I hope you had an opportunity to visit San Juan’s 1st Annual Greek Festival at Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church. It was not yet over and I could not wait until next year’s event! (I am thinking it will be a lot more fun if I did not have to shackle my 3-year-old nephew to me.) The place was packed and everybody was having a great time, so I am sure there will be many other people who agree! My only disappointment? They were out of dachshund nesting dolls in the marketplace.
The food bought back fond memories of Harry’s and their Greek nights. I wish I could have tried it all, but based on what I did get to sample (and listening to what everybody else was saying), no matter what you chose, you could not go wrong. (I will admit here, for the first time since February, I pretty much threw my diet out the window, that is how great everything was!) I had the chicken souvlakia with Greek fries. The kids could not wait to try the desserts. I have to admit, I was just familiar with the baklava, the traditional dessert served at most Greek restaurants, but tonight we learned about loukoumathes, a Greek doughnut with honey, cinnamon and chocolate and the kids enjoyed their kourambiethes, a butter cookie covered with powdered sugar…. Not a smart choice on my part as quite a bit of the sugar ended up on their shirts!
We made it there in time for the kids to take Greek dancing lessons. While my nephew quickly changed his mind and decided not to try, my niece had a blast learning how to do a line dance. However, when the Greek folk dancers came out, then my nephew decided to get his boogie on! There was a small marketplace and for the kids, a henna face painting station and a balloon artist. (Based on the time we spent in line, I think Tice Bell of Balloon Wrestlers was the most popular man at the festival!)
