interesting, imaginative drawings made by small children decorating its plastic, evergreen branches.
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That was the first store I visited on the fifteenth of December 2023.
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Here you can see some perfumes and their prices displayed in front of the small bottles.
All the stores I'll show in today's post are part of a shopping mall called "City Mall". The place looks like a small, compact neighborhood with a large parking lot that resembles the main square of a village and many stores of various types and sizes around it.
In this wide shot, you can that a good look at the urban layout of the City Mall.
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The parking lot was full ...
... so I left the car in the garage underground.
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Here you can see the cars driving in and out of the garage.
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In this shot, I'm riding the conveyor belt on my way from the dark underground to the glittering mall.
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Here I zoomed in on the lamps above me. It's a cool, simple design on the ceiling.
I photographed this long-legged elf while climbing.
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These ladies caught my attention very soon after entering the DM store filled with a colorful variety of beauty and health-related products.
The pattern had a certain doze of Andy Warhol's aesthetics, that's why I found the scene interesting. Usually, I'm not interested in hair coloring. That's quite normal because I'm shaving my head regularly.
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Here you can see another set of heads on the shelf. Each head had a price.
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In this shot, I'm presenting a pile of Nivea creams packaged in classic blue containers that haven't changed much or at all since I was a kid.
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Here you can see a nice collection of electric epilators. Each one showcases a slightly different design. The prices are also displayed in case you feel the need to buy one or two of them.
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In this photograph, you can see a few bottles filled with different perfumes.
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I don't know much about the perfumes shown in this shot but some of the bottles are quite obviously interesting to look at.
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Here you can see some pinky Balea stuff.
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At some point, I came across this trio of Adidas perfumes. I thought Adidas produced only sport-related stuff, tracksuits, sneakers, those kinds of things but nope, you can also smell like Adidas if you want to.
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This thing looks like a skincare altar of an unknown religion. My skin felt better just by being close to that subdued mystic light.
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Here you can take a look at the interesting decoration on the ceiling.
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The girl in the advert looked somewhat mysterious. Who knows what's in that red box? A dildo? A Santa Clous made of fine festive chocolate? A bestselling book that was topping the chart in 2023? A dead hamster, perhaps? I guess we'll never know.
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Here you can see the friend who was there with me paying at the counter.
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While she was at the counter, I photographed the entrance of the nearby Interspar store that sells mostly food and drinks. It's a pretty large, supermarket-type of store. I didn't enter on that occasion.
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On the way out of the building, I photographed this Western Union booth ...
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... a bunch of poinsettia plants ...
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... and this children's corner, situated fairly near the sliding door. That door can be perceived as an entrance or exit depending on one's direction.
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Once outside, we passed by the booth that sells fresh bakery products.
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It was time to visit the Deichmann store.
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This place is all about shoes.
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Here you can see the most photogenic pair of shoes in the entire store. I mean, it's not a pair but these two women's shoes look great together in a photograph.
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Here you can see a friend evaluating a group of serious black shoes.
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A bit later she tried on some of those shoes and soon bought a pair.
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This group of black boots that may or may not be made of leather looks pretty good on a violet background made of shoe boxes.
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Here you can see always the same friend of mine evaluating some other footwear showcased against the violet background.
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... you can see a pair of magic shoes that glitter.
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Here you can see a group of Graceland ankle boots.
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Thanks to this shot, you can take a quick look at the man's compartment of the store, for a change.
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These are women's shoes again. The first shoe in line is partially made of flowers.
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You can see a wide variety of shoes in this wide shot taken a few minutes later.
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You may disagree with me but I find these pink sneakers quite attractive.
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Is this a shoe or a sneaker? Or a hybrid of sorts?
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I love to see different shoes presented as a pair. Can't tell you why exactly, but I love it.
These lovely slippers were displayed in the DM store but I noticed that only after uploading the photograph in this segment of the post dedicated to Deichmann footwear.
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From the Deichmann store ...
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... we walked to the one called Takko Fashion.
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This one offers clothing all year round ...
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... and some seasonal, Christmas stuff only in December.
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Before entering ...
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... I would like to show you three shots taken on the way there. This is the first one.
The second one shows some cut decorative reed grass that was much taller a few days before.
Here you can see the last photograph of this three-shot series.
In the following shot ...
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... the focus is on the cluster of t-shirts inside the Takko store.
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The clothes were OK, I guess, but ...
... but the decorations ...
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... the toys ...
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... and the figurines looked more interesting to me.
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I can pretty confidently say that these lovely owls were the cutest thing that Takko had to offer back then in December 2023.
In this wide shot, you can see the clothes and the pile of Christmas stuff standing next to each other.
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You can see two deer in this shot. One is black, the other glitters.
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Here you can see the rainbow inside a box.
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In this shot, the friend who was there with me is searching for something that could suit her well.
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Here you can see a tribe of bearded elves.
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I zoomed in a bit on two of them in this shot.
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This elf also has a beard but the magic fella belongs to a different tribe.
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Here you can see some nicely decorated Christmas pumpkins.
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Snoopy was sleeping on one of the pink t-shirts in the corner of the store.
Here You can take one last look at the Takko Fashion.
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It's time to go home.
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Various cars were driving in and out of the garage ...
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... while I was walking toward my old Toyota Yaris.
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I don't know what is this mysterious blue thing parked near the cars inside the underground garage. An alien vehicle, perhaps?
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And that's it. The shopping mall adventure ends here. As always on Hive, the photographs are my work.
