Athenian Saturday

It's Saturday in Athens. The group went off to explore the Archeological Museum and I took the opportunity to wander around a bit, hit up some markets, listen to some street music and read in the sunshine. After a hectic last couple of days (with day trips to Sounio and Corinth and evenings spent teaching English and working with an anti-trafficking organization) it was nice to relax a bit, take care of some errands and to soak up some more Greek flavor before I head off again early on Monday. 

To end the day, and the week, we are getting all cleaned up to have dinner on the roof of a nice restaurant under the Acropolis. No complaints for today!

Flee markets 

Monastiraki with the Acropolis in the background 

The central meat and fish market. I got through about two halls of the meat section before I had to start pushing people out of the way so I could get out of there before vomiting. You just hear, whack, whack, whack as they slice up the meat. 

Squid 

Other fun bits and pieces 

The much more pleasant olive section 

Eggs 

This guy's one-man-band (notice the tambourines attached to his feet) was surprisingly impressive. I sat and read for a while listening to him.  

Picking Up The Slack

Janee and Phoebe will be in the hospital until Thursday, and Hary has been back and forth between here and the hospital (which is in the next town over). I've been trying to pick up the slack around the house, which has meant mostly some cooking and cleaning (and like I mentioned, a lot of TAL podcasts!).

I made a list of goods I wanted from the store and headed off. While looking through the shelves, guess what I found?

Tortilla de patatas! Now the price on this bad boy was significantly steeper than the big ones we used to buy in Spain, but considering it taste just like I remember and didn't involve me frying potatoes all afternoon, I was sold. This sent me down Memory-of-food-I-ate-in-Spain Lane which caused me to remember (how could I forget?) that I bought this when we day-tripped to Germany:

That's right, Salsa de Pina y Curry! (Which also cost me an ojo de la cara, but who cares!) I will be eternally thankful to Kate for introducing me to what is definitely my all-time favorite salad. It consists of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), white beans, red bell pepper and avocado mixed together with a pineapple curry sauce. Eaten with potato chips it will change your life. Yum.

So here I present you, the best lunch a girl could ask for:

More on my the rest of my cooking adventures later.

For the Directionally Challenged

Shops around here are like boxes of chocolates--you never know what you are going to find!

I thought this was pretty awesome:

It's an Islamic prayer kit, including a prayer rug complete with a built in compass. How clever is that?