Monki-ing Around

For me, shopping on a base level is always enjoyable.  You could drop me into the middle of Primark on the busiest Saturday of the year and I would still get some kind of satisfaction from the shopping element of the experience.  Sometimes though, shopping transcends its usual limits of enjoyability and enters an almost magical realm.  It takes on an ethereal quality, causing slight breathlessness.  Perhaps this sounds a little over the top, a little unhealthy, but I'm sure I can't be the only one.  

I wasn't expecting such an experience on this grey Monday afternoon.  I'd kind of accidentally on purpose  missed my afternoon seminar and was drudging guiltily into the city centre to return my broken Zara blouse, sob.  Given that I had little else to do, I decided to wander through the back streets that connect the two main shopping sections of the city centre and explore a little.  

Standing here, at the entrance to what looked like a rather grotty little courtyard mall, I made the slightly strange decision to go into a shop that I'd never seen before, paying no attention to the name of the store.  I browsed the upstairs for a while, thinking it was okay but nothing particularly astounding when I noticed some stairs.  As I descended them, the breath-quickening, pulse-racing began and I realised I'd struck gold.  One of the first items that caught my eye was a checked shirt and my mind ticked back to a haul video I'd seen on the What I Heart Today.  I quickly realised that this was the Monki shirt I've seen around the blogging world quite a lot and couldn't quite believe I'd finally stumbled upon this fabled store.

The Monki website says that "Our stores are walk-in closets filled with treasures!  To step into one of them is to step into part of the Monki World: the strange Forgotten Forest, the bio-hazardous City of Oil and Steel or the magical Sea of Scallops."  The fact that this statement is slightly nonsensical actually makes perfect sense.  Wandering around Monki, fingering piles of clothes in awe, it felt that time had stopped; it was a commercial Narnia. 

I tried on heaps of things and I wanted them all.  However, none of them were particularly stand out items, rather a selection of wardrobe staples that I simply I can't believe I've ever dressed in the morning without.  In the end, I came away with just a scarf because I simply couldn't decide and didn't really need anything but I am pretty sure I won't be shopping anywhere else very often in the future.

Actually, I say 'just a scarf' when really I'm a little bit in love.  It's a very similar tartan style check to the shirt I mentioned but made from a thick almost fleecy material.  Essentially, it feels like having a blanket wrapped around your neck, with no chance of that woolly itch.  Given that Gothenburg winters supposedly get very, very cold, I decided this was a practical enough purchase for it to be justified.  It was only 200sek too, which is very reasonable I thought.  I also picked up a copy of the Monki magazine because, well, I just couldn't not.

I raced home to write about this because I'm still feeling a little overwhelmed by my new find.  There are a lot of wonderful places in Gothenburg but this one wins out because it won't break my bank either.  Hallelujah.  

With excitement and love and lots of joy,

Elise.