Greek Festival

Our daughter wanted us all to go to the Yiasou Greek Festival this year. Every year the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church puts on this festival full of dances, music, choir performance, re-enactments, food and more.

We arrived at her apartment (free parking) and walked two miles to the festival. It was a nice walk but hot as the temperatures were in the 90’s again. It would cloud up for a few minutes like it was going to rain, then the sun would come right back out. It beat having to sit in traffic, try to find a parking spot and pay outrageous prices to park. We were there in no time and our walk was faster than the traffic line. 

Once we walked in, I was a little disappointed that it was not that big and everything was jammed together. We are not big fans of crowds so this was an uncomfortable moment at first. It turned out to be not so bad after all. You can see the Greek Church in the photo behind me. 

We saw a lot of merchants selling hand made jewelry, clothes and crafts. You could see little children walking around dressed to perform traditional dances and play instruments of their ancestral villages. It became more interesting to me when I saw a Greek Warrior. 

I think I left my husband and daughter behind at the first glimpse of metal and red cloth beaming through the crowd. I should have warned him that if I see a man in armor, I will head straight towards him. I was able to snap a photo through the crowd and we moved on. Well, he moved on and we headed to the food. 

Our first stop was at the bakery area. There were about twenty rows of tables under tents, full of different breads and pastries of nothing I can pronounce. I have always liked Baklava. Since I have been dieting, I didn't realize how sweet that stuff was, so one bite was all I could handle. I ended up grabbing some other interesting goodies to take home. 

It was lunch time so we stood in a 30 minute line to grab some authentic Greek food. I purchased a few spinach/feta cheese pies and Greek fries for me and Nick and my daughter purchased a Souvlaki Stick (pork on a stick). There was no open tables to sit, so we squatted on a curb in a shady corner like little peasants and ate lunch. 

After lunch we took a walk inside of the cathedral. The Holy Trinity Cathedral was built in 1954 and consist of beautiful Byzantine and iconography architecture. It was absolutely beautiful as we slowly walked through with amazement.

Before leaving Nick nick disappeared under a crowded tent and emerged with a plate of Loukoumades (Greek Donuts) to share. I think I liked these best. They tasted like little funnel cakes. Yes, my husband photographer had to take this shot while I had my mouth full. He gets a kick out of that. You should see some of the ones I deleted. Ha ha

After the festival we headed back to my daughters place and took even a further walk uptown. I'm saving that story for another post. 

Do you like Greek food? Have you ever visited Greece? If so, what are some of your favorite things to eat, see and do?