The catalog has become a reality

When I was young and happy (?) I didn't think that the times I am living now would become reality. Obviously, it is not possible to guess the future but we can have hopes and some expectations in life that will come true.

I must, again, refer to the past. I think I'm already getting boring recounting the life I lived in a communist country, but it has decisively influenced my existence, just as it did for many millions of my fellow citizens. Without this reference, the meaning of this story would not be understood.

In the 60s and 70s, I started to understand something of the world I was living in. I was lucky to learn at a special high school in Bucharest. I was lucky because my best friend's mother from primary school enrolled us both in this high school, which was called Liceul Dr. Petru Groza. We were lucky to be admitted there because it was the high school where most of the children of the communist nomenklatura of Romania studied. We had nothing in common with those children, on the contrary, we were from a lower social class.

Why do I say he was lucky? Because of our classmates, we could learn more about the Western world, democratic societies, about capitalism. It's true that teachers taught us about bad capitalism and socialism that wanted to turn into communism. About communism where all people will be equal and live the same, not rich and poor.

We could say about that that it was a utopia, but it was just a big lie!

It was there, in high school, that we could see firsthand how the leaders of the communist country lived, seeing how their children lived. There we saw all those who criticized the West but lived the same as the Westerners! Most of our colleagues were of good quality and some of them we even made friends with. They invited us to their home and that's how we saw how some people can live, how they can live civilized and in opulence. An opulence that was hidden inside the family, because it was not to be seen by the working class...

I have a lot to say about that part of my life but I realize that I digress a lot from the subject of today's post, Friday the 7th, a day when some of us suddenly remember @dswigle and her encouragement and recommendation to write about the market, about all the ways money can be spent, i.e. #MarketFriday!

In those high school classmates, we saw a part of the West through magazines, newspapers, and catalogs. These catalogs, these magazines as thick as a book, with glossy pages and colorful photos. I didn't know that these catalogs were marketing, that they were given away and not bought. For us, the contents of those catalogs (belonging to brands, to big stores) were a mirror of what was accessible to people in the West, of what they had in their homes, from cars to swimwear.

I remember that my favorite of all these catalogs that I could see ( catalogs that circulated from one to another, I could keep them for up to a week and then pass them on) was the IKEA catalog!

I dreamed a lot between the pages of this catalog. Of course, we tried to steal ideas, we tried to update our parents' outdated furniture with what we saw existing in homes beyond. Of course, we couldn't do much about it... We were left with nostalgia for those interiors so airy, bright, colorful, and simple, in contrast to the massive, dark, and ugly furniture in our small homes. I never imagined I would ever visit an IKEA store.

Yes, it's true... Never say never!

At some point, the world turned the other way for us Eastern Europeans. Communism disappeared and we became "Westerners" too!

One of the consequences of this change has to do with today's story. There are already two large IKEA supermarkets in Bucharest.

My wife is a real fan. Next, for #marketfriday, a few places from this huge store!

IKEA is a big Swedish brand that has spread almost all over the world and sells mainly everything you need for your home. The special part is that all the furniture is made from modules that you have to assemble yourself at home! A revolutionary concept has led to easier transport and cheaper products.

The shop is spread over two levels. Upstairs there is an exhibition with assembled furniture and on the ground floor the sales area. Any visit to the shop starts with the exhibition on the first floor.

Obviously, everything is presented in categories so that anyone looking for something specific, i.e. kitchen furniture or bedrooms, can get to these areas as quickly as possible. Usually, most people who come to this exhibition visit everything, looking not only for furniture but also for ways to arrange it in the rooms.

Kitchens

Sofas, beds

Workrooms

This desk was the purpose of this visit to IKEA. My wife really wants to replace my old desk. I don't want to and I convinced her to give it up by making her promise that I would repaint the old, drab desk.

I managed to save money on the office but, as is always the case, I found other things we need now. It's impossible to walk into a store like this and not find something you need.

These have been put on the shopping list for the next...

After visiting the exhibition you have to go downstairs where the merchandise warehouse is. Good salesmen have placed a beautiful and attractive dining area right between these two levels.
Almost impossible to ignore!

For my wife, who is now a vegetarian, some potato specialties, and for me, although well hidden in the crust, it's still a salmon fillet.

I like this food court because it has a nice view of the whole shopping complex consisting of a mall, a supermarket, a Bricostore, and another furniture store... is called Baneasa and is located in the northern part of Bucharest!

A little rest and a little food were enough to strengthen our strength to move to the ground floor area.

Hundreds of products managed to make me lose my enthusiasm. Except the wife was hard to get out of there.

Every time I visit this store I am so happy when I get to the flower and accessories area. Because I know the exit is coming up, the end.

Before I leave IKEA I have to talk a bit about prices, as we usually do on #marketfriday. There are some complete rooms with furniture in the exhibition, as an example of the price, which they consider low, compared to other stores... I should have photographed it in detail but I have to admit now that I didn't notice that price when I was there, I only noticed it in the photo at home.

The total price of the furniture and appliances of a small apartment seems to be 23,000 RON, which is $ 4,600. I guess that's cheap. I'll have to come back in a while to photograph everything in it.

What I have on my shopping list, a kitchen sink and a small induction hob cost $50 each, and the desk I didn't buy cost $80.

With difficulty and even regret, I had to take my wife out of there... of course with the promise that we will be back soon!

After so many objects have passed before my eyes I feel the need for a little rest of them. I think I'll try resting them with a flower, lucky our friend, @dswigle thought to help us out with #alwaysaflower. A spring flower that sends me back to my love for the sea as I brought it from Balchik, the Black Sea in Bulgaria.

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