Greek Festival

This weekend we went to the Paniyiri Greek Festival, the largest Greek festival in Australia.  It was cool and windy when we were walking over, but once we were in the park it was absolutely perfect weather.  For us, this festival is all about the food.  Sure, there were rides for the kids, dancing demonstrations and live music, but our stomachs were in charge!  As soon as we walked into the grounds, the smells of charcoal cooking engulfed us.  We had different types of souvlaki, grilled haloumi and the very famous, and very sweet, loukoumades, or honey puffs.  The honey puffs are the star of the festival and people make plans around devouring plates of them!  Honey puffs are deep fried dough, coated in honey and sprinkled with icing sugar.  Anyone with a sweet tooth would go crazy over these!  We struggled to share a small plate but we saw lots of people packing away the large plate without any hesitation.

Honey Puffs

This is a great time of year in Brisbane, right before the start of winter.  The days are warm and the nights are cool.  It is lovely to get up in the morning and have the humidity less than 90% and be able to walk into work and arrive not looking like a sweaty ball of hot goo.  We seem to be much colder right now than we were this time last year, but we are in a tough position when it comes to complaining about the cold.  On one hand we need to be able to mock the Aussies who think that 18 degrees is nippy by claiming that we walk around in shorts and t-shirts in Canada when it’s -18 degrees, but on the other hand, because there isn’t any proper insulation in the houses, it really does feel cold and we need to be able to wear our jumpers with dignity. 

Festival Goers

Not a cloud in the sky